Found some more old British bricks today. They are from a building built around 1890. This is the back and front. It seems the Cliff and Sons from yesterday’s post, and Wortley FC and several other Leeds area refractories (Burmantofts Co, Edward Brook and Sons, Oates and Green Ltd, W. Ingham and Sons and Joseph Brooke and Sons.) were consolidated into the Leeds Fireclay Company in 1889.
From The Surveyor and Municipal County Engineer (1897)
On the conclusion of the Municipal and County Engineers’ conference there was a large addition of members who had been taking part in the Rivers Pollution Section’s meeting, and the whole party, numbering over 120, drove in brakes to the Royds works of Messrs. Joseph Cliff & Sons. The firm, as most of our readers know, is one of an amalgamation of the six old-established private firms, which make up the Leeds Fire-Clay Company, Limited, the other five being Messrs. W. Ingham & Sons, of Wortley, near Leeds; the Wortley Fire Clay Company, of Elland Road, Leeds; the Burmantofts Company, of Burmantofts; Messrs. E. Brooke & Son, of Huddersfield; and Messrs. Brooke & Son, of Halifax. All these firms were engaged in the manufacture of a variety of articles from fire-clay, four of them working with Wortley fire-clay and the remaining two that of the Halifax district. The range of products of the amalgamation, which has a capital of £1,000,000, is from red bricks up to glazed bricks of all colours, terra-cotta, baths, sinks and drain pipes, and the beautiful faience produced at the Burmantofts works, which is as remarkable for its delicate tones as for its beauty of design. The company possesses in its own right large areas of minerals, besides leases of further areas, amounting in the aggregate to something approaching 2,000 acres. The qualities of fire-clay are, it need hardly be said, much improved and enhanced by long exposure to the weather. For all goods this “weathering” is advisable, and for some it is indispensable. In view of this the company have at their various works upwards of 100,000 tons of clay stocked at the pit banks. The weekly output of the company is about 1,000,000 bricks—red, blue, fire bricks and glazed bricks—in addition to gas retorts and the terra-cotta sinks, baths, and, as we have already referred to, faience for external use in the construction of buildings is now being actively manufactured by the firm, and many examples in London and the provinces testify to the suitability of this glazed ware for our English climate. Egg-shell glazed terra-cotta, as used at Messrs. Brown & Co.’s Bank at Leeds, shows the most recent improvement at Messrs. Ingham & Sons in this direction, and the result cannot fail to satisfy architects. At the Health Exhibition at Leeds this glazed terra-cotta, it will have been noticed from the list of awards already published in The Surveyor, received a bronze medal.
The visitors to Messrs. Cliff’s branch of the Leeds Fire-Clay Company were received by Mr. W. D. Cliff, J.p., the chairman of the amalgamated firms, and were entertained at a champagne luncheon, given in a chapel, which for the nonce was made to serve as a dining-room. Their somewhat incongruous surroundings did not, however, prevent the visitors enjoying the repast. Mr. T. Hewson, city engineer of Leeds, and Mr. Cox, city engineer of Bradford, briefly proposed the toast of prosperity to their chairman and the huge organisation over which he presides; Mr. Cliff, in responding, making the interesting statement that, though the Leeds Fire-Clay Company has only been formed within the last eight years, the branch of it which was associated with the name of Cliff has existed for more than a century. Under the guidance of their host and his sons the visitors then went round the works, inspecting the colossal mound of clay which was in process of weathering, the making of bricks, channel bends, junctions, &c, in white glaze, and the building up of enamelled baths, closets, sinks, &c. In that busy hive it was easy to realise the magnitude of the output which the reputation of the firm has secured for their wares.
A visit was also paid to the works at Wortley of Messrs. William Ingham & Sons, another branch of the Leeds Fire-Clay Company. Here the visitors were met by Mr. Wm. Ingham, who first showed them the manufacturing of 24-in. pipes, a process that was watched with much interest. After passing through the drying sheds and examining the kilns, the shops where the Hassall joint is made was next reached, and the various stages were inspected with the keenest interest.
It is well-known that the best clay for pipe-making should be tenacious, porous and ductile in its raw state, as these qualities are severely tested in the process of manufacture. The mixture should be so prepared and pugged as to be able, when dried and fired, to retain with only a slight deviation the shapes imparted to it in moulding. The most essential features to be obtained in the raw material are toughness, tightness, impermeability, durability and strength, and the clay should be so finely ground that when finished the pipe shall possess a perfectly smooth surface throughout, the crust being thoroughly homogeneous and capable of resisting intense heat. The analysis of the Wortley clays shows that its composition is very similar to the Dorset clays, from which the stoneware pipes are made, but the former possess a mechanical condition which renders them less brittle. That all these features claimed for the Wortley clays are not illusory was demonstrated by a test that was made upon an ordinary 0-in. pipe taken from stock, and which did not collapse until the gauge indicated a pressure of 150 lbs upon the square inch. The capacity of these pipes for withstanding heavy loads was demonstrated by the placing of three 24-in. Hassall’s double-lined pipes completely jointed in a shallow trench in which no socket holes had been cut, so that the pipes were not supported in any way under the barrel. The centre pipe was loaded with 5 tons of pig iron clear of the sockets, and neither the crust of the pipe nor the joint showed the least trace of fracture. We are enabled to give a view of this test for breaking weight, and also of another that was made a short time ago, when the pipes were evenly bedded and socket holes cut. and it will be seen that the load successfully applied was 10 tons, which is equivalent to the weight that would be superimposed in refilling a trench 20 ft. deep. After viewing those tests the party proceeded to inspect the making of gas retorts, and were deeply interested in the process, especially with the easy and rapid way in which these deviations, 10 ft. 5 in. long, were handled and carried to the drying shed. An inspection of a variety of goods used in manholes and sewage tanks completed a most interesting and instructive visit, and Mr. Ingham was heartily thanked for his courteous and genial reception.
brickfrog 
I have found some pipe sections made and stamped by Wm Ingham and used, I believe, to form a pipeline to transport town gas from a small gas works to a nearby user. The works were built about 1850. The pipe sections are 2 feet long over the spigot and 8ins dia. I also found some old very rough bricks which seem to have been subject to a very high heat so were probably from the producer/retort at the works.I have photos but cannot see how to attach.