Porth Wen Brickworks

Porth Wen Brickworks first built by Charles E Tidy, is now a disused Victorian brickworks which produced fire bricks, made from quartzite (silica) used to line steel-making furnaces. The substantial remains include a number of buildings and the remains of some of the machinery, but has some damage from sea erosion. The site is a scheduled monument.

The brickworks is in a spectacular location on the western side of Porth Wen (English: White Bay) in the community of Llanbadrig in the north of Anglesey, and is about 2 km (1.2 miles) west of Porth Llechog and 3 km (1.9 miles) north-east of Cemaes.^[1][2] The brickworks was established because of the readily available quartzite from the nearby quarries, a major component of fire bricks.^[3]

As with much of coastline of Anglesey, the brickworks lies within the area of the Anglesey Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.^[4]

Porthwen Brickworks includes quarries, an incline tramroad to the works, and includes a crushing house, moulding shed, drying sheds, and kilns. The brickmaking operation was supported by storage hoppers, engine house, boiler house, chimneys, warehouse and a quay.^[5]

Brickmaking started on the site in the mid 19th century, with the tramroad being added later, and the existing buildings being built in the early 20th century.^[6] Although the brickworks ceased production in the first half of the 20th century (sources vary on the date; either 1924 or 1949),^[1][6] the buildings and much of the equipment remain in situ, and the site shows:

...the visual scars of time and nature on its rural-industrial face as well as just the immense history built into the very bricks and stones

— Ian Banks^[7]

The brickworks were supplied from two quarries to the north-west of the works.^[8][9] A tramroad from one of the quarries leading to a winding house and incline was shown on the 1st edition OS map, 1889.^[10]

The winding house includes two lateral walls of mortared walls of rubble masonry supporting a square drive shaft and bearings. The remains of the walls are splayed at the bases and roughly 4.5 m (10 feet) in length, 0.95 m (3 feet) wide up to a height of 3 m (10 feet).^[10][11] The drive shaft supported three wheels each with eight spokes. One wheel is roughly 2 m (7 feet) in diameter and the other two are 1.5 m (5 feet) in diameter. The larger wheel was a banding-break and the other two were driving wheels for lowering and raising trucks on the incline. A wooden beam with a control mechanism remains in front the drive shaft. A second similar wooden beam lies nearby but is no longer in position.^[10][11][12]

Near the winding house are the remains of a storage shed roughly 4 m (10 feet) by 5 m (20 feet) with walls that supported a gabled roof of profiled sheeting and is probably more recent than the winding house, built in a period of improvement in the early 20th century.^[13]

The incline consisted of two tracks which have been removed but the track bed remains with retaining walls of random rubble masonry roughly 1 m (3 feet) deep. The incline was gravity powered.^[12][14]

The incline terminated at a crushing house where pieces of quartzite were broken up with a knapping machine. The pieces were passed down chutes to lower levels for further processing, resulting in a fine powder at the lowest stage. It is likely that the pieces of quartzite were reduced by hammer with the workers wearing iron covered gloves.^[1][15][16]

The resulting powder was mixed with lime and water in a pan mill. The resulting paste was then moulded and pressed into bricks in the moulding shed, and then dried out in drying sheds.^{[1][17][18][19]} Originally bricks were made using moulding and wire cutting, but were later made using a press.^[16]

After drying, the bricks were then fired in one of the three circular down-draught kilns (also known as beehive or Newcastle kilns), made of brick with iron bands and domed roofs.^{[20][21][22][1][7]}

The brickworks also includes the remains of a boiler house, which contained a Five-drum Stirling boiler, and a small engine house for a steam engine.^[23][24]

After firing, the bricks were stored in the main building, a two-storey brick building, with gabled ends.^[25]

Bricks were then loaded onto ships, using a crane, moored at the loading quay.^[26][27]

Porth Wen brickworks was designated as a scheduled monument by Cadw in 1986 and classified as a post-medieval industrial brickworks.^[28]

• List of Scheduled Monuments in Anglesey

• Jones, William (May 2015). Anglesey Hidden Gem (kindle). ASIN B00XJQ6C2M.
• Summers, Neil. "Porth Wen – An abandoned brickworks on Anglesey". www.penmorfa.com. Retrieved 20 June 2016.

• "Map 1 – Cemaes" (PDF) (Map). visitanglesey.co.uk. 1:25,000. Isle of Anglesey County Council. – map of part of Anglesey Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
• "Map B Ynys Môn – Isle of Anglesey" (PDF). Wales Coast Path. Natural Resources Wales. – includes Maps 13 to 28 covering the coast of Anglesey
• Jenkins, Phil. "Porth Wen Silica Brickworks, Anglesea". industrialgwent.co.uk. – extensive gallery of photos from July 2015