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Porthgain Brickworks

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NPRN40815
Map ReferenceSM83SW
Grid ReferenceSM8139032580
Unitary (Local) AuthorityPembrokeshire
Old CountyPembrokeshire
CommunityLlanrhian
Type Of SiteBRICKWORKS
PeriodPost Medieval
Description
The brickworks, together with Porthgain Harbour (NPRN 34343), is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. From about 1878 stone (slate, then granite) was regularly exported from Porthgain aboard the quarry company's six specially-built 350-ton coasters, and between 1902 and 1904 the harbour was enlarged to meet the demand of a flourishing trade. During the summer of 1909 one hundred and one shipments totalling 13,000 tons were made. There was a brickworks on site, and bricks for the hoppers were baked and later exported to Llanelli, with `seconds' shipped to Dublin. In the inter-war years trade did not recover sufficiently and the crushing plant closed in 1931. Today, the brick hoppers are protected and the harbour has become a haven for tourists and industrial archaeologists. Rock won from the coastal quarries above the port was transported by a network of tramways (NPRN 400062) to a crushing and grading plant just above Porthgain and operated by traction engines. The crushed rock was then fed down into a series of fine brick hoppers which flank the harbour, whence it was loaded onto cargo vessels moored beneath.

Sources include:
Driver, T. 2007. `Pembrokeshire, Historic Landscapes from the Air', RCAHMW, pg 110-111.

RCAHMW, 10 July 2013