Almost a year after our first visit here, the post Christmas time-lag was taking its toll and the LLS took a day trip around Best and North Yorkshire.
Surveyors started at the site in 1958, and it seems building of the plant started in 1962 finishing sometime in late 1965 with production starting in 1966. It was built and operated by George Armitage and Sons PLC, who had been making bricks in the Leeds area since 1824.
The clay pit was "red burning" in colour so clay from other quarries, including their main works at Wakefield, to obtain the variety of colour they required. The site was originally built to produce around 30,000 bricks a day, but by 1982 was capable of 100,000. It seems average brick production in its final years was around 450,000 a week, with sales around 350,000 (they would transfer some to other sites) until the housing slump in 2007 when sales dropped down to around 250,000 bricks a week.
Visited with MJS, SDW, Clough, Fowle & GeoVDubya on a day of the purest and silkiest Lols.
Wow, fantastic photos Joe. You should run a photography workshop in 2012, my photo skills need some improvement!! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Darren, I'm doing a talk at Ripon Camera Club on the 16th of Jan & Also at Bettakultcha on the 17th. Not that you'll really be able to learn anything from them though...!
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