Trivia Investigation Team

[NewcastleFalcon]

How about some moving pictures...



Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Of all the places in all the world to pull in to get the flask out for a cuppa, the Falcons on tour were destined to stop here.

Right next to the wall of this Church. Just up the road from this two arch skew-arch bridge on the disused Border Counties Railway
Over the wall in the churchyard right next to where the car had chosen to stop... this...

Neil

[bobins]

I can tell you now, Neil - I've got no chance of identifying who made that lawn roller

[myglaren]

Chuck it in your boot and bring it down for me please. I have been going to re-lay the grass I dug up three years ago.
Ans will, one day

[NewcastleFalcon]

I like it when the normal delve produces a bit more than you were expecting. With the fantastic resource of Brocross if you find a brick with a name on it , it will identify it, have pictures of it, and a bonus a bit of info about the brickworks it came from. The search facility allows for a partial match thanks to an index put together on the site even if the the letters are indistinct or the section of brick only contains a few.


That particular brick has made its way to Northumberland from The Withnell Brick and Terra Cotta Company Ltd at Abbey Village, Withnell, Chorley, Lancs probably some time in the early 2oth Century.

So from 1912 the Internet Archive site here https://archive.org/details/CatalogueNo ... ?q=plastic

has Catalogue No4 of the Withnell Brick and Terracotta Company (1912) Ltd



Contributed by the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

How on earth has that catalogue survived and what's more from its slumbers, presumably within the Canadian Centre For Architecture, it has been scanned into the Internet Archive to be found April 18th 2023 on the back of a photographed brick, and made it to the FCF Trivia Investigation Thread. Not many will have a flick through but ever wondered where the rich variety of terracotta special tiles in our buildings came from, this particular brickworks made a lot more than bricks

Rather than bog Matts Blog down with more brick trivia, I think this nails the location of the Withnell Brick and Tlie Company

http://www.white-coppice.co.uk/brinscall%20sidings.htm

The Brickworks stood between the sidings and the main line and what is now the pond in the nature reserve was to the west of the mainline. The brickworks also had a bridge crossing the line with it’s own track over it to bring in clay from the claypit. The embankment to the bridge can be seen today, though the bridge went years ago.
The siding continued past the brickworks towards Withnell Mill where it split and entered the mill at two points. Withnell Mill was built by Robert Parke after he bought the land on which it would stand in 1839. In 1840 Robert’s brother John E Parke bought land Withnell and built a cotton spinning and weaving mill in Abbey Village, subsequently operated by the firm of Parke and Arkwright, then by John Park and Son. This mill too, had a long siding running to it

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

A tiny little brick diversion...into named brick identification.

Back in January, a dusting of frost and snow helped with the ID of this Brick find originally from Gartcosh, North Lanarkshire.

Found on Spittal Beach Bewrick

But its June now, can't wait until the first snows arrive...

So in a flash of ingenuity, out comes a packet of Morrisons finest cornflour, a light dusting and brush off revealed clearly the partial name "IELD"

definite "IELD" revealed
Brick found on Spittal Beach Berwick

and the most likely brickworks from a partial search for "ield" on the Brocross database, Newfield. Newfield is just outside Bishop Auckland in County Durham and was the site of Bolckow and Vaughan's brickworks.

Of course being a name-noticer Bolckow, got a bit further google, and in the 1800's, Bolckow and Vaughan were described as Middlesbrough's equivalent of Romulus and Remus the founding Fathers of Rome. Their company was probably the largest Iron producer in the World at the time.

Wiki tells some of their tale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolckow,_Vaughan Statues/ blue plaques the lot!

Neil

[CitroJim]

Magic That's a great use for cornflour Neil...