Workers queued outside Stewartby Brickworks to collect their redundancy pay as production at Bedfordshire's last brickyard ended.

More than 80 workers left the factory for the last time on Friday, (Feb 29), as a century of brickmaking tradition came to a halt.

Once part of the largest brickfields in the world, the fate of the county's last brickworks was sealed in November last year when Hanson Building Products announced it would be closing the factory because it could not meet the Government's strict emissions targets.

Joe Duggan, 56, site works manager, had worked in Bedfordshire's brickworks since 1975, starting out in the Kempston factory cleaning the brick kiln chambers.

He said: "I came into the factory on Friday morning at my normal time and it was like an absolute morgue. You see the faces of the people queueing up and it just kills you.

"People think we don't feel for these guys but I do. Their lives have been here at the brickworks for the last 30 or 40 years.

"Most of them know me and know it's not my fault and are quite philosophical about it.

"A lot of the guys queuing up will never get another job and, while getting a cheque is nice, it does not make up for a year's salary."

Production at the factory has now stopped, but a skeleton staff will still be working at the site until the remaining two kilns are put out and the 68 million bricks that are still in the brickyard are moved.

In total, 203 workers and 16 salary staff have lost their jobs. Many now plan to retire while 22 have been given jobs at Hanson's brickworks at Whittlesey, near Peterborough, where production is moving to.

Mr Duggan added: "Obviously it has got more depressing in the factory since the closure announcement was made, but people have not messed about or lost their drive, and we have kept up our production targets.

If any employer wanted people who were conscientious, they would not find better than the men working here."

Mr Duggan said many of the workers made redundant last Friday came to England from India or Pakistan and are now returning to their native countries for a break.




A question mark over the famous chimneys

Efforts to rejuvenate the Stewartby Brickworks site have already begun, but opinion is divided over whether the famous chimneys can be preserved.

Hanson has already started construction of its new UK headquarters behind the current factory, which will create new high-skilled jobs, equal to the number being lost by the brickworks' closure.

The rest of the site will be used for housing and leisure development, while the final four chimneys and two kilns have been named as listed buildings by English Heritage and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, James Purnell.

Bedford borough councillor John Tait (Con, Wootton) paid tribute to a century of brickmaking in the Marston Vale.

He said: "There are four chimneys left and I would like to see at least one of them left as a memento."

Joe Duggan, the site's works manager, does not believe it will be possible to preserve the remaining chimneys though.

He said: "These are the last of the chimneys and I do understand why people want to save them, and I want at least something kept because when these go the whole history of Bedfordshire's brickworks will be gone.

"The maintenance of these chimneys is astronomical though, and when the kilns go out and cool they will move and sink and will be unstable. I'd be surprised if they can be saved, but I would like to see a museum to the brickwork industry created on the site."



A way of life that's gone forever


Walking on hot coals for nearly 30 years, John Gadsby, 63, controlled one of the kilns at Stewartby Brickworks and was sad to see the flames extinguished for the last time.

Mr Gadsby worked on top of the kilns, controlling the heat inside, keeping it at an incredible 1,000 degrees celsius and ensuring the temperature did not drop.

But more importantly he monitored the emissions produced and ensured the fire did not reach 2,000 degrees celsius, which would happen if cold air was not let into the kiln at set points.

Mr Gadsby worked in the brickworks for much of his life and joined the team at Stewartby nine years ago, after the Kempston
brickworks closed.

He said: "I've been around brickworks all my life. I remember we never used to have computers to measure the temperatures, and some of the boys used to be able to tell the temperature of the fire from the colour of the flames.

"Once the brickworks chimneys dominated the landscape, now there are three chimneys left and soon there won't be any at all.

"Stewartby was known for brickmaking and now it's all going to go. It's a really sad day."

Mr Gadsby said he now plans to have a break from working before weighing up his options, but is worried he will not be able to get another job easily due to his age.


Brick industry facts

1.Stewartby Brickworks was home to the world's biggest kiln and produced 18 million bricks per week at the height of
production.

2.BJ Forder & Son opened the first brickworks in Wootton Pillinge in 1897.

3. Wootton Pillinge was renamed Stewartby in 1937 in recognition of the Stewart family who had been instrumental in developing the brickworks.

4.The firm became London Brick Company and Forders Limited in 1926, and shortened to London Brick Company in 1936.

5. At the height of the industry's production there were 167 brick chimneys in the Marston Vale.

6.In the 1970s Bedfordshire produced 20 per cent of England's bricks.

7.At its peak London Brick Company had its own ambulance and fire crews, a horticultural department and a photographic
department, as well as its own swimming pool inside the factory, and ran a number of sports clubs.

8.More than £1 million was spent on Stewartby Brickworks in the last two years in an attempt to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions.

9.The factory used Lower Oxford Clay, which is five per cent
seaweed, formed 150m years ago when it was on the seabed. This removed the need to add coal to the fire, as the organic material burns.

10.Most of the factory's roads are formed from crushed brick, and one of the old kilns, which was pulled down last year, is being recycled and used to form the foundations of the A421 Southern Bypass improvements.

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