Bricks of Victorian London. A social and economic history

Notes:

Scholarly account drawing on the writer's doctoral thesis, 'Cowley Stocks. Brickmaking in West Middlesex from 1800', Thames Valley Polytechnic, 2000. Deals with brickmaking in London and its environs in the 19th century and the supply of bricks to the London market, covering the brickmaking entrepreneurs, the landowners who leased to them their clay resources, not least the brickmaking workers, the transport infrastructure which carried the bricks, the demiseof the traditional industry in the face of fletton brick competition. Structured in four parts: 1]'Brickfields' - 'A brick built city - London brickmaking at the beginning of the nineteenth century' / 'From clay pit to clamp - manufacturing the London stock bricks' / 'Finding the clay - landowners, brickmakers and the availability of land' / 'The rage for building - meeting demand for bricks in Victorian London' / 'Brickfields in town and country' 2] 'Brickmakers' - 'Builders, brickmasters and speculators - brickmaking businesses and their owners' / 'Land, machinery and labour - operating and financing the brickfield' / 'The market for bricks - brickmakers, builders' merchants and customers' / 'From brickfield to building site - delivering the bricks by road, rail and water'; 3] Brickies' - ''Hard and inappropriate labour' - the brickies at work' / ''The perfection of untidiness - dirt and disease' - the brickies at home' / ''Habits of intemperance' - the brickies and the beershop' / ''Profane workmen' - the brickies at prayer' / 'Pug boys and barrow loaders - the children of the brickfields' / ''The great struggle' - industrial disputes and trade unions in the brick industry' 4] 'An industry in decline' - ''The chief market is London' - the challenge of the fletton brick' / 'Into the new century - stock brickmaking after 1900'. Has some coverage of Regent's Canal and Grand Junction Canal as means of transport. Also touches of Daniel & Charles Rutter [D & C Rutter] of, interalia, West Drayton; Eastwood & Co; Smeed, Dean & Co; Broad Harris & Co and Broad & Co Ltd; Samuel Pocock; New Patent Brick Co of London Ltd; Henry Dodd