The Crown Bottle Works and Crown Brick Works

On the left is the 1888 ordnance survey map (from and 1879-82 survey) for part of Shirehampton, which shows the location of the bottle and brick works.  The revised edition for 1912 shows neither works.  The area is now part of Avonmouth.  The site of the glass works would later have Crown Terrace (with 8 houses) and Glass Street.  The site today is occupied by the Avon Bank Industrial Estate, which is off Victoria Road.

The site of the brick works is now within Lamplighter's Park and when I visited the area in May 2006 the park was very overgrown, which prevented any detailed investigation.  They were still signs of a rail line and old concrete bases near the industrial estate, but these probably refer to later use of the site.  The brick works may have been superseded by a lead works and then an iron works.  See Down the 'Mouth - A history of Avonmouth, by Ethel Thomas, privately published in 1981.

The brick works was obviously in use by 1851 as the census of that year refers to John Church, aged 36, brickmaker; Henry Church, 12, brickmaker's assistant; and George Milliner, 24, brickmaker (he lodged with the Church family).  The brick works made both stoneware and drain pipes, as the 1861 census lists William Rich, 38, stoneware potter, John Poole, 33, and James Townsend, 24, both drain pipe makers.  Charles Jones, 35, was a brickmaker, and George Rowley (or Howley) was a labourer and brickmaker.  Brickyard labourers were Henry Workman, 29, Robert Taylor, 24, Charles Sharron, 28, John Ellis, 17, John Watts, 14, Thomas Wilkins, 23, Edward Roth, 14, George Flower, 21, and Thomas Yates, 21.  The 1871 census lists J Townsend, and brickmaker, and Alfred Tucket, 66, of Myrtle Hall as a brick and tile maker.  The 1881 census describes Alfred Tuckett (still at Myrtle Hall) as retired, Jared Stride, 50, 39 Station Road, a partner in the Crown Brick Co.; and Edmund Stride, 56, 38 Station Road, brickmaker.  There are no entries in the 1891 census.  Alfred Tuckett may have been the person who made drain pipes and tiles in Warmley, which he advertised in the Bristol Mirror on 23rd September 1848 and 8th December 1849.

The Bristol trade directories list the Bristol Crown Bottle Co. Ltd. for 1880-86, with an office in 26 Nicholas Street.  The entries for 1884-86 also give the works location as Shirehampton.  It also appears in Kelly's Gloucestershire directories for 1879 and 1885 (other directories are missing), both entries give the managing director's name as Nelson Fedder.  The only census having any information is 1881.  It lists Arthur C Brown, 14, a checker in the bottle works; Thomas Barber, 46, Thomas Lancastle, 26, glass bottle blowers; John J Fletcher, possibly 18, Richard Sykes, 35, glass blowers; Richard Snell, 35, William K Price, 30, glass bottle makers; Michael Wood, 40, glass stopper maker; and Alfred H Hywell, 29, packer of glass bottles.  Five of the workers were born in Yorkshire and one in Derbyshire.  The 1851 census lists Joseph Watkins, 21, as a labourer in a glasshouse, but presumably he travelled into Bristol to work.