NINETEEN SIXTY FOUR – PART 37
Trelonk Brickworks, Cornwall
Michael L. Roach
I wrote quite recently that every brick has a story to tell and this instalment carries on the subject of bricks with particular emphasis on one particular Cornish brickworks because many railway enthusiasts are interested in unusual and esoteric subjects as well as railways. In Part 35 I wrote a lot about the Candy brick and tile works near Heathfield railway station. If you live in Devon or Cornwall and in a house built before about 1960 there is a very good chance that the drains serving the house and the sewer in the road were constructed using Candy's salt glazed earthenware pipes of 4-inch and 6-inch diameter respectively because Candy's were the major local manufacturer. The firm also used salt glaze on bricks to produce a glazed brick which were used to build public toilets etc.
Since moving into our present 1910-built house (which has Candy drain pipes and fittings) I have removed four cast iron firegrates. One of the part bricks removed from the rubble behind a firegrate was marked “TRELONK” which was one of the 70-odd Cornish brickworks that have ever existed; and in 2025 and for many years previously the number of brickworks in Cornwall is, I believe, zero. I did not know where Trelonk was but guessed that it was more likely to be a place rather than a surname.
Trelonk bricks were never common because the brickworks was only operational for about 15 years. The brickworks was located about three quarters of a mile south-west of the small village of Ruan Lanihorne (then all one word) and just west of Trelonk Farm on the north bank of a small creek at its junction with the River Fal at NG SW 886 412. There are no public footpaths in the area.
The brickworks had two beehive kilns connected to a square chimney (which it is believed still exists) and two drying sheds. It also had its own quay. The brickworks was located in a very sparsely populated area with the nearest public road some distance away. It would have been logical for much, if not most, of the output of bricks to leave by small sailing ship or river barge to be offloaded and used at the towns and villages on the banks of the river such as Falmouth, Penryn, St. Mawes and Truro. At Falmouth the docks had started to be developed from 1860 and was the logical place for Trelonk bricks to reach civilisation as the docks dealt with the loading/unloading of cargoes as well as the well-known ship repairs. The use of water transport is confirmed by a report in the Western Morning News for Monday 3 April 1893 which reads as follows:
“On Saturday evening a man named Prinie, of Ruanlanihorne, left Trelonk Brickworks with a barge laden with bricks, and proceeded down the Ruan River. As he did not return a search was made, and his body was found in the river near the barge, which was sunk. It is supposed the barge was overladen, and sank during a squall.”
I suspected that the dead man's name had been mis-reported. He was actually found living in Churchtown at Ruan Lanihorne. He was baptised Luke Ball Prime in 1835, one of four children; a married man with no children of his own. Apart from one census which I could not decipher Luke Prime was an agricultural labourer right through his life, including on census date 5 April 1891. Yet just two years later he is taking a sailing barge down the River Fal single-handed with day light fading. It sounds like a recipe for disaster, and it was because he was also deaf, and in one census dumb as well. I could find no other reports after 3 April 1893 except for one when probate was granted in the sum of £162. Because Luke Prime was expected to return home the same evening I am thinking that he did not have a huge number of bricks aboard his barge and he was not taking them very far. Perhaps this was one of multiple trips taking them to a quay where they could be stacked on the quayside to await the arrival of a larger sailing vessel. The quay that fits that bill was Roundwood Quay at NG SW 839 404. Roundwood Quay is just half a mile north of King Harry Ferry just off the main channel of the River Fal and could accept sailing ships up to 300 tons. It is about 3½ miles by water from Trelonk Brickworks to Roundwood Quay, which was built to export tin and copper ores.
The owner of the land where Trelonk brickworks was situated was one Arthur Tremayne of Carclew. A large house just off the A39 road at Perranarworthal. He signed a lease with the four partners of the enterprise in 1891 of whom the chief protagonist was John Truscott Paull of Trelonk (Farm). When the works closed 15 years later only one of the four was still involved and that was JM Bennetts the company secretary. The 1907 OS map, revised the previous year, shows the works as disused. On the opposite bank of the Tuckingmill Creek was a china clay works, also disused, which the OS wrongly annotated as a brickworks. I wondered where the brickyard workers lived as there were no houses nearby. Looking right through the 300-odd persons living in the village of Ruan Lanihorne produced interesting results. Of course there might have been workers living much further away but I found none in the adjacent parish of Veryan. In the 1891 census there were just 4 employees at the brickworks and all from the parish of Ruan. Two brickyard labourers aged 14 and 16 years, and two brick makers aged 23 and 28 years. Interestingly the brick makers both lived locally but both had been born in Wellington, Somerset which was famous for its brickworks. In the 1901 census the number of workers was similar at four employees but the men had changed completely. Living on site at the brickworks was foreman brickmaker William C Lobb (aged 32) with his wife and four children, and lodging with him was his brother Richard Lobb (25). Living in the village of Ruan was brickmaker William Baker (18) and in the adjacent village of Veryan was Robert Trevarton or Trevarthen who gave his occupation as bargeman. Before they worked here at the brickworks, and after it closed, all these workers gave their occupation as Ag. Lab. - agricutural labourer.
Now there is no point in making hundreds of bricks a day if you cannot sell them, and to do that they have to be transported to where they are needed; prices have to be competitive; and people have to be be persuaded to buy your bricks rather than your competitors. Here Trelonk faced an immediate problem as there was no road, and not even a footpath, to the brickworks. A few may have gone across fields and then by road to Ruan Lanihorne by horse and cart; but history records that the vast majority of the output travelled by water. For those bricks not being used in the towns and villages around the Fal estuary the logical place to take them was to Falmouth Docks where the sailing vessel could moor up against the Western Breakwater and the bricks put straight into railway wagons on the quay for transport elsewhere. In the Falmouth, Truro, Redruth and Camborne area Trelonk would have faced stiff competition from the St. Day Brickworks which had already been in business for 30 years before Trelonk started; but St. Day Brickworks closed soon after Trelonk in 1912. I suspect it was competition that closed Trelonk Brickworks after just 15 years; and transport difficulties would have played their part because of their dependence on the tides and on a rapidly silting river.
The village of Ruanlanihorne is situated on the Ruan River but just half a mile downstream the river met the River Fal. Turn right and go up the River Fal and in just a quarter of a mile is the normal tide limit but three miles further upriver is the small town of Tregony and the lowest bridge across the River Fal. A thousand years ago Tregony was a thriving and important inland port but silting of the river stopped the boats reaching Tregony some 500 years ago. As well as the normal silt that comes off fields the river was carrying waste from copper mining, tin mining and china clay extraction – the last right up into the 1960s. The results of all this debris being brought down the Fal over hundreds of years is plain to see in large areas of saltmarsh and large areas of silt at low water. A good way to see this, and everything else of interest, is to make the trip from Falmouth to Truro by pleasure boat, which is highly recommended.
There are some historians who say that the Trelonk Brickworks used a proportion of river silt in the manufacture of their bricks mixed in with the clay from their adjacent quarry. I wonder what the effect of the salt in the silt was on the strength and durability of the bricks. Not good I imagine. The London Daily Chronicle of 28 February 1906 carried a public notice that the Trelonk Brick and China Clay Company Limited was being voluntarily wound up and creditors should send their claims to the liquidator, a Truro accountant.
Less than half a mile west of Ruan Lanihorne on the minor road to Lamorran is a small quay just long enough and wide enough to park a couple of cars. This is a fascinating place to be an hour or two before high water as the water rises slowly higher and silently to cover the mud. The quayside is surfaced with bricks and a couple of granite mooring posts remain in-situ. We have enjoyed a couple of late afternoon picnics at this isolated spot which can be seen to good effect on streetview. It is called Hyde's Quay and was built in the late 1800s as the quay in the middle of Ruan Lanihorne silted up; which had itself replaced the quay at Tregony as that became silted up in the sixteenth century.
In conclusion I still cannot get my head around how a 58-year old man with problems could be expected to sail a barge down the River Fal single-handed with the attendant dangers of wind and tide. He would likely have had help to load the bricks on to the barge at the brickworks; and he may have been able to call on help to unload the barge at Roundwood Quay because there were a couple of properties nearby. He would surely need help to stack them on the quay because there would have been several hundred bricks each time. It is possible that Luke Prime was not a direct employee of the Trelonk Brickworks but an independent carrier paid by the load and willing to take risks. Unfortunately I could not find a newspaper report of the inquest.
Since moving into our present 1910-built house (which has Candy drain pipes and fittings) I have removed four cast iron firegrates. One of the part bricks removed from the rubble behind a firegrate was marked “TRELONK” which was one of the 70-odd Cornish brickworks that have ever existed; and in 2025 and for many years previously the number of brickworks in Cornwall is, I believe, zero. I did not know where Trelonk was but guessed that it was more likely to be a place rather than a surname.
Trelonk bricks were never common because the brickworks was only operational for about 15 years. The brickworks was located about three quarters of a mile south-west of the small village of Ruan Lanihorne (then all one word) and just west of Trelonk Farm on the north bank of a small creek at its junction with the River Fal at NG SW 886 412. There are no public footpaths in the area.
The brickworks had two beehive kilns connected to a square chimney (which it is believed still exists) and two drying sheds. It also had its own quay. The brickworks was located in a very sparsely populated area with the nearest public road some distance away. It would have been logical for much, if not most, of the output of bricks to leave by small sailing ship or river barge to be offloaded and used at the towns and villages on the banks of the river such as Falmouth, Penryn, St. Mawes and Truro. At Falmouth the docks had started to be developed from 1860 and was the logical place for Trelonk bricks to reach civilisation as the docks dealt with the loading/unloading of cargoes as well as the well-known ship repairs. The use of water transport is confirmed by a report in the Western Morning News for Monday 3 April 1893 which reads as follows:
“On Saturday evening a man named Prinie, of Ruanlanihorne, left Trelonk Brickworks with a barge laden with bricks, and proceeded down the Ruan River. As he did not return a search was made, and his body was found in the river near the barge, which was sunk. It is supposed the barge was overladen, and sank during a squall.”
I suspected that the dead man's name had been mis-reported. He was actually found living in Churchtown at Ruan Lanihorne. He was baptised Luke Ball Prime in 1835, one of four children; a married man with no children of his own. Apart from one census which I could not decipher Luke Prime was an agricultural labourer right through his life, including on census date 5 April 1891. Yet just two years later he is taking a sailing barge down the River Fal single-handed with day light fading. It sounds like a recipe for disaster, and it was because he was also deaf, and in one census dumb as well. I could find no other reports after 3 April 1893 except for one when probate was granted in the sum of £162. Because Luke Prime was expected to return home the same evening I am thinking that he did not have a huge number of bricks aboard his barge and he was not taking them very far. Perhaps this was one of multiple trips taking them to a quay where they could be stacked on the quayside to await the arrival of a larger sailing vessel. The quay that fits that bill was Roundwood Quay at NG SW 839 404. Roundwood Quay is just half a mile north of King Harry Ferry just off the main channel of the River Fal and could accept sailing ships up to 300 tons. It is about 3½ miles by water from Trelonk Brickworks to Roundwood Quay, which was built to export tin and copper ores.
The owner of the land where Trelonk brickworks was situated was one Arthur Tremayne of Carclew. A large house just off the A39 road at Perranarworthal. He signed a lease with the four partners of the enterprise in 1891 of whom the chief protagonist was John Truscott Paull of Trelonk (Farm). When the works closed 15 years later only one of the four was still involved and that was JM Bennetts the company secretary. The 1907 OS map, revised the previous year, shows the works as disused. On the opposite bank of the Tuckingmill Creek was a china clay works, also disused, which the OS wrongly annotated as a brickworks. I wondered where the brickyard workers lived as there were no houses nearby. Looking right through the 300-odd persons living in the village of Ruan Lanihorne produced interesting results. Of course there might have been workers living much further away but I found none in the adjacent parish of Veryan. In the 1891 census there were just 4 employees at the brickworks and all from the parish of Ruan. Two brickyard labourers aged 14 and 16 years, and two brick makers aged 23 and 28 years. Interestingly the brick makers both lived locally but both had been born in Wellington, Somerset which was famous for its brickworks. In the 1901 census the number of workers was similar at four employees but the men had changed completely. Living on site at the brickworks was foreman brickmaker William C Lobb (aged 32) with his wife and four children, and lodging with him was his brother Richard Lobb (25). Living in the village of Ruan was brickmaker William Baker (18) and in the adjacent village of Veryan was Robert Trevarton or Trevarthen who gave his occupation as bargeman. Before they worked here at the brickworks, and after it closed, all these workers gave their occupation as Ag. Lab. - agricutural labourer.
Now there is no point in making hundreds of bricks a day if you cannot sell them, and to do that they have to be transported to where they are needed; prices have to be competitive; and people have to be be persuaded to buy your bricks rather than your competitors. Here Trelonk faced an immediate problem as there was no road, and not even a footpath, to the brickworks. A few may have gone across fields and then by road to Ruan Lanihorne by horse and cart; but history records that the vast majority of the output travelled by water. For those bricks not being used in the towns and villages around the Fal estuary the logical place to take them was to Falmouth Docks where the sailing vessel could moor up against the Western Breakwater and the bricks put straight into railway wagons on the quay for transport elsewhere. In the Falmouth, Truro, Redruth and Camborne area Trelonk would have faced stiff competition from the St. Day Brickworks which had already been in business for 30 years before Trelonk started; but St. Day Brickworks closed soon after Trelonk in 1912. I suspect it was competition that closed Trelonk Brickworks after just 15 years; and transport difficulties would have played their part because of their dependence on the tides and on a rapidly silting river.
The village of Ruanlanihorne is situated on the Ruan River but just half a mile downstream the river met the River Fal. Turn right and go up the River Fal and in just a quarter of a mile is the normal tide limit but three miles further upriver is the small town of Tregony and the lowest bridge across the River Fal. A thousand years ago Tregony was a thriving and important inland port but silting of the river stopped the boats reaching Tregony some 500 years ago. As well as the normal silt that comes off fields the river was carrying waste from copper mining, tin mining and china clay extraction – the last right up into the 1960s. The results of all this debris being brought down the Fal over hundreds of years is plain to see in large areas of saltmarsh and large areas of silt at low water. A good way to see this, and everything else of interest, is to make the trip from Falmouth to Truro by pleasure boat, which is highly recommended.
There are some historians who say that the Trelonk Brickworks used a proportion of river silt in the manufacture of their bricks mixed in with the clay from their adjacent quarry. I wonder what the effect of the salt in the silt was on the strength and durability of the bricks. Not good I imagine. The London Daily Chronicle of 28 February 1906 carried a public notice that the Trelonk Brick and China Clay Company Limited was being voluntarily wound up and creditors should send their claims to the liquidator, a Truro accountant.
Less than half a mile west of Ruan Lanihorne on the minor road to Lamorran is a small quay just long enough and wide enough to park a couple of cars. This is a fascinating place to be an hour or two before high water as the water rises slowly higher and silently to cover the mud. The quayside is surfaced with bricks and a couple of granite mooring posts remain in-situ. We have enjoyed a couple of late afternoon picnics at this isolated spot which can be seen to good effect on streetview. It is called Hyde's Quay and was built in the late 1800s as the quay in the middle of Ruan Lanihorne silted up; which had itself replaced the quay at Tregony as that became silted up in the sixteenth century.
In conclusion I still cannot get my head around how a 58-year old man with problems could be expected to sail a barge down the River Fal single-handed with the attendant dangers of wind and tide. He would likely have had help to load the bricks on to the barge at the brickworks; and he may have been able to call on help to unload the barge at Roundwood Quay because there were a couple of properties nearby. He would surely need help to stack them on the quay because there would have been several hundred bricks each time. It is possible that Luke Prime was not a direct employee of the Trelonk Brickworks but an independent carrier paid by the load and willing to take risks. Unfortunately I could not find a newspaper report of the inquest.
Many thanks as always Mike. Your ability to dig out long-forgotten snippets of history is very impressive.
For more of Michaels articles, please click here.
For more of Michaels articles, please click here.
Welsh 37's
Phil 'Shattered' Smith
37042 and 37501 power into Newport Station back in 1992. Both locos happily still exist, 37042 under restoration at the Eden Valley Railway and 37501 in mainline service with Rail Operations Group. Copyright Phil Smith.
Cracking shot Phil, many thanks
Break time at Bodmin
Steve Clark
I took my meal break away from work to grab the New Measurement train and had a bit of luck at Bodmin General, as I caught newly overhauled 08444 doing some test runs.
GWR's 150266 and 150238 arrive with a Plymouth - Penzance service. 04.04.2025, copyright Steve Clark.
The last day in service as a blue unit for 150238. 04.04.2025, copyright Steve Clark.
43277 leads the PLPR (plain line pattern recognition) train through Bodmin Parkway en route to Paignton. 04.04.2025, copyright Steve Clark.
08444 at Bodmin General wearing a new coat of blue paint. 04.04.2025, copyright Steve Clark.
08444 takes a loaded test run with 'Denise' and 47306 in tow. 04.04.2025, copyright Steve Clark.
Many thanks Steve - blue going out and blue coming in!