Hullbridge Postcards (9)
Hullbridge Brickwork's
Spalding
The Water Tower
Bell
Brickmakers Cottages
Padgett
The Brickworks and Water Tower
By David Whiffin
Established by the 'Hockley Brickwork Company' in the latter half of the 19th century the Hullbridge brickworks along with many others around this part of Essex supplied the demands of the booming east London housing and factory developments of the time.
The riverside location was important as materials could be brought in and bricks taken out by barges. To house some of the workforce a row of ten terraced houses was built along Pooles Lane just behind the brickworks. There still known today as the 'Brickmakers Cottages'.
A prominent riverside landmark for many years was the water tower, built to supply the brickworks site with water for the brick-making process. The tower remained intact for some time after the brickworks closed down. Its novel construction of a tank in a wooden house on top of a tall block work structure made it something of a tourist attraction. Unfortunately by the 1950's the now dilapidated wooden house had become unsafe and had to be removed along with its tank.
The block work remained. Reduced in height and remodelled with a castellated top it became an interesting feature of the Tower Mobile Home Site which took its name from the tower. In the early days of the Tower site it was used to house the electricity generator until it was hit by a lightening strike during a storm. The equipment was badly damaged, consequently the site was put on the National Grid.
The ownership of the Tower site passed to Mr Berkeley (Berkeleyparks) and he had the remains of the tower demolished to make way for more mobile homes.
The first postcard by Fred Spalding c1905 shows the brickworks with the two kiln chimneys facing the river. The water tower is partly hidden by a tree at the top of the picture.
The second picture is by Bell c1929. The water tower viewed from Pooles Lane. Quite an impressive sight close up.
The third picture by Alfred Padgett c1920's is a view of the 'Brickmakers Cottages' on Pooles Lane, shown more or less as they were built without the later porch additions.
See also this article on the site.