Introduction
This is a place I wanted to tick off whilst on my North Wales exploring trip back in Spring. I wasn’t expecting much and although there isn’t much to it, I quite liked this place and I found some history on it so I thought it was report-worthy.
History & Information
Cemaes Bay Brickworks, also known as Afon Wygyr, is located south of the village of Cemaes on the isle of Anglesey. The site consists of a 92-ft chimney stack that towers above a variation of a Hoffmann kiln, also known as a Manchester Kiln. Only a small part of the Hoffmann kiln remains, I presume the majority of it was demolished by Anglesey County Council when the site underwent preservation works in 1998. Perhaps it was partly damaged.
The works began operating in 1907 and were opened by local landowner Lady Sarah Hughes-Hunter. The brickworks was deemed necessary following a boom in the tourist industry at the time, thus demand for bricks increased. The works had an incredibly short working life-span, closing in 1914 after just seven years. The kilns were able to produce up to 50,000 bricks per week but it is thought that this level of output was rarely reached.
A 500-metre man or horse-powered tramway was also constructed as part of the works which transported bricks from the site to Cemaes harbour.
This is one of the lesser-known remaining brickwork sites in North Wales. Despite its close proximity with the larger Porth Wen site, I believe they bear no relation.
The site appears on OS Six Inch, 1888-1913, as does the tramway. Below is a screenshot of the OS map, with the Tramway highlighted in red.
A more detailed 25 Inch OS Map from 1912-1914 also suggests that there were two chimneys on site, but this has not been documented anywhere online so I am not 100% sure whether this was the case.
The Explore
The visit itself was very calm, I did however forget to photograph extant remnants of the old tramway embedded in a nearby footpath but I photographed all the other bits.
Onto the photos... just phone pics for this one unfortunately
Overview of the site:
The construction date on the chimney...
And finally a few shots in the remaining section of the Hoffmann Kiln...
Thanks for looking.
This is a place I wanted to tick off whilst on my North Wales exploring trip back in Spring. I wasn’t expecting much and although there isn’t much to it, I quite liked this place and I found some history on it so I thought it was report-worthy.
History & Information
Cemaes Bay Brickworks, also known as Afon Wygyr, is located south of the village of Cemaes on the isle of Anglesey. The site consists of a 92-ft chimney stack that towers above a variation of a Hoffmann kiln, also known as a Manchester Kiln. Only a small part of the Hoffmann kiln remains, I presume the majority of it was demolished by Anglesey County Council when the site underwent preservation works in 1998. Perhaps it was partly damaged.
The works began operating in 1907 and were opened by local landowner Lady Sarah Hughes-Hunter. The brickworks was deemed necessary following a boom in the tourist industry at the time, thus demand for bricks increased. The works had an incredibly short working life-span, closing in 1914 after just seven years. The kilns were able to produce up to 50,000 bricks per week but it is thought that this level of output was rarely reached.
A 500-metre man or horse-powered tramway was also constructed as part of the works which transported bricks from the site to Cemaes harbour.
This is one of the lesser-known remaining brickwork sites in North Wales. Despite its close proximity with the larger Porth Wen site, I believe they bear no relation.
The site appears on OS Six Inch, 1888-1913, as does the tramway. Below is a screenshot of the OS map, with the Tramway highlighted in red.
A more detailed 25 Inch OS Map from 1912-1914 also suggests that there were two chimneys on site, but this has not been documented anywhere online so I am not 100% sure whether this was the case.
The Explore
The visit itself was very calm, I did however forget to photograph extant remnants of the old tramway embedded in a nearby footpath but I photographed all the other bits.
Onto the photos... just phone pics for this one unfortunately
Overview of the site:
The construction date on the chimney...
And finally a few shots in the remaining section of the Hoffmann Kiln...
Thanks for looking.
