Bursledon Brickworks Swanwick Lane, Swanwick, nr Southampton, Hampshire tel 01489 576248
The Centre for the Conservation of the Built Environment
The Brickworks was founded in 1897 by the Ashby family to replace a works they had originally owned at Chandlers Ford. Production developed rapidly and a second works was constructed in 1903 on the site now occupied by the new Civil Aviation Authority Centre.
Just before the Second World War further kilns and brick drying sheds were constructed and production peaked at about 20 million bricks per year employing about 180 men. In 1959, out of amalgamation with another concern, Redlands Brick and Tile Co (later Redlands plc) was created. In 1974 the works closed and the buildings gradually fell into disrepair.
In late November 1990 the Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust acquired the site and started the present restoration program. This has been funded, so far, by a generous gift from Redlands plc, grants from Hampshire County Council and donations and help from industry and the general public.
The Engine House is a prestigious building containing the steam engine and brick making plant. The steam engine was built in 1885 by Woods of Wigan. It has been restored to a newly built condition.
The Boiler House is presently under restoration. It contains the shell of one of the original Lancashire boilers and a post-war coal-fired boiler subsequently converted to oil and believed to be a rare proto-type. A small modern steam boiler has been installed in a new boiler house to provide the steam for running the engine.
Rescued Machinery There are examples of machinery awaiting restoration, that have been rescued from other brickworks.
The Brick making Plant was manufactured by Bennett & Sayer and is presently being restored.
The Drying Sheds were designed, developed and patented in 1897. Six of the eight drying sheds have now been repaired, housing exhibitions on brick making, traditional building materials, methods of repair and rescued machinery.
The Kiln and Chimney were constructed in 1897. The kiln was a continuous firing type with six chambers down each side. The kiln is to be repaired but it will not be possible to bring it back into full working order. In order to show the full process from clay to brick, it is proposed to build a small intermittent kiln of a design known as a Scotch Kiln.
BURSLEDON Village
Brixenden (xii cent.); Burstlesden (xiv cent.); Bristelden (xvi cent.). The parish of Bursledon is a beautiful little tract of country, 1,100 acres in extent, on the right bank of the Hamble River, which is here tidal. The north-west boundary of the parish touches the eastern side of Netley Hill, on a southern spur of which stands an old ivy-covered windmill which serves as a landmark for miles round.
On the upper slopes of Netley Hill is a tract of moorland covered with bracken and heather; thence the country slopes rapidly down to the sea, and is thickly wooded to the water's edge. The main road from Fareham to Southampton, crossing the river by a wooden bridge immediately to the north of Bursledon village, strikes across the parish in a north-westerly direction, cutting it into two nearly equal portions.
The bridge was built by private enterprise about 1783, and is subject to a toll. With the exception of this road, communication in Bursledon parish is by winding lanes overhung with trees. The London and South-Western Railway line from Netley to Fareham enters the parish at the south-west, and running north-east has a station on the river bank below the village, crossing the Hamble by a bridge a little above the toll bridge.
The village of Bursledon stands on steeply-rising wooded ground on the east bank of the river, which here turns sharply to the south-east and again to the south-west. The steepness of the path and the combination of woods and tidal water recall a Devonshire sea-side village.
At the north end of the village stands the church, called by the villagers 'Jerusalem,' from its position above them. Immediately below it, set against the steep bank on the river's edge, is a group of houses known as the Salterns, in distinction from the upper village, which is called Old Bursledon.
Between the church and the southern part of the village, where the vicarage stands, is Elm Lodge, the residence of Capt. Shawe-Storey, in wellwooded grounds.
South-west of the village, where the ground falls again to a tributary stream of the Hamble, is another group of houses called Hungerford. About a mile inland, higher up the course of the same stream, and just below the point where it is crossed by the Southampton road, lies the much larger village of Lowford or New Bursledon, a red-brick suburb raised within the last twenty years.
From its position midway between the inland forests and the harbour of Southampton Water, Bursledon was a natural ship-building centre in the days of wooden warships. (fn. 1) The narrowness of the creek moreover at this point diminished the danger of attacks from French privateers. It is said that two eighty-gun ships were built at Bursledon in the time of William IV, (fn. 2) and certainly Mr. Philemon Ewer had a private ship-building yard here early in the eighteenth century.
Among other ships he built the Anson, of sixty guns, called after Admiral Anson, afterwards baron of Soberton. Mr. Ewer's monument, on which there is a model of the battleship of the period, is in Bursledon parish church.
At the latter end of the same century Mr. Henry Parsons employed shipwrights at Bursledon, launching among other ships the Elephant (seventy-four guns), in which Nelson sailed to the battle of Copenhagen. The ships used to be launched on the top of high-water, and towed round to Portsmouth Harbour, where they were sheathed in copper.
The ship-building trade has long ago vanished, but traces of the old docks may still be seen close to the present railway station. The inhabitants are now chiefly engaged in strawberrygrowing. Other crops are wheat, oats, and barley.
There are 292 acres of arable land in the parish, 341 of permanent grass, and eighty-one of woods and plantations. (fn. 3) The soil is light and sandy. The common lands in Bursledon, known as 'the waste lands of Bishop's Waltham Manor,' were inclosed in 1857. (fn. 4) .