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Coastal View & Moor News Issue 88 April - May 2018
A whimsical look at our area
●●Child Street, 2018
The pattern of land purchase and its physical development is complex and initially stretched over more than twenty-five years, until the Brickyard was more or less complete. Some whole terraces were developed as an entity, whereas some houses were built in small clusters of three or four. At the time it was usual for builders to buy the land and build houses using materials obtained on credit, with the intention of selling them as quickly as possible. For example, the western part of Railway Terrace, numbers 1 to 18, was constructed as a complete row, and subsequently purchased by Robert Abbey of Kilton. He then leased it to the mining company, Messrs Bell Brothers, who had opened their mine at Lumpsey. Numerous retailers also cashed in on the rapid development of the village, and public houses, shops and a variety of other outlets sprung up within the Brickyard itself. Along with the usual grocers, general dealers and butchers, Errington Street boasted its own professional photographer, Israel Huntrods, who had his premises at number 32. In addition to his studio work, Huntrods also took photographs around the village. Indeed, the photograph of the Miners’ Parade, adorning this article, is attributed to him. In 1890, at Number 7 Errington Street, we have a “Beerhouse” run by George Catron. In some sense, these outlets were the forerunners of our modern “microbrewery” insofar that beer was both brewed and sold on the same premises. The Beerhouse Act of 1830 permitted any ratepayer to start such an enterprise by buying a two-guinea licence. It was hoped that the proliferation of such houses would reduce the sale of spirits and thus lower the rates of drunkenness. It is highly unlikely that those who frequented the Good Templars’ Hall around the corner at Hutchinson Street would have supported the plan. To take advantage of the growing population of Brotton, Christopher Jackson embarked on a complementary venture by forming the Brotton Gas Light and Coke Co. Ltd. A parcel of his land at the southern corner of the Brickyard was allocated for the works, and ownership transferred to the gas company in 1870. Other shareholders in the enterprise included local worthies such as, Joseph William Day, Ralph Day, Elizabeth Mary Jackson and Mary Ann Morrison of Brotton Grange. On the northern edge of the site, a detached house was built for the works manager. Initially known simply as the “Gas House” this has subsequently been given the moniker “Lumpsey View”. Other buildings, now long gone, were arranged along the western boundary, as illustrated on the 1894 Ordnance Survey map. I have
not traced any records of these structures, but it seems likely that they were the retorts and furnace, and the coal storage shed. Attached to one of these buildings was a chimney, as identified on the OS map, and it is likely that this would have served the furnace. In 1877 an application was made to the Board of Trade to extend the size of the site by adding a further portion of land immediately to the east of the existing installation. There is no indication as to what the extended works would comprise, but it is possible that it was space for the second gasometer. Approval was granted to: - “……enable the Promoters to manufacture and supply gas within the said district, (Brotton) and to sell the residual products thereof, and carry on the business usually carried on by a Gas Company……” (from the London Gazette) At this time, the gas supply would mainly be for street lighting and probably for public buildings, such as chapels, public houses, the Good Templars’ Hall and for Morrison’s Pit. It is also conceivable that supplies were provided for Lumpsey Pit, which was sunk around 1881. The air quality in the neighbourhood of the gas works must have been highly polluted and combined with smoke from scores of coal fires there must have been a pall of fumes hanging over the Brickyard for much of the time. Along with air pollution, contamination of water courses would also have been likely. Part of the drainage from the Brickyard passed both across and alongside the Gas Works and it is certain that outlets within the works would have been directly connected. Eventually, this drainage was discharged to a beck to the west of the village and then to the sea via Saltburn Gill. The pollution of Saltburn Beck became quite an issue around the turn of the nineteenth century (and again in the twenty-first!). Typically, houses in the Brickyard are ‘through terrace’ with a ‘two up and two down’ arrangement of rooms and a single storey lean-to pantry. All have rear yards which contained a privy and a coal store and had access from a back street. All the houses were built up to the back of the footpath there being no front walled enclosures (unlike in the Park, to the West). Given that many of these houses have a modest footprint, they might be better referred to as ‘cottages’. Warning! Some technical content follows: All houses were constructed from brick, having a 215mm thick wall to front and rear. The brick bond which was generally used is known as Scotch (Scottish) bond, i.e. five courses of stretcher bricks between courses of headers. The thickness of party walls is not known and may vary between a single skin of common brick, or a 215mm thick wall. Ground floors were generally of solid construction and may well have always exhibited signs of dampness. Roofs were covered with Welsh blue slates, one pitch draining to a gully in the rear yard and the other directly to the street gutter. Not all the houses were built using locally made bricks. Part of Errington Street, lower Jackson Street and Grange Terrace were built using the pale cream “Pease” brick (at least on the front elevation of the building). This brick was also used for the construction of Saltburn Station and Zetland Hotel. The use of the brick in those buildings was a stipulation made by Henry Pease, owner the Pease West Brickworks at Billy Row, near Crook in Co Durham. They were transported to Saltburn by rail. Being a fireclay brick, the Pease brick is highly durable with a relatively high resistance to frost and low water absorption characteristics. This may well explain why houses in the Brickyard with Pease walling have not required rendering in modern times. The overall layout of housing which Jackson employed was redolent of that used in much urban “Byelaw housing”, i.e. terraced houses with yards, carriage streets and back streets, laid out on a grid pattern. At the time that the Brickyard was commenced, there were no byelaws in force in Brotton, which would have influenced the layout. Indeed, the first set of bye-laws were introduced in 1879 following the formation of Brotton’s
own Local Board (local authority) and this was later than the commencement of the Brickyard development. However, Jackson was also developing another site at Boosbeck, which lay in the jurisdiction of the Skelton Board, which did have bye-laws, made in 1866. It is possible that Jackson, and his surveyor Benjamin Broadbent, found it expedient to simply transfer the type of layout to Brotton. It is interesting to note, however, that the Brickyard, whilst similar in character to bye-law housing, would not have fully complied! But all was not well in in the new Brickyard. At a social event in Brotton in 1872, Joseph Shepherd, the Cleveland Miners Leader, and profiled in this column a couple of years past, was reported to have described Brotton (the home of many of his members and their families, and indeed his power base amongst the members in general) as “a little pestilential place” and “the mother of disease in Cleveland”. His chief concern was the poor sanitary condition of the new housing, a worry shared by the Inspector of Nuisances, Cyrus Smith, who issued abatement notices to Jackson and others. Little was achieved. Parts of the Brickyard were dogged by these conditions for some years and it was not until the formation of the Brotton Board of Health in 1878 that any robust solution was sought. In 1881 a contract was let to a local builder, Medd Gladstone for the surfacing of all the carriage streets and back streets in the Brickyard, including new sections of drainage and main sewers. This at least dealt more effectively with the removal of wastewater and surface water. Human waste was still a matter of collection by ‘night soil men’, and indeed, was the case
well into the twentieth century. Most of the Brickyard still exists, although nowadays many of the houses have modern extensions in the rear yards to give much needed additional modern accommodation. Many of the houses built from handmade bricks have been rendered, no doubt to arrest further erosion, and the rows now have an odd patchwork appearance. However, the future fate of the Brickyard is not part of this little historical sketch. I will leave that to the Brickyarders and their political representatives.” So what future for the Brickyard ?, Oddly enough, probably brighter than in the comparatively recent past. In the 1990’s, when large scale redevelopment was all the rage, there were. suggestions that the whole of the ara could be demolished with new housing arising from the foundations of the old. In the end that was not to be. One feature of much of the Brickyard was that many of the houses had always been privately rented, and that trend has increased as older people have moved out and a small group of “buy to let” landlords moved in. This has meant some substantial repairs and renovations to many of the streets, and thus giving an extended life far beyond the “thirty years” that many of the original builders and dwellers Hollie Bush can be contacted directly if readers want to comment on articles, or to suggest topics (the odder, the better) that help to define the East Cleveland we all live in. Email: holliebush@gmx.com
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