At first glance, the Tredegar brick is, well, a brick. But this particular brick actually offers a wonderful insight into the vital role of women in both brickmaking in Bursledon and, on a greater scale, the national war effort.

Following the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, workers at the Brickworks were encouraged by managing director Mr Herbert Ashby to join the military and do their part for the war effort. As a result, the Brickworks were faced with a shortage of workers and the site was forced to close temporarily in 1915.

Thankfully, the rise of women pursuing manually intensive jobs in place of the men away at war meant that the Brickworks took on its first ever female employees, allowing the site to reopen and thus continue operations for the remaining duration of the Great War (albeit on a smaller scale). In fact, we know that the Brickworks was requisitioned by the Ministry of Defence and used for the production and storage of ammunition. It is possible that the women employed at the Brickworks were tasked with actually placing the explosive material inside shell cases alongside their brickmaking duties – a particularly dangerous job given the toxic chemicals used in the production of the weaponry.

The Tredegar brick, donated to the museum in 2017 is part of the collection of J. Slater of York and originates from the Tredegar brickworks in South Wales. There are various interesting photographs of women working with the brickmaking equipment at the Tredegar brickworks available in the Imperial War Museum archive.

See the full display of objects that tell our 125 year history in the museum this year.

This blog was written by Museum Volunteer Molly Hunter.