22167

 

II  

Designated  

20/08/1999  

20/08/1999  

Kiln block at former Bryn Brickworks  

 

Neath Port Talbot  

Bryn  

 

Cwm Cerwyn  

282841  

191683  

 

Approximately 1.7km SE of Bryn village in a field on N side of the former Port Talbot Railway.  

Industrial  

Victorian  

Bryn Brickworks was constructed after 1894 and continued production into the 1920s. The kiln block stood at the SE end of the works adjacent to a siding of the Port Talbot Railway. The clay preparation and drying sheds do not survive. The kilns are typical of a small brickworks of the late C19 or early C20 as they are intermittent, i.e. they were allowed to cool after firing, in contrast to continuous kilns, which had numerous chambers and where the heat was maintained. The kilns were linked with a pair of round chimney stacks, neither of which have survived, which demonstrates that they were of the downdraught type.  

A long low kiln block of battered brick walls comprising a pair of intermittent downdraught kilns, in a ruinous condition with vegetation on the upper surface. In the south wall is a recessed bay in which there are opposed wide arched openings to the kiln chambers. Both arches are partly blocked and have narrower lintelled doorways inserted. Flanking the recessed bay the south wall has, to the L, 3 arched stoke holes and wickets (doorways allowing access to the kiln by the setters), one with a later lintel, and 2 wickets and stoke holes to the R. The angles are chamfered with further stoke holes. The W and E end walls also have a single stoke hole and a wicket. In the N wall are 5 stoke holes and 7 wickets.  

Each kiln consists of an L-shaped tunnel-vaulted chamber.  

Listed as a rare survival in S Wales of a kiln type typical of a small late C19 brickworks.