Monument record MDR12560 - Priestley's brickworks (site of), Sheffield Road, Sheepbridge, Chesterfield

A brick yard is marked on the 1st ed. 25" OS map to the east-south-east of Brierley Bridge near the boundary of Unstone and Chesterfield parishes. A single building is depicted. (1) By the end of the 19th century a number of additional buildings, presumably kilns, had been constructed. (2) In addition to the buildings, the 3rd ed. OS map names two chimneys on the site. (3) The brickworks was described in 1973 as having been derelict since 1915. There were three Scotch kilns on site, two in fair condition, and one mostly demolished. (4) There are three Scotch kilns at the disused works at Sheepbridge, near Chesterfield (SK 376761), formerly owned by Henry Priestley of Whittington. Two have 24 fireholes and one has 28, and the wicket at one end of each kiln is 8ft wide so that a cart could be loaded inside. Each kiln held 30,000 large facing bricks. The works manufactured pressed and handmade facing and common bricks and a wide range of special and ornamental shapes from a grey Coal Measures clay taken from a pit below the Derby-Sheffield railway line. The works was founded in the 1870s and closed down in 1915 but the site is still owned by one of Priestley's descendants. (5)