Staffordshire blue brick

The brick is made from the local red clay, Etruria marl, which when fired at a high temperature in a low-oxygen reducing atmosphere takes on a deep blue colour and attains a very hard surface with high crushing strength and low water absorption.

Brickworks were a key industry across the whole Black Country throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and were considered so important that they were designated as a reserved occupation during World War Two.

The Black Country was a major producer of clay for brickmaking, often mined from beneath the 30 foot Staffordshire coal seam.

[2] A key date is 1851 when the Joseph Hamblet brickworks were founded in West Bromwich, which became one of the largest producers of Staffordshire blue bricks.

Other sites produced these as well, including Albion in West Bromwich, Cakemore works at Blackheath, Springfield at Rowley Regis, John Sadler, Blades and New Century at Oldbury, Coneygre at Tipton, and Bentley Hall near Darlaston.