This photograph, dated 1935, shows part of the old aerial ropeway here at The Brickworks Museum.

Originally, the clay was transported to the main buildings by cart as the clay pits were located close to the main buildings on site. Workers would oversee the running of this, standing on the back of the cart and using a wooden pole to slow the cart down when necessary. After the First World War, the distance to the clay pits had grown, prompting the Brickworks to bring in a small locomotive to help haul the clay. However, by 1939, the railway started to be phased out again thanks to the introduction of the shiny new aerial ropeway.

Erected by Whites and Sons of Widnes, the system included a series of pylons with a moving rope for carrying buckets of clay between the pits and the main buildings. The ropeway used specially designed buckets that, when triggered, would empty themselves into the feeding point of the brick-making machine. By the time of closing, the clay pits at Bursledon were located about a mile away from the main buildings, meaning that the aerial ropeway was a fairly efficient method of transporting clay as it both allowed the distance to keep growing and meant that the inconvenience of transporting clay over uneven terrain could be avoided.

Though forbidden, many local children would play in and around the clay buckets, daring one another to ride on the ropeway. Naturally, this was a perilous game as the machinery would have continued to run if the children hadn’t been unable to get out of the bucket in time. Although, this tomfoolery did not end with age. Worker Graham Tourle was sent home for three days as punishment for hitching a ride back from the clay pits on the aerial ropeway – a harsh penalty as his work would likely have been his family’s lifeline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Aerial Ropeway model and a later image on display in the museum today.

This blog was written by museum volunteer Molly Hunter.