Bradley & Craven Ltd

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Bradley & Craven Ltd was a manufacturing company specializing in brickmaking machinery in Wakefield England.

Brickworks factory of bricks

A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock, often with a quarry for clay on site.

Wakefield city in West Yorkshire, England

Wakefield is a city in West Yorkshire, England, on the River Calder and the eastern edge of the Pennines, which had a population of 99,251 at the 2011 census.

Contents

The company was founded in 1843 by two young engineers, William Craven and Richard Bradley to manufacture what was then revolutionary machinery for automating clay brick production. Their 1853 patented ‘Stiff-Plastic Brickmaking Machine’, in combination with the Hoffman continuous kiln was responsible for changes in the industry which eventually saw it shift from a hand craft to a mechanized production line. [1] Their machines were manufactured at the Westgate Common Foundry in Wakefield and were sold throughout the United Kingdom as well as many oversees markets such as Australia, South Africa and Germany. [2]

The company also made steam engines, colliery winding gear and exhibited in the 1862 London International Exhibition. [3]

In 1972 Bradley & Craven, amalgamated with a rival Leeds company, Thomas C. Fawcett, forming Craven Fawcett Limited. [4] However the name continued in use with a new private limited company of the same name incorporated on 1 October 1998 and dissolved on 30 July 2002. [5]

External sources

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References

  1. Bradley and Craven Ltd, 1948, Thro' the Years, Wakefield.
  2. The First Hundred Years: the Early History of Bradley & Craven, Limited, Wakefield, England by Bradley & Craven Ltd (1963)
  3. Official Catalogue of the Industrial Department, Cambridge University Press, 31 Oct 2013
  4. Craven Fawcett Limited, Company History corporate website Archived February 21, 2014, at the Wayback Machine .
  5. Company Check, Company data rex 2013

See also

Brunswick brickworks

The Brunswick Brick Tile & Pottery Company was established in 1870 on a site in Albert Street Brunswick, as one of the first modern mechanical brickworks in Australia. It was also known as the Hoffman Patent Brick & Tile Company, Hoffman Brickworks, or just ' Hoffman's' for most of its 100 plus years of operation.

Brickyard factory for the manufacture of building materials made ​​of baked clay or loam

A brickyard, or brickfield, is a place or yard where the earthen building material called bricks are made, fired, and stored, or sometimes sold or otherwise distributed from. Brick makers work in a brick yard. A brick yard may be constructed near natural sources of clay or on or near a construction site if necessity or design requires the bricks to be made locally.

Masonry The building of structures from individual units of stone, brick, or block

Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, building stone such as marble, granite, travertine, and limestone, cast stone, concrete block, glass block, and adobe. Masonry is generally a highly durable form of construction. However, the materials used, the quality of the mortar and workmanship, and the pattern in which the units are assembled can substantially affect the durability of the overall masonry construction. A person who constructs masonry is called a mason or bricklayer. These are both classified as construction trades.