Fareham Brickworks at Peak Production

1870

By the 1870s, Fareham's brick-making industry had reached its peak, with multiple brickworks operating around the town and producing millions of bricks annually. Fareham Reds were used in prestigious building projects across southern England, including the Royal Albert Hall in London and numerous naval buildings in Portsmouth Dockyard. The distinctive warm red colour and the durability of the bricks made them a premium product. The railway had expanded the market beyond what water transport alone could serve, and bricks from Fareham were shipped to building sites across the south of England. The brickworks employed a significant portion of the local workforce, from clay diggers to kiln operators to carters and bargemen. The industry left its mark on the landscape, with clay pits, kilns, and associated buildings altering the terrain around the town. Some of these former workings have since been filled and built over, while others have become ponds or green spaces. The brick industry also shaped the social character of the town, creating a working-class community alongside the market town merchants and the agricultural workforce. Fareham was not solely a brick town, but the industry was its single largest employer and its most distinctive product. The gradual decline of the brickworks through the twentieth century, as machine-made bricks from larger operations elsewhere undercut the local product, changed the town's economic base fundamentally.