Look after historic brick kiln, former owner tells the States
A HISTORIC brick kiln should be better looked after, a former owner of the site has said.
Michael Best, 81, can remember the brick kiln at Best’s Brickfield being in operation in the 1940s, as three generations of his family has run the site.
But the land and quarry on Les Mauxmarquis were sold to the States about 20 years ago and it is now home to Guernsey Water.
The kiln is a protected monument, but Mr Best felt the States had not been looking after it properly.
He first wrote to them in 2015 to raise his concerns about the kiln, which at that stage was covered in ivy and plants and even had a sapling growing out of the chimney.
‘People probably think it is not important, but there is no real written history of the industrial history of Guernsey,’ said Mr Best.
‘So it is important to look after them.
‘The only other brick kilns in Guernsey are the ones at Oatlands and they are conical kilns.’
He welcomed the removal of the weeds from the kiln and the announcement that Guernsey Water was looking for someone to carry out a condition and conservation assessment of the structure.
Mr Best’s grandfather and father ran the site, before he took over. But by then the site had stopped producing bricks and was focusing on other industrial work.
The kiln dates from the 1920s and was used until 1947.
‘It could hold about 1,000 bricks,’ Mr Best said.
‘The reason they stopped was the cost of importing coal – it became cheaper to import it from London.’
Mr Best was about 10 when the last bricks were fired, and he said he understood there was still a batch of unfired bricks in the kiln.
The clay for the bricks was mined just around the corner, near the Four Cabot.
It would take three days of constant tending to fire the bricks and workers would sleep on site to ensure the kiln stayed hot.
Only part of the structure can be seen above ground.
Part of the structure is subterranean, which would allow oxygen to reach all around the bricks.
