Victorian Brickworks on the Outskirts of Stafford

During the 19th century, the expansion of Stafford spurred a high demand for building materials, leading to the establishment of several prominent brickworks around the perimeter of the town. These Victorian brickmaking operations were primarily located on the outskirts at Astonfields, Common Road and Tillington to the north, Lammascote to the east, and along Forebridge and Lichfield Road to the south. Positioned directly over substantial Mercia Mudstone (Keuper Marl) deposits and adjacent to rail and canal routes, these sites provided the red facing and common bricks essential for Victorian civic buildings, factories, and terraced housing.

Astonfields

Astonfields, located just north-east of Stafford, developed into the town's most concentrated industrial brickmaking hub during the mid-to-late Victorian era. Large clay and marl extraction pits operated along what is now Marston Road and Sandon Road. The area's proximity to the London and North Western Railway enabled kilns to bring in coal cheaply and distribute finished bricks across the Midlands. Pits in this sector operated deep into the late 19th and early 20th centuries before eventually being repurposed for municipal uses and light industrial development.

Common Road and Tillington

Directly north of the historic town boundary, the areas around Tillington and Common Road hosted multiple extraction yards and kiln complexes. The extraction of surface clays across the fringes of the Stafford Common supplied both standard red building bricks and agricultural drainage pipes. These operations expanded rapidly in the second half of the 19th century as residential terraces pushed northward toward Hopton and Marston.

Lammascote

On the eastern outskirts, bordering the marshlands and alluvium of the River Sow valley, brickworks operated off Lammascote Road and around the eastern approach to Lichfield Road. These yards made use of alluvial and underlying red marl clays. Because of their close location to the River Sow and early canal routes, the Lammascote yards were among the earlier Victorian sites to actively supply structural brickwork for the town's urban expansion before heavier industrialisation moved outward to Astonfields.

Forebridge and Queensville

South of the river, brickmaking took place on the outskirts along the southern roads toward Lichfield and Wolverhampton. Brick pits in Forebridge and near Queensville exploited hillside marl deposits along the railway cutting. These southern yards were vital in supplying the Victorian housing estates, schoolhouses, and commercial buildings that began to fill the land south of the River Sow during the mid-to-late 1800s.