The Derelict Miscellany :: Nutbourne Brickworks

Nutbourne Brickworks

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What: Brickworks
Where: Hambledon, Surrey
Built: 1932
Architect: Unknown
Abandoned: 1990
Listed: No
Visited: 2009-2010
Last Known Condition: Completely demolished, 2011
Page Updated: November 2015

Having grown up in a brickmaking family in the early 1990s, Nutbourne Brickworks brought back a lot of memories for me. These were tough times for the industry and many brickworks fell victim to reduced demand and cheaper competition from more modern plants. Those that did survive often operated on three-day weeks as they struggled to sell the vast surpluses left over from more profitable times.

Nutbourne didn't make it out of the housing slump: outdated, unprofitable and isolated, it closed in 1990. Although now partially demolished, it remains as an unusually complete example of a pre-war brickworks, retaining many of its original features and machinery.

Accident book entries for 1969. Brickmaking could be hazardous work.

Fossilised newspapers used to line a concrete mould employed in construction. The date is 1932.

Once upon a time the biggest danger of asbestos was reckoned to be the risk of falling through it.
In fact, asbestos *cement* is fairly safe (apart from the aforementioned terrible loadbearing capacity)
as long as it stays intact, since the fibres are bonded together.

Strikes for removing excess clay from moulds.

Clay preparation plant. "Inca" rotary crushing mill.

A small forge, probably used for repairing tools and machine parts.

Nutbourne Brickworks was built in the Summer of 1932 in the backwoods of the Surrey Weald and comprised workshops, narrow gauge railways, factory buildings and two Hoffman kilns. Unusually, despite later ownership by the Redland building materials conglomerate, the layout changed very little over the years. Unsurprisingly, the works were considered old fashioned and outdated by the 1980s, and Redland proposed an ambitious rebuild for which permission was granted in 1990. Unfortunately this came in the middle of the housing slump; rebuilding was postponed, never to be resumed and the works never re-opened.

For many years the site lay abandoned and was left to decay until a developer purchased it in 2000. A planning application for housing on the site was submitted in September 2008 but plans were rejected by the County and District Councils. Further efforts to redevelop were hindered by the recession of 2008 and concerns over the impact of any redevelopment on roads and wildlife.

Now, there are some signs that Nutbourne's days might be numbered: N^o 1 kiln shed has been pushed over and a demolition crane waits by the gate to finish the job. Nonetheless, the pace of change is slow. Wildlife has taken over and has mostly been left to get on with it. Bats live in the old factory, foxes make their earths on the edge of the old quarry and a large barn owl haunts the sand tower. Long may it continue.

Epilogue

I revisited this site in March 2012 to find that all of the former brickworks buildings had been demolished. At the time of writing, landscaping works were underway in preparation for the construction of a vast neo-Georgian mansion.

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