Post-medieval steam brickworks at St Osyth (EHER 15502)

Steam brickworks located south of St. Osyth Road and east of Rush Green.

Survey of Brickworks Operating 1882-1913. Under four owners products wire and hand-made bricks <1>. Operators: Edwin Joseph Gilders, by 1882 to 1902. Johnson and Co. 1902 to 1907. Miss Catherine Barron, 1907 to c1909. Miss Emma Barron, c1909 to c1913. Products: Wire-cut and hand-made bricks. Further Information: Edwin Joseph Gilders who was proprietor of these brickworks for some 20 years was an auctioneer, surveyor, valuer, house, land and estate agent with an office initially in Rosemary Road and later in Station Road. He was also a lime manufacturer and coal merchant with a depot at the Railway Station and was agent and auctioneer to the Clacton-on-Sea Land Co. Limited. He was a partner of Gilder Brothers and had a London Office at 10 Union Court, London E.C. In 1894 he supported a scheme for the construction of a dock on land near the coast-guard station at Clacton. He envisaged Clacton as a port of call for steam barges trading between London and Ipswich and suggested that the dock should be leased to a syndicate. The scheme failed and when the project was scaled down to a plan for a jetty, Gilders withdrew his support. As far as he was concerned it was to be a dock or nothing. No doubt he would have used the dock to transport his bricks. When he sold the Steam Brickworks in 1902 it extended to 5½ acres and included Warren’s continuous 16 chamber kiln with a capacity for 180,000 bricks. There was wire-cut brick machinery and the output was 100,000 bricks per week. From April to November 1901, 2,103,000 bricks were made. E.J. Gilders retained ownership of some of the adjoining land and was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1919. From 1902 to 1907 the Steam Brickworks were operated by Johnson and Co. and when sold in 1907 there was a Scotch kiln as well as the Warren’s continuous kiln. There was also a hand brick press with a capacity of 2,000 bricks a day in addition to the wire-cut brick machinery capable of producing 100,000 bricks a week. The purchaser was a Mrs. Goldsworthy for £825 who was presumably acting as agent for Miss Catherine Barron. Site Assessment: Occupied by housing. No archaeological deposits expected to survive. Refs: Kelly’s Directories of Essex from 1882 to 1912. Sale particulars, 1907 ERO ref: B2244. The British Clayworker, January 1901, p. 378 Essex and the Industrial Revolution, by John Booker, B.A., 1974, ERO Publications No.66 page 148.