| Brief Description |
This black and white photograph is a print made in 1958 from an original glass plate negative. It is of the Emeny and Lampitt Brick Kilns in Whanganui in 1892.
Sedgebrook Brick and Tile Works was founded by Alfred Emeny and Fred Lampitt in 1900, on a Bastia Hill site that boasted first class brick-making sandy clay. The business had two large downdraught kilns with a combined capacity of 58,000 bricks, extensive drying sheds (capable of holding 320,000 bricks) and an engine and machinery shed. The operation had an annual average output of 800,000 bricks, and could produce two million bricks a year at peak. From 1907 Sedgebrook also produced pipes and tiles. The tile-making house contained a pipe-making plant by Crabtree and Sons of Wellington, a ten-horse power engine, a fourteen-horse power tubular boiler (both by David Murray of Wanganui) and a wire cutting machine carrying thirty-two knives. There were also dedicated pipe and tile drying sheds on-site.
Emeny had taken over William Aitken’s brickworks at Okoia in 1892, which he later managed for Russell and Bignell before entering into a partnership with Lampitt to purchase the Okoia works. Sedgebrook Brickworks closed in 1959 and now has a new life as Bricksticks residence and arts space.
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