Backworth Colliery Brickworks (Blue Bell Brickworks)

A brickworks was established beside the Blue Bell mine in 1937 by Backworth Collieries. It comprised a 16-chamber Hoffman kiln with a 124 feet high chimney. Shale from Holywell was used, producing a red-coloured brick. A Bradley and craven machine press made mostly common bricks, firstly marked BLUE BELL but later stamped BACKWORTH, to avoid confusion with another firm using the same name. Production in the 1950s averaged 120,000 bricks per week. The works closed in 1965.
Dates: 1937 – 1965
20th Century brickworks
Source: Davison, P J, 1986. Brickworks of the North East, 56 site 5, 61.