Watnall Brickworks and its 4 iconic chimneys

Watnall Brickworks operated on the site of Watnall Pit (1873-1950) until its closure in 1975. It was located on the left of the road to Hucknall just over the M1 motorway bridge. Its distinctive 200' chimneys were a welcome sight on the M1 after long journeys away. Nearly home! 

They were covertly blown up in August 2009, much to local disgust, by the absentee owners to help sell off the land. 

Long gone by then was Watnall's fabulous angular-shaped Hoffmann kilns which produced the bricks. The shape enabled the fire in the kiln to be continuously lit for years or sometimes decades. If you still want to see one, head to Ilkeston where secretly lurking in the woods is a long abandoned, derelict Hoffmann kiln...

One of the Watnall Hoffmann kilns and its chimney

The Hoffmann kiln in Ilkeston still hidden away in the local woods in 2024

In the heyday of brick manufacture at Watnall, considerable quantities of bricks were produced from pit waste containing clay from nearby Moorgreen Pit which was delivered by steam locomotive-hauled wagons. Similar pit spoil was also brought into the brickyard from Wollaton Pit by lorries. 

DH Lawrence wrote about this very railway line at the start of his novel Sons and Lovers... "six mines like black studs on the countryside, linked by a loop of fine chain, the railway." 

The Watnall pit railway going through the woods between Watnall and Moorgreen.
Note the flat caps..

This pit waste was fed into crushing machinery which efficiently ground the material into a fine tilth. It was then mixed with water and worked up into a wettish clay and then placed into moulds. Huge hydraulic presses applied pressure to form the bricks which were then baked in the coal-fired Hoffmann kilns for up to two weeks.

Watnall mainly produced common bricks, and also special unfired ‘puddle’ bricks which were supplied to many of the East Midlands collieries where they were used to block off ‘gob fires’ down the pits.

The demolition of the chimneys

Video of the demolition of the chimneys at 7pm Wednesday 12th August 2009......

The rubble pile

The local newspaper, the Hucknall Dispatch, told the story of their demolition... 

Demolition of iconic chimneys 'was inevitable'

20 August 2009 By Denis Robinson

THE demolition of four towering chimneys which were an iconic Hucknall landmark had become inevitable, it has been claimed. The 200 ft structures (PICTURED) on the former Watnall Brickworks site were blown up on Wednesday August 12, causing widespread shock and anger among Hucknall residents. The destruction of the century-old chimneys, which could be seen from a distance of many miles, was carried out by Bloom Demolition and Excavation, of East Markham, Nottinghamshire.

One Hucknall resident summed up the general view when he said: "The town has lost its greatest landmark."

But Bloom's safety officer, Joe Childs, said the site, off Watnall Road, had been persistently targeted by vandals. "The chimneys had cracks in them and their lightning conductors had been torn off," said Mr Childs. "Someone had also started taking bricks from a bottom corner of one of the chimneys.

"They were bound to become more and more dangerous – and a bridleway runs through the site."

The chimneys vanished from view forever with the ceremonial press of a button by ten-year-old Daniel Seeds, grandson of one of the demolition workers.

Mr Childs explained that there was no prior notification of the explosion because sightseers were bound to have been attracted and it was vital that members of the public did not put themselves at risk.

A 'rolling road-block' was used on the M1 motorway to ensure that there was no traffic near the site in either direction during the blast.

The chimneys were the last remnant of the old Watnall brickworks, which were next to the former Watnall Colliery and closed in the early 1950s. The site is owned by an Australian in his eighties who has been unavailable for comment. But a spokesman on his behalf said the site attracted trespassers, including dog walkers, and a lot of time was spent repairing fences. The land is earmarked for development but agents Innes England said no buyer had yet come forward.

The chimneys and kiln in 1988

The Healey Hero mining website has a description of the following picture which was taken in 1975 when the brickworks closed ... "It shows the entrance on the west side. The kilns are numbered 1, 2 and 3 (left to right). No. 4 kiln is situated behind no. 3. At the rear of no. 1 is the puddle-shop, where the bricks were made. Behind are the remains of Watnall Colliery. On the left is the railway embankment of the branch line from the Great Northern Railway which served the colliery and the brickworks, both of which were nationalised in 1947. The brickworks were closed in the spring of 1975 and demolished in 2009."

Watnall brickworks in 1975 when they closed.

Watnall pit with distinctive tandem headstocks.

Sunday markets and the old cottages

Lots of locals remember the Sunday markets held on the old site in the 1990s and some also lived on the site in the brickyard cottages...

"I lived at Watnall brickyard, absolutely loved it too. There were 12 I think, lived there in 91 when I was a teenager, houses were massive council owned em parents lost their house and we got put there.

Best days there." 

Others were less impresed. A campaign video critical of the housing of families by Broxtowe Council in the Brickyard Cottages alongside the M1 motorway was made by a local news team, the Nottingham Video Project in 1987...

"Brickyard Cottages are a group of semi-derelict houses located near to the M1 motorway on the site of the former Watnall brick works in Nottinghamshire. Broxtowe Borough Council uses the properties to house families who have fallen into rent arrears. They continue to do so against the advice of Shelter and social services because they believe that the poor quality of the housing acts as a deterrent to 'difficult' council tenants. We see views of the houses (many of which are boarded up) with the chimneys of the former brickworks in the background and the M1 in the foreground. There are interviews with tenants who talk about the poor conditions, damp, cold and complete lack of facilities. Access to the houses is down an unlit and unmade road causing further problems. There are industrial debris left behind and the residents are fearful that their children will be injured playing in the dereliction. Text from a council report is read out giving background to the project and we also hear from Simon Alvey of Shelter about the problems faced by the people who live in the houses. Alvey is seen walking along the unmade road and we also see a resident digging for waste coal to provide heating and a man who lives there as a single parent with two young children.". 

Sources - Healey Hero, Fragments of British Industrial Heritage 2019

Nottingham Video Project on MACE https://www.macearchive.org/films/brickyard-cottages-out-sight-out-mind?fbclid=IwY2xjawHECDNleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHR5A-8yhQhLDfyp63SF-yTjIZ4opYM-5k4pkyRznG2_BLnOzEyOjYwBgjQ_aem_hvBBS94sRaBVCgTn4lgVuw

Watnall pit on Healey Hero website http://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/individual/Phil_Wyles/Watnall.html

http://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/individual/Bob_Bradley/Bk-4/B4-1950-F.html