There is a long history of brick making in Market Lavington – certainly back into the seventeenth century. A suitable source of clay existed at Broadway where bricks were made through the eighteenth, nineteenth and into the twentieth century.
Here we are looking at earlier bricks, using a photograph that was a part of the 2010 ‘Photographing Wiltshire’s Treasures’ project – an award winning collaboration between the Museum service and photography students from New College, Swindon.
Some of the older bricks on display at Market Lavington Museum
The three bricks shown were all made in Market Lavington. The top brick is stamped “ IL 1721” so we know the age, if not the manufacturer by name.
Next we have a Philpott brick. The Philpotts had the brick works from about 1760 and well into the nineteenth century.
The third brick is stamped G A Cayley. Cayley is not a name which appears in Market Lavington records. Could it be that some written documents which have the surname ‘Crawley’ as an 18th century Market Lavington brick maker should actually say Cayley?
Maybe a blog reader can tell us more.
Tags: brick, industry, Market Lavington, Museum
Market Lavington Museum 
July 1, 2011 at 11:25 am |
When i was a lot younger than today and living in Market Lavington the brickworks as such were still there. The very large hole which i suppose was where they gained the clay was full of water and i remember fish, some when over the years had been introduced and as kids we spent many hours there fishing..
June 1, 2015 at 4:43 pm |
Hello folks – I have a website for Scottish bricks http://www.scottishbrickhistory.co.uk
I have a small section in it where I highlight an interesting brick or brick story from somewhere else outside Scotland. I wondered if I may refer to this story and or tthe signed roof tile while of course crediting your museum for the article. I appreciate you may not be able to do this but if you dont ask!……. In any case you have some wonderful brick related articles on here – keep up the good work. Best regards Mark
June 2, 2015 at 5:50 am |
Always delighted to spread then word about our museum. Do use them and credit them. I’m sorry we have no Scottish bricks.
Rog
Curator
June 2, 2015 at 6:08 am
Hello Rog -Many thanks and yes of course I will credit them accordingly. Thank you.
Mark
I will send you a link in due course
June 4, 2015 at 8:04 am |
Hello again Rog – with regards the IL brick, I take it there is no connection between it and the I Legg brick as per
https://marketlavingtonmuseum.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/a-named-brick/
I appreciate they are 78 years apart (if the dates are correct) – IL are not that common initials to find together. Could there have been generations of Legg’s making bricks locally?
June 4, 2015 at 6:43 pm |
The Leggs were not brick makers. I LEGG, WHICH I TAKE TO BE ianus (latin for John) was a scholarly chap who seems to have engraved his name in a soft brick in a building where many folks did this. The date gap is too big for it to be the same person and so I have to record a ‘not known’ for IL.
June 4, 2015 at 7:00 pm |
Thank you for the info – makes sense!