Scoria brick

Last updated

Scoria bricks in Whitby Whitby Scoria Bricks 1.jpg
Scoria bricks in Whitby

Scoria bricks [lower-alpha 1] are a type of blue-grey brick made from slag, originally manufactured from the waste of the steelworks of Teesside, common across the North-East of England. [3] [4] The bricks were also exported around the world and can be found in Canada, West Indies, Netherlands, United States, India and South America. [5]

The word Scoria originally comes from Greek, meaning "Excrement", but came to be used by the romans for a kind of volcanic rock. [5] The bricks were invented by Darlington industrialist Joseph Woodward, in the 1870s, with him registering a patent in 1873 and forming the "Tees Scoriae Company" the same year. [6] [1] At it's peak the company was taking 30% of the slag from the South-Tees works. [3]

The bricks were produced by poring the slag caldrons, comeing on trains from the steel works, into moulds made with a hinged bottoms and mounted on a revolving platform allowing the moulds to be filled separately. As the bricks solidified they were removed and placed in a beehive oven, where the residual heat annealed the whole of the brick. [7] [2] The bricks were found to be extremely durable against water, frost, chemicals and heavy loads, which lead to them being used as a road surface. [4] On the other hand, an early trial of the bricks in Liverpool found the bricks to wear unevenly and became slippery in wet conditions. [8]

Notes

  1. ↑ Sometimes spelled Scoriæ [1] [2] or Scoriae

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darlington</span> Town in County Durham, England

Darlington is a market and industrial town in County Durham, England. It is the main administrative centre of the unitary authority Borough of Darlington. The borough is a constituent member of the devolved Tees Valley area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yarm</span> Town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England

Yarm, also referred to as Yarm-on-Tees, is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England. It is in Teesdale with a town centre on a small meander of the River Tees. To the south-east, it extends to the River Leven, to the south it extends into the Kirklevington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tees Valley</span> Combined authority area in Northern England

Tees Valley is a combined authority area in Northern England, around the lower River Tees. The area is not a geographical valley; the local term for the valley is Teesdale. The combined authority covers five council areas: Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piercebridge</span> Human settlement in England

Piercebridge is a village and civil parish in the borough of Darlington and the ceremonial county of Durham, England. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 113. It is situated a few miles west of the town of Darlington. It is on the site of a Roman fort of AD 260–270, which was built at the point where Dere Street crossed the River Tees. Part of the fort is under the village green. The village is sited where the York-Newstead Roman road known as Dere Street crosses the River Tees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merrybent</span> Human settlement in England

Merrybent is a linear village in the civil parish of Low Coniscliffe and Merrybent in County Durham, in England. It is situated on the A67 road to the west of Darlington, a short distance to the north of the River Tees and the Teesdale Way. At the beginning of the 20th century there were hardly any buildings here, and its main feature at that time was Merrybent Nurseries with its many glasshouses. The nursery was cut through by the A1 road in the 1960s; at this point it runs on the trackbed of the old Merrybent railway. The village is now a settlement of modern housing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shildon</span> Town and civil parish in County Durham, England

Shildon is a town and civil parish in County Durham, in England. The population taken at the 2011 Census was 9,976. The town has the Locomotion Museum, due to it having the first station, built in 1825, and locomotive works on the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stagecoach North East</span> British bus operator

Stagecoach North East operates both local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, England. It is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, which operates bus, coach, rail and tram services across the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newton Aycliffe railway station</span> Railway station in County Durham, England

Newton Aycliffe is a railway station on the Tees Valley Line, which runs between Bishop Auckland and Saltburn via Darlington. The station, situated 7 miles 4 chains (11.3 km) north-west of Darlington, serves the town of Newton Aycliffe in County Durham, England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borough of Darlington</span> Unitary authority area in County Durham, England

The Borough of Darlington is a local government district with borough status in County Durham, England. Since 1997 Darlington Borough Council has been a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council; it is independent from Durham County Council. It is named after its largest settlement, the town of Darlington, where the council is based. The borough also includes a rural area surrounding the town which contains several villages. The population of the borough at the 2021 census was 107,800, of which over 86% (93,015) lived in the built-up area of Darlington itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hopetown Darlington</span> Railway museum in County Durham, England

Hopetown Darlington, previously known as Head of Steam and formerly known as the Darlington Railway Centre and Museum, is a railway museum located on the 1825 route of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which was the world's first steam-powered passenger railway. It is based inside the station building at the North Road railway station. Its exhibits are devoted to the area formerly served by the North Eastern Railway with a particular focus on the Stockton & Darlington Railway and the railway industry of Darlington. In 2022, plans were submitted to expand the museum as part of the Railway Heritage Quarter. In December 2023, the museum temporarily closed its doors to undergo a £35 million redevelopment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tees Valley Railway</span> Former branch line in Northern England

The Tees Valley Railway was an 8+3⁄4-mile (14.1 km) branch railway line that ran between Barnard Castle on the South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway line between Bishop Auckland and Kirkby Stephen East, and Middleton-in-Teesdale via three intermediate stations Cotherstone, Romaldkirk and Mickleton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Durham County Council</span> Local authority in North East England

Durham County Council is the local authority which governs the non-metropolitan county of County Durham in North East England. Since 2009 it has been a unitary authority, having taken over district-level functions when the county's districts were abolished. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county of County Durham, which additionally includes Darlington, Hartlepool and the parts of Stockton-on-Tees north of the River Tees. The county council has its headquarters at County Hall in Durham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teesside Steelworks</span>

The Teesside Steelworks was a large steelworks that formed a continuous stretch along the south bank of the River Tees from the towns of Middlesbrough to Redcar in North Yorkshire, England. At its height there were 91 blast furnaces within a 10-mile radius of the area. By the end of the 1970s there was only one left on Teesside. Opened in 1979 and located near the mouth of the River Tees, the Redcar blast furnace was the second largest in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Marley (mining engineer)</span> English mining engineer and geologist

John Marley was an English mining engineer from Darlington who together with ironmaster John Vaughan made the "commercial discovery" of the Cleveland Ironstone Formation, the basis of the wealth of their company Bolckow Vaughan and the industrial growth of Middlesbrough. He was an effective leader of engineering operations at Bolckow Vaughan's mines and collieries. He ended his career as a wealthy independent mine-owner and president of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers (NEIMME).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferryhill railway station</span> Former railway station in England

Ferryhill railway station was located in Ferryhill, County Durham, Northeast England. It was located on what became the East Coast Main Line between Darlington and Durham, close to the junctions with several former branches, including the extant freight-only Stillington Line to Norton-on-Tees and Stockton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darlington and Barnard Castle Railway</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Darlington and Barnard Castle Railway, was an east–west railway line that connected Darlington and Barnard Castle in County Durham, England. Besides the main running line, it had two branches that headed south into Yorkshire that were only used for freight. The whole system opened up by July 1856 and was closed completely by 1966. The former Merrybent freight branch is now used as part of the A1(M) road that bypasses to the west of Darlington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yarm Viaduct</span> Railway viaduct over the River Tees in England

Yarm Viaduct is a railway viaduct carrying the railways above the town of Yarm in North Yorkshire, England. It crosses the River Tees which forms the boundary between North Yorkshire and County Durham. The railway runs between Northallerton and Eaglescliffe, and was opened in 1852 as part of the extension of the Leeds Northern Railway to Stockton-on-Tees. The line and viaduct are currently owned and maintained by Network Rail and carries passenger traffic for TransPennine Express and Grand Central train operating companies. It also sees a variety of freight traffic.

St Hilda's Church, Darlington is a Grade II listed former Church of England church on Parkgate, Darlington, County Durham.

References

  1. 1 2 "Patent Scoriæ Bricks". Northern Echo. 1 November 1873. p. 1. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Scoriæ Bricks". Waterville Telegraph. 9 October 1874. p. 1. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  3. 1 2 Walsh, David (6 March 2022). "Scoria bricks: history at our feet". North East Bylines. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  4. 1 2 Lloyd, Chris (20 March 2022). "The almost unbreakable slag bricks which lined the streets of the Tees Valley". Darlington and Stockton Times. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  5. 1 2 Lloyd, Chris (14 July 2008). "There's mortar bricks than meets the eye". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  6. ↑ Lewis, Stephen (20 April 2024). "York's back alleys in the spotlight: who designed those distinctive bricks?". York Press. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  7. ↑ "English Slag Paving Blocks". The Peabody Gazette-Herald. 24 November 1910. p. 7. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  8. ↑ Boulnois, Henry Percy (1898). The Municipal and Sanitary Engineer's Handbook. E. & F.N. Spon. p. 59. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.