T H E D E R E L I C T M I S C E L L A N Y
Brockham Narrow Gauge Museum
Formerly
Brockham Lime and Hearthstone Works.
During the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries the hills above Brockham were intensively quarried. With three distinct types of geology within metres of each other it was the ideal place for extractive industry. Brockham had clay for bricks, hearthstone for stone whitening and building and chalk for lime. None of these resources are exploited today, the last quarrymen and limeburners left seventy years ago, leaving behind a complex layout of quarries, tramways and buildings which have now all but disappeared. The Brockham quarries are also famous (well, amongst industrial history and railway buffs at any rate) for their thirty year spell as a museum from the 1960s to the 1980s, which was the main reason for me wanting to go there in the first place.
The main limeworks area is immediately below the chalk quarry face and comprises two batteries of kilns, two brick buildings and a newer bungalow. The hearthstone mines were mostly located south of the main works area, and Crabtree brickfield was further south near the main railway line.
CRABTREE BRICKFIELD
By 1866 the Crabtree Brickfield was operated by Messrs Batchelar and Fenton, and by 1890 by The Brockham Brick Co. Ltd, which closed it in 1911. [1] Only the pit and spoil tips remain, now used as part of a motocross track. No pictures of this one I'm afraid, one because we didn't fancy being mown down by the mudspattered hordes of quadbikers who were swarming round it, and two because we strongly suspected that there wasn't actually anything there to see but a big pond and some funny looking hillocks.
HEARTHSTONE MINES
It's interesting how much of a difference eighty years can make. Hearthstone, used as building stone and for whitening hearths and window-sills was once an important economic product, [2] but now you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who's actually heard of the stuff, (even Google can't turn up anything relevant but some would say that's nothing new). It was mined (technically speaking the term is 'quarried' but seeing as the sources all use the term 'mining' I'll stick with it) underground in the Upper Greensand, probably beginning in the Nineteenth Century. The entrances to the Brockham mines were south of the limeworks, but have all been blocked. A circular brick lined shaft in the centre of the limeworks is the most visible and accessible of the remains. The mines closed in 1898 but reopened in 1904 for a further 21 years until February, 1925 and have not been worked since. [3]
BROCKHAM LIMEWORKS
The Brockham Limeworks probably grew up in the first half of the Nineteenth Century, and by 1866 was operated by Messrs Elsdon, Swan & Day. The Brockham Brick Co. Ltd under the management of Alfred Bishop owned the works in 1890 and continued to do so until 1911 when the company was wound up, so management passed to the Brockham Lime & Hearthstone Co. Ltd. [1] An extensive system of narrow gauge tramways, initially horse powered, served the quarries and a standard gauge railway track, added later ran from a private siding off of the main line. The latter brought in coal and took lime away to be sold. The steep incline between the siding and the quarry was worked by a Filmer and Mason steam haulage engine built in Guildford in 1874 and housed in a shed beside the eastern battery of kilns. The Brockham Lime and Hearthstone Co. Ltd. continued to operate the limeworks until the summer of 1936. [4] The works stood disused until 1961, when he Narrow Gauge Society realised the potential of the old limeworks with its extensive system of both narrow and standard gauge rail tracks as a museum. In 1962 after clearance and extensions to tracks and buildings, the Brockham Museum opened with Townsend Hook, a 3' 2¼" gauge Fletcher Jennings 0-4-0 side tank engine as its centrepiece. [5] Unfortunately in 1984, complications with the site meant that the museum had to close. Its collection was relocated to Amberley Chalk Pits Museum in Sussex, where it is on permanent display, much of it in running order.
Limekilns
The two banks of limekilns were in use from the mid Nineteenth Century and stand about 100 yards apart. The western battery, now mostly collapsed included a pair of Bishop's patent kilns either side of a central access tunnel.
The eastern battery contains eight kilns, now encased in scaffolding and used as a bat sanctuary. The kilns were originally all of the mixed feed flare type with a central access tunnel for loading and unloading, but the northernmost two kilns were rebuilt to Bishop's Patent in 1890. [4]
Buildings
Two former museum buildings stand derelict in the works area. The first of these appears to be a shed or workshop with big double doors. Adjoining the main room was a plant room on the right - or so we guessed from the square hole in the wall that seems to have had some kind of shaft running through it. Another, not very square, hole in the wall led into the plant room which had a big box in it and a locked door, so we climbed back out again.
The second building was more interesting, and seemed to be a large workshop, shed and offices rolled into one. Tracks had been set into the floor in several places, and it looked like someone had had a fight with a selection of poster paints against one of the walls.
The large site is now used for leisure and wildlife purposes, Motocross enthusiasts have taken other some of the spoil tips and the old brickworks site and Surrey Wildlife Trust has the remainder, 110 acres, which is open to the public. Interestingly, the remains of these industries which had such an dramatic impact on nature when in use have proven a haven for wildlife in disuse, the white chalk face reflects heat and light into the quarry, meaning it is warmer here than in the surrounding areas. The alkaline soil has also helped many rare plants to become established here, while the limekilns are inhabited by several species of bat. [4]
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