LMS Route: Rugby to Leamington Spa (Avenue)

LMS Route: Nuneaton to Leamington

LMS Route: Leamington to Weedon

Leamington (Avenue) Station: lnwrlave1380a

Close up of image 'lnwrlave1380' showing two Private Owner wagons, A Baker and S & E Collier, both of Reading standing in the exchange sidings. In all probability these wagons are transporting coal from the North Warwickshire coal fields as both companies would be heavy users of coal. Up to the out break of the Second World War employing ones own wagons was very cost efficient for any business that depended heavily on transporting either coal or finished goods.

Neil Scriven writes, S & E Collier Ltd, Reading’s largest brickmakers, were established at Coley in the mid 19th century moving to Grovelands, Tilehurst in 1870 where they operated until 1966. They were well known for their terracotta and ‘Reading Red’ bricks. Colliers also produced pottery marketed as ‘Silchester Ware’, which imitated the forms of Roman, Greek and medieval pots. Waterloo Kiln at Katesgrove was founded by John Poulton and produced Reading’s silver grey bricks, ridge tile, chimney pots and moulded bricks. This kiln was sold to S & E Collier in 1908. From the 1920s clay was carried in buckets on an aerial cable from the Collier’s clay pit near Norcot Road to their Grovelands brickworks.

back