Monument record MDR5783 - Oakwell Brickworks (site of), Derby Road, Ilkeston

Oakwell Brickworks (now Stanton & Staveley), at SK 460411, has a Hoffmann kiln about ninety years old, reconditioned after World War II but abandoned in 1966. (1) In February 1972 the kilns at Oakwell Brickworks (a Hoffmann and two downdraught kilns) were described as derelict, with one of the downdraught kilns having only the chimneys and the end wall still standing. The chimney to the Hoffmann kiln had been demolished. At that time the site was owned by the British Steel Corporation as successors to the Stanton Ironworks Company. (3) At the disused Oakwell Brickworks at Ilkeston there are one Hoffmann and two rectangular downdraught kilns. Of the two latter, No. 1, the older, held about 25,000 bricks and had sixteen fireholes, with a chimney at each end to give a balanced draught in the underground flue. No. 2 held about 55,000 bricks and had 24 fireholes. It shared a chimney with the Hoffmann kiln. No. 1 kiln and the Hoffmann kiln were built sometime between 1900 and 1913. An Ordnance Survey map of 1879, prepared soon after the works opened, shows two rectangular kilns on the site of the Hoffmann kiln and a small circular kiln on the site of No. 1 kiln. Kiln No. 2 was probably built after 1930 when the Stanton Ironworks Company took over from the Oakwell Red and Blue Brick Company. Many of the bricks of which No. 1 is built are stamped 'Oakwell'. (4) A Hoffmann brick kiln is the most substantial remains of the former Oakwell Brickworks. Although the kiln is listed, it has collapsed in places. The results of a detailed survey are published and a copy is to be found in the local library. The other existing kiln is a rectangular Scotch type which survives nearly intact to the east of the Hoffmann. (5) The Hoffmann Brick kiln at the former Oakwell brickworks was built between 1900 and 1913 and is constructed of pink brick with a corrugated iron roof. The Oakwell brickworks began production c1879 and ceased production in the 1960s. (6) The original form of Hoffmann Kilns was circular and had 12 chambers. The damper openings were in the floor, right across the chamber from one side to the other, and were controlled by dampers in the centre of the ring near the stack. Some of these early kilns stand, though it is very doubtful whether any of the circular Hoffmanns still in use are the original type. (7) Plans of the kilns at Oakwell brickwells, drawn in 1987, are located in the HER parish files (paper). (8)