The Brickmakers of St Albans
A Talk given to the St Albans & Hertfordshire Architectural & Archaeological Society at St Albans on 7th January 2003

Some 16th Century References

In 1508 and 1531 the Prioress of Sopwell received a rent which included 4,000 tiles and 2 quarters of stone lime from the manor of Corsers in Ridge, and the tile kiln was known to be still in existence in 1639. [VCH]

Shortly before the dissolution of the monastery the Abbot held a tylehouse and land where they dug clay for making tiles and bricks at Napsbury. [VCH]

There is also a reference to Potterswyke in Sandridge in 1540 and 1585. [VCH] This was almost certainly the area of Potters Wood and Potters Fields to the north of Bernards Heath in the 1726 and 1843 surveys - represented on modern maps by the misnamed Porters Wood.

There could well have been brick making on Bernards Heath in 1556 as "Thomas Vaughan gentleman Thomas Robinson and Thomas Chedesley the assignee of Thomas Werren gentlemen hold … a croft land situated at Barnet Heath in the said parishes of St Peters and Sanderinge called the Brokeclose lately in the tenure of William Mudwyn and afterwards in the tenure of William Foye …" [The Marian Survey of St Albans]

In 1564-5 Edmund Stoneham granted le Kyllnehouse to John Gape. [Lyle Perrins]

In 1582 Thomas Hall, M.D., and Margaret his wife gave St Albans School 9 acres in the manor of Kingsbury, including some claypits in what is now the playing field between Folly Lane and Verulam Road. [VCH, Frank Kilvington]

Talk: The most interesting of these is the 1556 reference to "Brokeclose" which may well be the Brick Close of later records - so William Mudwyn and William Foye may well have been brickmakers. The link with Gape and the Kyllnehouse may also be relevant, as there are later references to Gape which could suggest the family may have had an interest in brickmaking.

Supplementary Information

Should any other references be found relating to this period they will be referenced here.

If you can add to the information given above tell me.