Littleworth Brick Works

  • Entry to Coopers Close after development
  • Entry to Coopers Close after development
  • Looking toward Littleworth with No. 4 Littleworth on the right
  • Photo showing the Littleworth area after the closure of the brickworks in 1939.
  • Map c. 1970
  • OS 1960 map showing extent of clay excavation
  • COPYRIGHT Distant 1954 photo of the site after completion of clay extraction as suggested by the previous image. PictureOxon series ref https://heritagesearch.oxfordshire.gov.uk/images/POX0264409
Archive Notes:

The OS 1960 map shows the extent of the clay excavation also shown on the 1954 image taken from the Littleworth Road school playing fields area (but seemingly from high up) and held by Oxfordshire History Centre, as detailed below.

After the closure of the Littleworth brickworks in 1939, the area was used for a variety of purposes. In the early 1950s, there was a grass-drying factory which, on one occasion, caught fire. Tom Hassall remembers that the Wheatley Voluntary fire brigade was summoned by a siren so ‘we all also used to rush to the station to see them arrive, find out where the fire was and, if it was close by, go to see the fun – it was a very popular entertainment for young and old’. The dried grass was turned into animal feed and chlorophyll products. At the end of the 1950s part of the factory was used, for a short while, by an animal waste recycling plant which included bone-grinding, to manufacture glue. It was notorious for the smell which used to waft over the village on the south west wind. Both these previous uses were replaced by a Rover spare parts business called Cohen and Windsor, then G R Nixey’s plant hire business which may have also sold building supplies. In 1970, the industrial unit was as shown in the map, with another business there being a packing unit, Metal Box at one stage and I-Pack at another. This also shows, to the right of the factory, the car collection depot which appears to have been used to store surplus production from Cowley when the selling market dried up. Similar storage of excess vehicles took place at Worminghall aerodrome and in the quarry at Forest Hill, now used by Walters coaches and others.

The site of the old Littleworth Brickworks is now occupied by Coopers Close (previously known as Balmoral Drive), mobile homes in Littleworth Park, and light industrial units. It had moved here in the mid to late 1990s.

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