Brickworks, Leeds June 2012

[Little Dave]

Built between 1958 & 1965 by George Armitage and Sons PLC, who had been making bricks in the area since 1824. The site was originally built to produce around 30,000 bricks a day, but by 1982 was capable of 100,000. It seems average brick production in its final years was around 450,000 a week, with sales around 350,000 (they would transfer some to other sites) until the housing slump in 2007 when sales dropped down to around 250,000 bricks a week.

The current kiln was built in 1972 and is a German LINGI, it has the capacity to fit in 46 cars They manufactured a wide range of bricks including facings, pavers, engineering and acid resistant. They provided all 1,000,000 bricks to build Barton Square, the second phase of the Trafford Centre, Manchester.

In 1988 the site was taken over by Marshall's, the change from a family run business seemed to upset a lot of the work force. It was then later acquired by Hanson Aggregates. Sadly after a drop of 40% in sales after the deterioration of the building industry they closed the works with a loss of 45 jobs in October 2008, many of the workers had been there over 40 years. The site has now been mothballed and could be reopened in a matter of weeks should there be an upturn in the building trade.

Visited here a while back but fancied a mid week mooch, something local, so decided on a return visit to this beast of a site. Didn’t get many photos due to the visit being cut short after clocking the secca guy. Before he had chance to get to me i was away. The following are the few photos I did manage to get.



http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7241/7187406829_a839d4e025_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoparfitt/7187406829/)


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7082/7372622892_d927489e97_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoparfitt/7372622892/)


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7237/7372627202_7e7e421e11_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoparfitt/7372627202/)


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7092/7187401659_03b3b5cb71_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoparfitt/7187401659/)


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7230/7372641564_83759e2815_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoparfitt/7372641564/)


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8004/7187421853_68522a3c4a_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoparfitt/7187421853/)


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7233/7187417223_3cb67e9c49_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoparfitt/7187417223/)


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7238/7187423263_e423bb0df7_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoparfitt/7187423263/)


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7081/7187387559_6d7358bd0e_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoparfitt/7187387559/)


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7100/7372613408_f49c5886c4_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoparfitt/7372613408/)


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7229/7187427579_c578f4ce24_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoparfitt/7187427579/)


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7211/7372661274_ffac303db0_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoparfitt/7372661274/)


Thanks for looking :thumb

[BadBatz]

Lovely mate. Like the last one lots!

[jST]

Nice, so do I!

Good to see a jST original still in good nick

[mrtoby]

yeeeaaaahhhhhhhhhh sooooonnnnnnnnnnn

[birdinanaviary]

yeeeaaaahhhhhhhhhh sooooonnnnnnnnnnn

roaaaaaaaad trip!

[Little Dave]

Funny secca guy here, worth a visit just to lol at him, poor lad :thumb

[GeoVDUB]

Lovely stuff! Love this place, been a few times and it's always mint, had a LOL in here with the first full roll call LLS outing!

[Clough]

Sexily done Sir

[fowle]

My hat got blown off by the wind here and landed in a puddle..... the rest of the LLS loled at me.


i hope you kept your hat on, lovely pics :)

[Clough]

It's good to see its still in good nick also, hasn't been burnt yet LOL

[ERNIE99_UK]

Nice to see a place so well preserved. there must be a lot of mothballed stuff. The Redcar steelworks was mothballed and became the first mothballed one to spring back to use this year so all might not be lost!