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At the end of the 18th century, London was rapidly expanding, and a great deal of building material was needed. Since there was no local stone and not yet any railways to bring stone in, and since wooden buildings had been outlawed in London since the Great Fire, bricks had to be made from local clay. Fortunately, London had suitable clay in abundance. My research shows that my Cole ancestors were heavily involved in the production of bricks and tiles for the London building industry at this time. This page is about their involvement in north London, then Middlesex. It documents, the starting points for my research; the research itself, my interim conclusions and the outstanding questions. |
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| My first step to find out more was to visit the Islington Archives to
find out about the Tile Yard Road in Miller's notes. I learnt from various old maps that in the period concerned
(the late 1790s to early 1800s, ie just before and after Daniel's
service in Nelson's Navy), the road did not exist. There were kilns
there in the open fields and presumably an undocumented track running up
to them. This was later named Tile Kilns Road, was renamed Tile Yard
Road in 1897 and is now Tileyard Road (E. Willats, 1987, 'Streets
with a story: the Book of Islington')
I next consulted various old books on the area, in particular William Pink's 'History of Clerkenwell' (1881, but recently reprinted), and 'A Victorian History of the County of Middlesex: Volume VIII' (1985).
It is always possible that Daniel or his family owned the kilns in Tileyard Road, but the archives provide no evidence of this or indeed of any owners that early. 'A Victorian History' notes that in the 1770s the nearby area of Maiden Lane was made unattractive by its proximity to the Fleet river [now subterranean] and the trades that had gathered there, including a pottery. The Victorian History implies that the original Maiden Lane was quite long. The current Maiden Lane is a very small off-shoot of the original which was renamed York Way around 1850 when the street layout altered with the coming of the railway. There was a Randall's kiln works in the area, but it was probably so named after Daniel's time. The workers' cottages, Randell's Cottages, in Maiden Row, off Maiden Lane, were built before 1841. (This information is courtesy of John Green who is looking for William Brown born about 1808 in Hertfordshire and resident at the cottages in 1845. William was not there in 1841). Randall's kiln works gave their name to Randell's Road which is just south of Tileyard Road. Interestingly there is a road called Brandon Road just north of Tileyard Road. Brandon is a Cole family name. Elizabeth Brandon married E G Cole and and the name was then perpetuated in the given name of their son, Sidney Brandon. According to A History of the County of Middlesex (1985), the road was so named after a Samuel Brandon who owned land there as well as elsewhere in England. There may have been a connection between him and Elizabeth Brandon. My conclusion about Daniel Cole's band of workers is in agreement with a letter written by my uncle which said that potters used to move from one place to another working out small pockets of land and then moving on. My uncle was often at the White Hart Lane Potteries as a child and doubtless picked the information up from the family. |
At the moment, the evidence suggests the following interim
conclusions, which may need revision as additional data comes to light:
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There is obviously still more to learn from whatever can still be gleaned from the old records, but some particularly tantalising questions remain:
See also the Cole family's contribution to the expansion of south London. |
version date: 18 March, 2008
I
learnt that the early to middle 1800s was a period of rapid and major
building expansion in and around London - so much so that villages such
as Islington which were well outside London at the beginning of the
century had become part of a continuous and much larger 'greater' London by the
end of the century. The books made the link between the use of bricks,
the lack of natural London stone, the lack of railways and the outlawing
of wood for main construction following the great fire of 1666. So the clay from designated
building sites all over London was used to make bricks, and kilns were a
common sight, with their smoke and pollution dominating in every
direction. The painting shows an unnamed kiln works in the area of
Islington/Clerkenwell/Somerstown/St Pancras around 1830.
It
seems that numerous small bands of brickmakers clustered around the edge
of the ever-expanding London, working out small plots of land and taking
their produce along to the nearest kiln for firing. Presumably Daniel
Cole and his