16/08/2025
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗕𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹 🧱 ⛏
You wouldn't know it today but at one point in time, millions upon millions of bricks were made in Barrmill each year - being used in construction projects all around Scotland.
The history of brickmaking in the area begins with Robert Mackie, of Craigview (Craigvue), Beith, who was a multi-talented jack of all trades and coal master of one. He hailed from Kilbirnie and moved to Beith to establish a grocery at The Cross, later entering into partnership with John Laird, farmer of Barrhill, Kilbirnie, in 1881, to become the joint-owners of the Barr Coal Company.
The company extracted coal from two pits at Barr Colliery, a long-since forgotten about mine located inside the DM Beith fencing, around half a mile south-west of South Barr farm. This household coal and steam coal was sold by Robert in his shop and further afield.
Sometime around 1888, the Barr Coal Company began producing fireclay bricks, known for their heat resistance, and speciality eight-square deep pavers. Robert ordered the building of the Braefoot double tenement in Barmill (facing uphill to the mines), to house both miners and brick labourers from the colliery.
His family was deeply tied to industry. In 1883, Robert's brother David Mackie had a narrow escape when Wilmington and Vermillion Colliery in Illinois flooded, killing several men who had emigrated there from places like Barkip and Beith.
Robert's son Jim Mackie (1885-1968) worked for the Eastern Coal Company in Bihar, which supplied coal for ships of the Peninsular and Oriental Shipping Company in Indian ports.
He was also likely related to John Mackie (d.1885), the Glengarnock postmaster who was manager of the Barr Coal Company, and John's son, the Rev. James Mackie. Both are interred at Beith Cemetery.
In 1895, in a kindly gesture perhaps motivated by David's experiences in the pits, he subscribed to the Auchenharvie Colliery Disaster Fund.
Later listed as Mackie's Brickworks, Beith, it is thought that the operation closed down in 1902. Mackie brickmakers are recorded in the Falkirk area in later decades.
Going even further back in time, William Wilson was recorded at Thirdpart, near Barrmill, in 1837, as a brick and tilemaker to trade.
The brickmaking mantle was then taken up by the owners of Dockra Quarry, worked for its limestone from 1873-1914 and again from 1942-1958. This is not to be confused with the Dockra Ironstone Pit, on the same land slightly south-east, which at its peak employed over 100 men in 1908.
Dockra Pit was worked from 1897-1921, creating a huge shale and spoil bing behind the Holy Land and Love's Buildings, taller than a house.
According to the Scottish Brick History website, Dockra bricks were made with a frog, from crushed limestone, using a Sutcliffe Press - later moving over to frogless versions. The Dockra Lime Co. Ltd. initially produced a grey-silver brick.
Apparently builders hated using them, as the bricks tended to move on their cement base, and only a few courses could be made at a time while allowing them to set!
John Noble Farrar, of Penrith, re-opened Dockra Quarry in 1942 for the manufacture of ground limestone, featuring a distinctive white and pale cream colour. In 1948 he moved all quarrying and brickmaking operations to Old Mill Farm, Highgate, just off the A736 near Lugton. In later life he became a Justice of the Peace for the County of Cumberland.
Dockra Lime Co. Ltd. was then taken over by Edenhall Concrete Products, also of Penrith, the UK's largest brickmakers, who introduced a new press to create finer-cut red bricks with textured finishing.
In the late 1950s, the Dockra Pit bing - remembered by many youngsters of the day who climbed up it to fly their kites - was removed and used in the construction and expansion of the Royal Naval Armaments Depot (DM Beith/The Admiralty).
By 1958, more than five million Dockra bricks were made each year in the Barrmill area. It is likely that some of the old pit buildings were repurposed as storage.
From at least 1959 and possibly earlier, Dockra facing bricks were made in silver-grey, buff and red, being solely distributed through Taylor Brothers (Dundee) Ltd., who had a sales office in St. Enoch Square, Glasgow.
In May 1967, Dockra Brick Company was given a substantial facelift, costing £125,000, with new automated machinery installed to double production. Combined with Edenhall Concrete in Colne, Lancashire (a sister company), they produced 36 million bricks per year!
Examples of Dockra buildings are hard to come by but sources state that the gables of Ogilvie Primary School, Easterhouse, were built using Barrmill-fired bricks.
By the time of the 1975 OS map, there was one small square building left at the Barrmill storage site, formerly the Dockra Pit - which unusually does not correspond with the remains of the lone brick and concrete structure that is there today.
In June 1981, James Lamb, aged 38, of Hawthorn Crescent, Beith, was electrocuted at "Dockra Brickworks, Glasgow" and sadly died. It seems likely this would have happened at the Old Mill site but I could be wrong.
The Dockra Brick Company continued manufacturing well into the early 1990s, after which the Old Mill Quarry was acquired by
Howie Minerals Ltd. (who had long-standing permissions to quarry limestone there).
The Howie business has traded under the business of Leiths Scotland Ltd. and in the name of Lugton Lime since April 2013. The site, employing around 7 people, is now the main source of raw material for the nearby Lugton works which manufactures limestone filler used as an anti-stripping agent in asphalt as well as agricultural lime products.
On a recent reccy to the old Dockra Brickworks in Barrmill we managed to head home with a locally-fired brick but most of the land has been cleared of historical debris.
