These were sold under the name Hooper & Co. Edward soon saw an opportunity to set up a larger business and took out a lease on Baltic Wharf in Chapel Road.

Here he began trading as a builders' merchant selling all kinds of materials including their own bricks.

By 1885, Edward Hooper had died leaving the Ashby family to run both the brick-making and builders merchants businesses.

They started to explore options open to them and eventually settled on a site at Lower Swanwick.

The machine was run by a steam engine manufactured by John Wood & Sons from Wigan.

With the extra capacity, the brickworks was producing in excess of 20 million bricks a year.

[7] After the Second World War, the family business was amalgamated with the Sussex and Dorking Brick Company and in 1959 became Redland Holdings Ltd.

There was competition from the local market gardens (growing the strawberries for London) and the various boatyards on the River Hamble.

They ran approximately 15 miles a day with their barrows up and down the long corridors that divided the drying sheds.

This was the hardest job as the kiln chambers were still very hot and filled with the fumes from the coal burning.

[citation needed] The brickworks finally closed in 1974, and the site was later saved from demolition by the Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust.

[9] The north section was demolished and the land was acquired by the National Air Traffic Services.

In 2023 Historic England awarded the museum £246,000 to fund the replacement of the asbestos roof over the site's brick kiln.

[14][15] In 2022 the museum obtained permission from Fareham Borough Council to replace the asbestos roof over the brick kiln.

Likewise, Southampton Historic Steam and Engineering Society are based on the museum site.

They create two large steam based events each year with visiting traction engines.

The rear entrance on Coal Park Lane is for use by staff and volunteers at the site; it is also used for deliveries.

In July 2015, BBC Radio Solent presenter Nick Girdler visited the brickworks to unveil a new brick sculpture, affectionately known as the Twisted Shard.

He enlisted the help of some of his Southampton City College students to aid in the construction of the Twisted Shard.

[20] In January 2017, a five-minute segment on Bursledon Brickworks featured on Series 14: Episode 6 of the BBC One television programme Antiques Road Trip.

[21] A month later, the museum welcomed wine connoisseur Peter Richards from Saturday Kitchen.