Monument record MDR9791 - Brick Works (site of), Steeple Grange, Wirksworth

The site is shown on a late 19th century OS map as 'Blackrock Brick & Tile Works' with a 'Brick Field' at the north of the site, a 'Kiln' at the south and a 'Wharf' [SMR 15595] to the west. The site is shown as 'Steeple Grange Brick Works' on an OS map at the end of the 19th century, still with the associated 'Wharf'. On an early 20th century OS map, the site is shown as 'Steeple Grange Brick Works (Disused)'. (1, 2, 3) Steeple Grange Brickworks was located near the junction of Oakerthorpe Road and Steeple House (Wirksworth Road). In 1973 an unusual timber and brick building still stood on the site. It had formerly been used for the manufacture of blue bricks and tile from the adjoining shale pit. The roof tiles on the building were made on the site. A brick kiln was believed to have been removed in the early 1960s. Bricks used to be despatched by railway, the brickworks having a private railway siding. The building was later used as a store and then as a house. It has since been demolished. (4) The small brick yards at Wirksworth relied upon material from near the base of the Namurian, ie below the Ashover Grit. That just beneath Black Rock may well have supplied Masson Mill and the newer mill buildings at Cromford and continued into the 20th century. This appears in a watercolour of 1785. (5)