Here at the Brickworks, management would arrange annual day trips for employees to the seaside – a pleasant reward and much needed short break for the men and their families. Here in the museum, we have two receipts for coach travel from 1921 and 1923 – both of which were donated in 2019 by a local man.

In 1921 we can see space for 126 passengers, and later in 1923 they had arranged for 111 passengers. These trips were evidently much appreciated by the employees!

In the earlier days, the travel would have been taken by horse and cart which inevitably transitioned to motorised transport as seen in the image on the right. Whilst these receipts do not reveal anything technical or practical about the workings of the Brickworks, they do demonstrate the strong sense of community amongst workers here who would often form close bonds over long hours of mining and hard manual labour.

Find out about life for the employees of the Brickworks on a visit to the museum.

This blog was written by Museum Volunteer Molly Hunter.