The mid 1800s saw an astoundingly rapid increase in housing, not only in Addiscombe and Croydon but indeed throughout the whole of London. So where did all the bricks needed for this work come from?

The area around Woodside stood on best quality London Clay, ideal for brick making. Brickworks sprung up. First to cash in on this new commercial opportunity was Thomas Mayhew, a local yeoman farmer, who in 1810 opened brickworks in a field off Dickensons Lane, where Thomas Becket School now stands, which he subsequently let to Edward Mayhew.

These brickworks closed in 1856. Other brickworks included Messengers brickworks (1838-44) on the west side of Portland Road where the Vitriol Works were later built, Murdock and Wrights brickworks (1867-75) in Brick Meadow off Black Horse Lane.

Most significant for our area were the Handley brickworks. The first opened in Freemead in the 1880s as Horris (or Horris Parks) brickworks. In 1910 they were bought by Edward Handley and renamed Handleys. Two strata of clay existed at the site. Initially the top layer was excavated, which produced yellow London stock bricks. Examples of similar (earlier) London stocks can be seen in many of the Victorian houses in Canning Road.

The lower strata comprised blue clay. Edward devised a method of baking bricks so they burnt to red and provided excellent semi-engineering and facing bricks. The red bricks were used to build much of West Wickham, Coney Hall, Elmers End and Shirley where a strong brick was needed on soft subsoil. The bricks were also sent as far as Southend, Eastbourne and Brighton.

The Handley brickworks were closed during the Second World War. Edward Handley (son of Mr Handley, who then owned the brickworks) remembered being on holiday with his parents in Arnside, Westmoreland, when his father received a telephone call from the manager of the brickworks, Jack Milsted, to say that a V1 doodle bug had landed in one of the clay pits. The rocket had cut out over the brickworks and glided between two chimneys before exploding in the clay pit.

The kilns were emptied and used for billeting Canadian soldiers. It was here that part of the plans for the Normandy landing were prepared. The Germans evidently marked out the brickworks as a target and dropped more than 8,000 incendiary bombs on them.

The Handley family lived nearby in Woodside. Edward Handley senior used bricks from his works to construct an air-raid shelter for his family. His son, Edward, remembers being in the shelter and hearing extraordinary noises followed by explosions. In the morning they would view the damage done by bombs. Edward Handley, meanwhile, adapted to the circumstances of the Second World War and started a successful company hiring out machines, such as excavators and dumpers, needed for clearing war-damaged sites.

After the war, bricks were again in demand. Edward Handley died in 1946 but had formed a trust by will and the trustees re-opened the brickworks. Although production never returned to the one million bricks per week mark, 400,000 were being produced in the 1950s and 60s providing employment for 200 men. The company was renamed Woodside Brickworks, although the family retained control.

Hall and Co bought the Woodside Brickworks in 1963 and then sold it to Ready Mixed Concrete. Production of bricks ceased in 1974 and the buildings were pulled down. Houses were then built on part of the site. A section of the brickworks site remains today as a green area.

This extract is taken from The Book Of Addiscombe by the Canning and Clyde Road Residents Association and Friends. The book is priced £19.95 including post and packing.

To obtain a copy, call Steve Collins on 020 8656 7334 or email him on steve@rtal.demon.co.uk