Superb 1891 Hunslet brickyard/quarry photos

grumpytramp · Post by **grumpytramp** » Sun 20 Dec, 2009 1:42 am

Well up here north of t'border temperatures haven't been above zero for days, we have a decent dump of the white stuff ......... so tonight was a perfect excuse to close the curtains early, bank the fire right up, crack open a bottle of 15 year old Islay Malt and having plenty of time for a good wee nosey about t'internet.I had a look at the new British Geological Survey's open data access service, Open GeoScience:http://www.bgs.ac.uk/OpenGeoscience/?src=sfband in particular the online database of geological related photographs http://geoscenic.bgs.ac.uk/asset-bank/action/viewHome[Potholers check out the superb H.W. Haywood & Leeds Cave Club collection]Here I came accross a superb collection of three photos of a quarry/brickpit in Hunslet, which is attributed to one A.E. Nichols of Gould and Stevenson's brickyard and quarry in the Lower Coal Measures and taken in 1891. I cannot find any reference to Gould and Stevenson's workings but when I have examined the 1894 OS 1:10,560 sheet at Old-Maps.co.uk I can only see one potential site in Hunslet; specifically the brickyard/pottery/quarry complex between the railway and Hillidge Road (and bisceted by Hillidge Road)In Kelly's Directory of Leeds, 1888 these brickworks are identified as being operated by Longley Bros (of Hillidge Place)Were Gould and Stevenson contractors or operators? ....... or was this substantial pit elsewhere in Hunslet?

grumpytramp · Post by **grumpytramp** » Sun 20 Dec, 2009 1:42 am

This image is absolutely superbNote the steeply inclined railway haulage from the pit to the works above, the rails from the working face and the rails towards what appears to be an old bricklined mine shaft in the highwall. I would hazard that unsuitable materials were cast down the old shaft, but the shaft was covered with the timbers for the protection of the workforce. I not sure what purpose the inclined timbers in the batter serve?

grumpytramp · Post by **grumpytramp** » Sun 20 Dec, 2009 1:43 am

Another

grumpytramp · Post by **grumpytramp** » Sun 20 Dec, 2009 1:47 am

The final image .......... checking Leodis the lintels above the windows of the terraces at the top of the pit (straight) do not seem to be like the typical lintels on Hillidge Road/Street?Could it be somewhere else in Hunslet?

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Sun 20 Dec, 2009 12:24 pm

grumpytramp wrote: Here I came accross a superb collection of three photos of a quarry/brickpit in Hunslet, which is attributed to one A.E. Nichols of Gould and Stevenson's brickyard and quarry in the Lower Coal Measures and taken in 1891. I cannot find any reference to Gould and Stevenson's workings but when I have examined the 1894 OS 1:10,560 sheet at Old-Maps.co.uk I can only see one potential site in Hunslet; specifically the brickyard/pottery/quarry complex between the railway and Hillidge Road (and bisceted by Hillidge Road)In Kelly's Directory of Leeds, 1888 these brickworks are identified as being operated by Longley Bros (of Hillidge Place)Were Gould and Stevenson contractors or operators? ....... or was this substantial pit elsewhere in Hunslet? By 1908 Godfreys map shows excavations at Jack Lane between Hillidge road and hillidge place. The works (if this helps) on that site are called "Hartshead Works" and somehow "Jack Lane Pottery" is also a name for those works/workings.This may or may not help.I also note a disused brickworks again depicting quite significant and larger excavations at Hunslet Carr on Belle Isle Road, which would be on the left before you go under the GNR hunslet branch line, or today on the left before you go under the M1 Braithwaite Row runs directly north of the excavations and a row of old cottages perches precariously on the edge. All opposite Hunslet Carr Tannery - also disused.I do not know if your directories will not list abandoned businesses? I do not know when those works were abandoned - but it's a good bet to be your photographs...So try that location - whaddya think???

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Sun 20 Dec, 2009 12:26 pm

grumpytramp wrote: The final image .......... checking Leodis the lintels above the windows of the terraces at the top of the pit (straight) do not seem to be like the typical lintels on Hillidge Road/Street?Could it be somewhere else in Hunslet? To me those houses fit Braithwaite Row in Hunslet Carr possibly older housing that the normal hunslet back to backs. The shape of the excavation and positioning of the houses looks to fit betwixt piccy and map.......

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Tue 22 Dec, 2009 11:15 pm

eeeeh! That Grumpytramp comes on here like a whirlwind, gets your interest up and shoots off just as quick.The pit is actually massive, and a wonderful depiction of what brickyard claypits looked like!!The short steeply inclinded rails can be seen on OS maps showing brickyard clay pits, TBH I did not realise this was why the lines look so short on a 2 dimensional OS map.If this was the hartshead clay pit for Jack Lane Pottery then today it is south Leeds business park. If it is the Hunslet Carr Brickworks then today its the area between the Bay Horse and the motorway embankment.Nothing was built on either pit for years after closure, even at Hunslet Carr the housing over the pit area is much laters than the usual late 1800's housing (with bricks courtesy of the pit and associated kiln).The burning question (which may continue to burn as "Grumpytramp has left the building") is how the heck did they manage to fill in pits such as these??? And how did they manage to eventually build on the infilled pit???? Any groundworkers on here?????

Brandy · Post by **Brandy** » Tue 22 Dec, 2009 11:48 pm

Brilliant find GT.You certainly knowhow to find them little gems

grumpytramp · Post by **grumpytramp** » Wed 14 Apr, 2010 9:37 am

The Parksider wrote: The burning question (which may continue to burn as "Grumpytramp has left the building") is how the heck did they manage to fill in pits such as these??? And how did they manage to eventually build on the infilled pit???? Any groundworkers on here????? Bit of catch up here.I think you have alluded to the answer in your own question!Many of these urban quarries, of which at one time there were a multitude of all over what is now urban Leeds, simply became a repository for waste. Before the 1950's waste was generally a useful general fill material as it was completely dominated by ash (in the days before packaging, plastic and consipicuous consumption). By way of example, there is an old Glasgow City Council tip that had all of its fill processed over the last twenty odd years ......... it produces inert fill (sand, ash and brick waste), a small quantity of scrap and a large quantity of coke (the partly burnt bits of coal out of the grate) which has been exported to Norway to smelters.These sites became ideal dumping grounds for domestic ash, general demolition waste, waste products from manufacturing (quarry waste, brick waste, pottery seggers/damage, slag etc) and in particular for boiler ash from local industry (of which you only need to browse the "Leeds 'the place where everything was made'" thread to get a handle on the shear number of boilers utilised in the cities industry. Without checking I would anticipate that many of the sites were filled relatively quickly and by trial/error would have been suitable for constructing structures with relatively low loadings. I have done some remediation work on similar areas in Central Scotland, particularly in the east end of Glasgow. Here old clay pits and stone quarries were backfilled with ash and arisings from different industrial processes. There are simply no traces of these excavations ....... indeed the extension to the M74 currently being built is exclusively constructed on made ground. These backfilled excavations were subsequently built over with cheap tennements and ultimately god-awful high rises (relying on deep piling solutions). Now with the current wave of regeneration these areas are being remediated, so these sites require recompaction (either excavate to virgin ground, fill and compact or using various dynamic compaction solutions) or complex/expensive ground engineering solutions (every kind of pile, band drain or grouting solution under the sun) to make them suitable for construction on. The other legacy is contamination. In places where the fill is predominately ash and demolition waste there are often no issues. In other places contamination is an enormous problem (most notably in the East End of Glasgow the use of slag/waste heavily contaminated with chromium has left a legacy of costly/hazardous remediation)

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Thu 15 Apr, 2010 2:01 am

grumpytramp wrote: The Parksider wrote: The burning question (which may continue to burn as "Grumpytramp has left the building") is how the heck did they manage to fill in pits such as these??? And how did they manage to eventually build on the infilled pit???? Any groundworkers on here????? Bit of catch up here.I think you have alluded to the answer in your own question!Many of these urban quarries, of which at one time there were a multitude of all over what is now urban Leeds, simply became a repository for waste. Before the 1950's waste was generally a useful general fill material as it was completely dominated by ash (in the days before packaging, plastic and consipicuous consumption). By way of example, there is an old Glasgow City Council tip that had all of its fill processed over the last twenty odd years ......... it produces inert fill (sand, ash and brick waste), a small quantity of scrap and a large quantity of coke (the partly burnt bits of coal out of the grate) which has been exported to Norway to smelters.These sites became ideal dumping grounds for domestic ash, general demolition waste, waste products from manufacturing (quarry waste, brick waste, pottery seggers/damage, slag etc) and in particular for boiler ash from local industry (of which you only need to browse the "Leeds 'the place where everything was made'" thread to get a handle on the shear number of boilers utilised in the cities industry. Without checking I would anticipate that many of the sites were filled relatively quickly and by trial/error would have been suitable for constructing structures with relatively low loadings. I have done some remediation work on similar areas in Central Scotland, particularly in the east end of Glasgow. Here old clay pits and stone quarries were backfilled with ash and arisings from different industrial processes. There are simply no traces of these excavations ....... indeed the extension to the M74 currently being built is exclusively constructed on made ground. These backfilled excavations were subsequently built over with cheap tennements and ultimately god-awful high rises (relying on deep piling solutions). Now with the current wave of regeneration these areas are being remediated, so these sites require recompaction (either excavate to virgin ground, fill and compact or using various dynamic compaction solutions) or complex/expensive ground engineering solutions (every kind of pile, band drain or grouting solution under the sun) to make them suitable for construction on. The other legacy is contamination. In places where the fill is predominately ash and demolition waste there are often no issues. In other places contamination is an enormous problem (most notably in the East End of Glasgow the use of slag/waste heavily contaminated with chromium has left a legacy of costly/hazardous remediation) Deeply indebted and even more deeply educated..........THANK YOU.......