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Austin (Augustine) Browning was the first brickmaker recorded as working in Barcombe. He had moved to Barcombe from Framfield in 1584. In a deposition made in 1598 he signs with a brick mould as his mark and in his will, made in 1603, he describes himself as a brickmaker. Later in the century brickyards were still functioning in the vicinity since, in 1662, Mary the daughter of Thomas Giles brickburner was buried at Barcombe. When the house at Stanmer Park was built in c1720-1730 for Henry and Thomas Pelham bricks were used for the internal construction work. The local Brighton brickworks could not produce the quantities required and seven Wealden yards were called on to provide the shortfall of 200,000 bricks. Three of the yards were in Ringmer, and one each in Isfield, Barcombe, Chailey and Clayton. A horse drawn cart could carry not more than 500 bricks in each load but twice the number of tiles. That difference in costs is reflected in the charges made by Thomas Holman of Barcombe who supplied both bricks and tiles. His delivery charges varied slightly over the four year period from 1724-1727 but averaged 6s per thousand for tiles and 12s for bricks. The Holman family owned property on what is now the site of Holman's Bridge Farm (TA 385). Although definitive evidence is lacking, it is possible that Brickyard Farm, now Chubbs Nursery (TA 372), was the site of Thomas Holman's brickworks. The site was recognised as a brickyard in 1737, a map of Balneath and Knowlands has a sketch of a kiln and a house on 'Mancells' land (adjacent to Old Park) east of Harelands Wood. That site appears to relate to what was later Brickyard Farm, owned by James Slater of Newick Park in 1840. The kiln at Brickyard Farm was still depicted on a map of 1829 (ESRO SAS SH/389). The association of the Holman name with the nearby bridge suggests that someone known by that name was perceived as having a special association with it. Although the existence of family property immediately adjacent to the bridge provides an immediate connection, it is equally possible that the owner of a nearby brickyard would have been expected to pay handsomely for the maintenance of a bridge over which many of his heavy carts would have passed. When the Upper Ouse navigation was under construction the following advertisement appeared in the Sussex Weekly Advertiser on 26 July 1790.
The Brickyard by Barcombe mills was in use when the Upper Ouse navigation was under construction in 1791 but does not appear to have been still in use in 1840 (TA1013, 1014). In 1880 work began on the railway line from Lewes to East Grinstead, known later as the Bluebell Line and, following the usual pattern, land was acquired for a brickyard at the southern end of the line at Barcombe. The brick yard lay on the west side of the railway west of Barcombe Cross (ESRO GRA 17/49). A search on the tithe database will reveal several fields and woods using the term Kiln (this occasionally occurs as Kill rather than in the correct form e.g. TA1319). Those names may give a clue as to where the early brick-kilns were situated although it should be noted that limekilns were also used and clearly they could give rise to the same simplex name. Source: M. Beswick (2001) Brickmaking in Sussex: A history and a gazetteer. |
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Part of a deposition made in 1598 by Austin Browning, who used a brick mould as his mark. |
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