Introduction
As it was a nice day me and a friend decided to take a look at an old Pipe and Brickworks site near the Suffolk Coast. We've had this pinned on the map for a while and decided to give it a go. It was a good explore and I haven't constructed a report for a while so I have decided to post it on here.
Site History
From what I have found on the internet, the site was owned by a company called Gisleham Steam Brickworks which was founded in 1934 by Lowestoft-based builders Easey Bros. During the 1940's, around 40 workers were employed on the site, diving to just 14 at the tail-end of the 1970s.
At the beginning of the 1950s, the company expanded, beginning to manufacture agricultural field drain pipes at a rate of around 60,000 per week. The company changed its name to Gisleham Pipe and Brick Works Ltd to reflect this.
In 1967, brick-making at the site stopped thanks to the company's increased focus on the produce of field drain pipes. Despite this, a special order of bricks in 1977 was produced.
As of present, the kilns (of which there are three, along with two chimney stacks), are Garde II listed. One information source suggested that the site was going to be re-purposed as a museum, but it's evident that nothing came about of this.
Another worthy chunk of information is that there is a sister site around 25 miles away, in the same county, which is slightly smaller. From my understanding, that site is being taken slightly better care of, even though it isn't as large scale, with just one kiln on site.
The Explore
We parked down a quiet single-track road very close to the site. The entrance was easy (my mate fell over though, couldn't help but laugh), and was a nice chilled-out explore. Upon entering the site, you are greeted with a bit of empty space, followed by the kilns and then a warehouse building which was used for storage, and then tucked away behind the rest is the corrugated moulding shed, along with some sort of storage tanker/silo structure at the far end of the site.
The highlight of the explore for me were the kilns (albeit we only entered one), and the moulding shed. My mate climbed the ladder to the top of the shed, but I didn't risk it as the rungs looked rather weak being wooden, and I'm fairly heavy, so I thought I'd play it safe!
On with the photos:
Storage building:
Corrugated moulding shed:
Some sort of storage tank/silo:
The kilns:
Thanks for reading. Any questions or comments please post below and I'll try to answer the best I can, happy new year!
As it was a nice day me and a friend decided to take a look at an old Pipe and Brickworks site near the Suffolk Coast. We've had this pinned on the map for a while and decided to give it a go. It was a good explore and I haven't constructed a report for a while so I have decided to post it on here.
Site History
From what I have found on the internet, the site was owned by a company called Gisleham Steam Brickworks which was founded in 1934 by Lowestoft-based builders Easey Bros. During the 1940's, around 40 workers were employed on the site, diving to just 14 at the tail-end of the 1970s.
At the beginning of the 1950s, the company expanded, beginning to manufacture agricultural field drain pipes at a rate of around 60,000 per week. The company changed its name to Gisleham Pipe and Brick Works Ltd to reflect this.
In 1967, brick-making at the site stopped thanks to the company's increased focus on the produce of field drain pipes. Despite this, a special order of bricks in 1977 was produced.
As of present, the kilns (of which there are three, along with two chimney stacks), are Garde II listed. One information source suggested that the site was going to be re-purposed as a museum, but it's evident that nothing came about of this.
Another worthy chunk of information is that there is a sister site around 25 miles away, in the same county, which is slightly smaller. From my understanding, that site is being taken slightly better care of, even though it isn't as large scale, with just one kiln on site.
The Explore
We parked down a quiet single-track road very close to the site. The entrance was easy (my mate fell over though, couldn't help but laugh), and was a nice chilled-out explore. Upon entering the site, you are greeted with a bit of empty space, followed by the kilns and then a warehouse building which was used for storage, and then tucked away behind the rest is the corrugated moulding shed, along with some sort of storage tanker/silo structure at the far end of the site.
The highlight of the explore for me were the kilns (albeit we only entered one), and the moulding shed. My mate climbed the ladder to the top of the shed, but I didn't risk it as the rungs looked rather weak being wooden, and I'm fairly heavy, so I thought I'd play it safe!
On with the photos:
Storage building:
Corrugated moulding shed:
Some sort of storage tank/silo:
The kilns:
Thanks for reading. Any questions or comments please post below and I'll try to answer the best I can, happy new year!
