ETNA BRICKWORKS
Date 30 January 2012
Event ID 884163
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/884163
Etna Brickworks, Bathville, Armadale, West Lothian (NS96NW 25; NS 94450 67940)
In operation c. 1897-December 2011, undergoing demolition 2012
Etna Brickworks, latterly owned by Carradale Brick Company (along with Carluke’s Mayfield Brickworks) went into liquidation in mid-November 2012. The machinery taken for scrap/reuse was removed by the end of January 2012. Demolition was underway by the week of 23rd January 2012. Miriam McDonald of RCAHMS visited the site on 30th January 2012 as part of the Threatened Buildings Industrial Survey project. The information gathered was added to the material already held at RCAHMS from the Scottish Industrial Archaeology Survey in the 1980s as part of the Brick, Tile and Fireclay industries recording project (MS 500/57/8).
In 2012, the partially cleared Etna site consisted of a Hoffman Continuous Kiln (NS94469 67952, 1964, 18 chambers and modified to 28, gas-fired, modified to allow fork lift trucks to set the kiln for firing and originally referred to as No.3 kiln, MS/500/57/8); an Intermittent Kiln of recent design (NS94484 67971) built roughly on the site of the former kiln no. 4 (16 chamber, circa 1898, demolished 1982); a Pan House/Machine Wing, and a 1980s drier and brick making buildings on the site of Kilns 1 and 2 (10 chamber Hoffman kilns, 1890s, demolished).
The Pan House/ Machine Wing contained three pan mills which had been dismantled. The four Hoppers were connected to the three pan mills (Hopper no.1 appeared to have been disconnected but unclear how it functioned). The raw material store and hopper shed (NS94434 67866) and the Crusher House (NS94419 67903) had been demolished along with the covered conveyor carrying the crushed material to the eight ‘Fawcett’ hoppers in the south end of the Machine House. The material from these eight hoppers was then fed to the pan mills. There was also another pan mill base with bucket elevator in the west extension with its two Hoppers (5 and 6) and the west end of the Pan House/Machine Wing. This fourth pan mill was fed by conveyor from the south end of the raw crushed eight hopper range. The Pan House/ Machine Wing appear to have always been located on this site, although it has since been modified extensively according to Ordnance Survey map evidence (Ordnance Survey, second and third editions, 6-inch county map (Linlithgowshire, 1898 and 1917, sheet IX SW)).
All of the die and cutter machines had been removed from the building immediately to the north of the Pan House/Machine Wing. The roof of the 1964 modified Hoffman kiln remaining (there had been another three until the 1980s) had been removed and was partially collapsing at its north and south ends. The Intermittent Kiln was undergoing dismantling on the date of visit. The late 20th century Office and Mess Room areas were intact, although interiors had been ransacked.
Visited by RCAHMS (MMD), 30 January 2012.
