7 - The Aldershot Brick and Tile Works
(Company #7429, 1873)
by Peggy Stroud

There is apparently in The Aldershot Library, a book entitled "A Gazetteer of Brick & Tile Manufacturing sites in North East Hampshire" compiled by A. Wright in 1980 (The Friends of Brickfields Country Park also have a copy of this Gazetteer courtesy of Mr Les Graham, a brick carver from Farnham). Although numerous kiln sites already existed in Aldershot before the 1850s, the industry grew very rapidly after the arrival in the area of the Army.

The Brickworks off Boxalls Lane (NGR 887.485) was known as Kemp's Brickworks(2) and was said to be the largest of the local brick works. George Kemp was a very prominent local builder who is believed to have started in business in 1857, he built mostly with bricks of his own manufacture. A map dated 1912 shows several buildings and two or three round kilns(3). It is thought that the business later became the Aldershot Brick and Tile Company and that it ceased to operate before 1939. Red bricks found at the site were marked with a capital "K". George Kemp is reported to have built the first working-class houses in Farnham in 1902.

Mr. Roy Masters (Director of Kemp Stroud Builders, Aldershot) and his wife, have assembled historical material of Aldershot, with particular reference to the Kemp-Stroud business. It is possible they intend to write a record. They are likely to have useful history of the Kemp ownership of the Brick and Tile Works.

Other local Aldershot clay pits and kilns mentioned in the Gazetteer were as follows :-

1. - Old Kiln Field, Church Hill, owner in 1855 was Eggar
2. - Brick Kiln Field, Church Lane, owner in 1841 was James Elstone(1) (or Elston?)
3. - Kiln Field, Church Road, owner in 1841 was Richard Allden(1)

Cont....

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1. From the records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,  (http://www.lds.org/) records for the 1881 census show
   • There is a record for a James Elstone, born 1815 at Bramshott, Hampshire. Age 66 (in 1881), occupation - Agri Labourer, married and living at Cold Ash Hill, Bramshott.
   • There is a record for a Richard Allden, born 1832 at Aldershot, Hampshire. Age 49 (in 1881), occupation - Retired Farmer, who married Elizabeth Twynam on the 20th May 1857 at St Michael's Church, Aldershot. Living at Northwarnbro St. There is also a record for a christening of Richard Alden on 18 March 1832 at St Michael's Church, Aldershot.
2. From http://www.hants.gov.uk/hampshiretreasures/vol03/page207.html
   Brickworks, Kemp's Brickworks. Dates from the C.18 and probably the oldest and largest of several brickworks in the area. Large clay pit, 50 ft. deep - now being filled in. Ref: The Story of Aldershot, (Cole), p.294. (Brickfields Country Park was "filled in", or could this refer to the Grosvenor Road site which was partially filled in ?). SU 867 495, Card 0102 07.
3. An aerial photograph of the site from 1936 appears to show only two chimneys on the site, however there could have been more than one kiln per chimney.         (top)

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