Page 8 - HB- Ferny Hill Brick Works

Redditch Heritage Ferny Hill Brick Works

Memories of Ferny Hill Brick Yard

Until about forty years ago, there was a huge clay pit and brickyard off the Bromsgrove
Road about a quarter of a mile from the railway station and on the other side of the road.
It was owned by Mr 'Brickyard' Hughes.

Stuart Cater was born in one of Ferny Hill Cottages in 1958 and although he moved from
there when he was only about four, he remembers it clearly: 'Every village had its own
brickyard, Studley had one and Alvechurch had one. I would imagine that lots of Redditch
houses we're built from local bricks.

"I remember the big clay pit, it was a huge crater. The pits alone were fifty feet (about
fifteen metres) deep and there was water at the bottom. The slides were clay and you
could slide on them, the water was deep and if you slipped and fell in, you could never
get out, the sides were so slippery. I have heard of people drowning there.

"I think my father was the foreman. He used to do everything, he dug the clay out with
a crane (it was operated solely by levers on tracks), then he would fire the bricks, load
them on to the lorries and deliver them.

Fred Hill Bricks from Ferny Hill Brick Works

Page: 8