OLD WEST BROMWICH PHOTOS

Has anybody any info/stories/pics of Hamblet brick works, or can point me in the right direction of people who might have please ? The brick works was bounded by Wood lane, Piercy street, Bull lane, Albion road, and Gads lane. It now has Hambletts road running through the middle of it ( an addition after the second world war, I think ?) All help welcome !

richard hamblet/ayling at July 2, 2011 at 8:30 AM

Has anybody any info/stories/pics of Hamblet brick works, or can point me in the right direction of people who might have please ? The brick works was bounded by Wood lane, Piercy street, Bull lane, Albion road, and Gads lane. It now has Hambletts road running through the middle of it ( an addition after the second world war, I think ?) All help welcome !

Try a Google search for "Hamblet Blue Brick", there are lots of links, especially family history related.

Paul

I can recall that area being known as the Marl'ole when I was a lad.  By that time, in the late 50s and early 60s I think there was just an area of wasteground.  My 1960s A-Z shows it as an area that looks like excavations have taken place, together with what looks like it could be a pond of some description.  Probably the excavations filled with water.

In 1954 I began working in the office at Fordath Engineering. This Office was formerly the Office of Hamblet Brick Works. Things around there were different then and the Works and Office were surrounded by fields with a large pond we called the Razza with no road running through it. This is now the exact same site along Brandon Way which recently had a large amount of rubble removed from it. The marlhole was a short distance away from Hamblet Brick Work offices situated in Gads Lane and was a huge hole filled with water where clay had once been dug to make the famous bricks. For many years lorries and horse drawn wagons visited the site and dumped sand and other material into the hole to fill it in. At one stage an attempt was made to drain the water from the hole and huge pipe ran the length of Gads Lane, however this had to be halted as the road along Gads Lane began to cave in. Eventually the whole was completely filled and houses built around the perimiter but the area where the hole was had not been builit on.

Although a bit off topic

 My Dads dad and Grandfather kept the old Yew Tree pub for years which is almost exactly the place you are talking about