Geology Site Account

Historical site only

On the east side of Hall Lane, Upminster, was once an extensive brickworks, the kilns and chimneys being prominent landmarks. Two pits were in operation “ a southern pit with well laminated brickearth and a northern pit (north of Bird Lane) in London Clay. At the base of the brickearth in the southern pit was boulder clay or till which, apart from the patch at Hornchurch (see separate site record), is the most southerly evidence of the ice sheet during the whole of the Ice Age. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the brickworks received numerous visits from geological societies, such as the Geologists Association.

There is now virtually no trace of the works which was in operation for over 150 years from the 1770s to the 1920s although the railway lines to the north pit can still just be seen at the edges of the tarmac where they cross Bird Lane. Upminster Tithe Barn Agricultural and Folk Museum in Hall Lane (next to Upminster Golf Club) has a display on the history of the Upminster brick and pottery works.

Part of an engraving of Upminster Brickworks dated 1880. The large kiln was built in 1774 and is recorded as being 45 feet in diameter and 70 feet high. From the History and Topography of Upminster (Wilson 1880).