Bradley & Craven Ltd

Bradley & Craven Ltd was a manufacturing company specializing in brickmaking machinery in Wakefield England.

It was founded in 1843 by two young engineers, William Craven and Richard Bradley to manufacture what was then revolutionary machinery for automating clay brick production.

Their 1853 patented ‘Stiff-Plastic Brickmaking Machine’ in combination with the Hoffman continuous kiln were responsible for changes in the industry which eventually saw a shift from hand craft to mechanized production.

[1] Their machines were manufactured at the Westgate Common Foundry in Wakefield and were sold throughout the United Kingdom as well as many oversees markets such as Australia, South Africa and Germany.

[4] However the name continued in use with a new private limited company of the same name incorporated on 1 October 1998 and dissolved on 30 July 2002.