London Brick Company

The London Brick Company, owned by Forterra plc, is a leading British manufacturer of bricks.

History

The London Brick Company owes its origins to

The new company, for a while called L.B.C. & Forders, went on to acquire other brick firms in the end of the 1920s, giving it a dominant position in the Fletton brick industry. By 1931, the company was making a billion bricks a year. In 1935, output exceeded 1.5 billion bricks, or 60 per cent of the Fletton brick industry output, and peak pre war output reached 1.75 billion bricks.[1]

During the post war housing boom, Fletton brick sales increased, reaching a peak in 1967. Brick sales then began to decline, and the company diversified. London Brick Landfill was formed, and it began the tipping of household and industrial refuse into the old clay pits in the

Between 1968 and 1971, The London Brick Company also bought its three remaining Fletton brick competitors, including the Marston Valley Brick Company, giving it a total monopoly in the Fletton brick market. In 1973, its brick sales totalled 2.88 billion, or 43 per cent of the total brick market.[2]

In 1984, the company was acquired by

As of 2010, the brick market stood at 1.5 billion, with Fletton brick accounting for less than 10 per cent.[4]

Italian influence

Many

In addition to the Italian communities, workers from the Punjab region of India arrived in the 1950s and 1960s to work at the Stewartby brickworks, with 106 Pakistanis, 154 Indians and 46 West Indians working at the site by 1967.^[6] The majority of the Indians were from the Nawanshahr district of Punjab, and settled with their families in Bedford. A large number of Bangladeshi workers were continually recruited at the Newton Longville and Jubilee works during the 1960s to 1980s. They lived as a close-knit community, predominantly in Duncombe Street, Bletchley.

Operations

The company estimates that 5 million houses in the United Kingdom are built using Fletton brick.^[7]

References