Mrs Dorothy Rose Wickson, born 1896, lived at the junction of
Hurst Lane and Cumnor Hill. Her father, Mr Cooper, was the wheelwright at
Chawley Works. The brickworks made their own trucks for the rail to carry clay
and bricks. They also made wagons, timber trolleys, field gates and even
wheelbarrows. The blacksmith made the metal rim to go on the wagon wheels and Mr
Simms was the man who made the hubs of the wheels.
Mr Roy Wickson's uncle was the blacksmith. Fred Messenger senior was the last
man to make the sandstock bricks by hand with the wooden frames.
George Avery was Mr Tipping, the Estate manager's,chauffeur. Monty Sherwood was
in charge of timber. He was a decent sort of chap and was chosen to give the
school children their Jubilee Mugs - George V and Queen Mary 1935. One man went
by the name of Happy Allsworth, another Acky Simms - 'Acky' probably from the
straw and wooden hacks which covered the green bricks. Mr Lowe was the office
clerk.
The work was hard graft, especially digging clay and unloading the bricks from
the kiln in warm weather. Mr Wickson still had a clay cutting spade; the handle
was 18 inches long and the blade was ten inches wide at the top, tapering to
three inches. The men should have been provided with gloves for handling the
bricks but they used pieces of cut-up motor tyres. They threw buckets of
coldwater over one another to cool themselves on a warm day. The sand and
ballast for use at Chawley came from Standlake. The bricks were winched from
what is now Tyrrell' s field opposite the works down to the Farmoor Road. On the
return journey the trucks carried coal. The land on which Norreys Road now lies
was at this time farmland belonging to Lord Abingdon's Works estate, formerly
part of Brick Kiln Farm.
In the Great War 1914-18 some of the local men marched all the way to France and
at the end of the war they marched all the way home again.
A small laundry, a cottage industry, existed in Hurst Lane. The building still
stands, and the laundry was run by Mrs Dorothy Rose Wickson. Lord Abingdon's
linen was laundered here as well as that of other local gentry.
(Wickson family, recorded by Iris Wastie November 1983)