A handwritten note to David Haylock from the Essex Records Office refers to “a brick kiln at map reference 634373” which was operated by George Moore in 1842. The 1842 tithe map below does show a brick kiln and an adjacent four acre field named Brick Kiln Ground. The grid reference also ties up with the modern OS map, although this shows no trace of the kiln. Nor is the kiln shown on the 1880 OS map held by the National Library of Scotland, leading one to speculate that the kiln may have been demolished and the land ploughed up after George’s death, which we know to have been in 1879.
George Moore was also the village miller. The key to the 1842 map shows him as occupying the Miller’s House (next to the Church), as well as the acre of land known as Steeple Meadow now known as the Glebe (behind the Village Hall) and about ten acres to the south of Church Hill, where the windmill stood.
Here is a puzzle for readers to solve. There does seem to be a pattern of siting brick kilns near windmills. For example, Samuel Owen (1786-1857) painted Windmill and Brick Kiln on Riverside
Why should this be? Some mills had kilns for drying corn before grinding, but a ‘brick kiln’ does seem to suggest that it was actually employed for manufacturing bricks. Is there something in the technology that makes it expedient to combine these two professions? Send your thoughts to info@hempsteadhistory.uk