Geology Site Account

Site name: Ashdon Brickworks Pit

Grid reference: TL 581 438

Brief description of site:

The brickworks consisted of a clay pit and a gravel pit to the west and east respectively of the now disused Saffron Walden to Bartlow railway line and are shown on the 1921 Ordnance Survey map.

Details:

The clay pit was in 'brown, sandy brickearth' (Whitaker et al. 1878) and the gravel pit exposed of 'about 5 feet of chalky gravel' with shells (Osborne White 1932). Two mammoth tusks and a tooth of woolly rhinoceros were found in the gravel pit and were donated to Saffron Walden Museum where they can now be seen (Osborne White 1932). The tusks are also referred to by Whitaker et al. and so they must have been found before 1878.

According to Ryan (1999) this brickworks was working from at least 1848. The clay pit and the gravel pit were either side of the now disused Saffron Walden to Bartlow railway line. The pits have now been infilled and there is now no sign of them, or the brickworks.