Western End The Brickworks Arm

This cut, 100 yards long, was dug just above Slade's Bridge in 1898. In the previous year, Sir Frederick Seager Hunt formed the Hampshire Brick & Tile Company with a capital of £20,000 to open up the brickfields on 32 acres of woodland at Up Nately. The first delivery of bricks from the works was in 1899, and by the end of that year 2 million bricks were carried on the Company's 10 barges. 50 tons of coal per week were supplied by barge from Basingstoke Wharf. Many of the bricks were used in the construction of barracks at Aldershot and Frimley when the previous wooden structures were replaced. However, the clay was found to be not really suitable for brickmaking and so the Company was wound up in 1901. The works and site were purchased by William Carter and small scale production of bricks under the name of Nately Pottery Co took place until 1908.     Old Lift Bridge When putting the new footbridge in place across the Brickworks Arm, some interesting relics of the old bridge were found in the bed of the canal. The top of the support posts, complete with pulley wheels on top of them and a length of chain with a counterbalance weight attached. These finds prompted great discussion on how the old bridge was built and operated.

The sketch is a possibility of the construction of the lifting arrangement. At the time of its construction, money would have been so short that no great expense would have been incurred with winches, also there is no sign of anything being attached to the post. Labour would have been available so there could have been one man on each corner pulling on a rope attached to the chain, thus up went the bridge with a simple pole under each guide wheel to make it safe. This idea is in operation on some lift bridges to this day. It is likely that the bridge would have been operated only two to four times a week.   BACK

Re-published May 2002