Sand from pits in and around Leighton Buzzard and Heath and Reach proved to be suitable for the production of bricks and tiles used in the building industry. Manufacturers began to move into the area to take advantage of the readily available raw materials.
Arthur Blackman, a builder from Hastings, had some success with making bricks and tiles. After his friend Owen Aisher moved to Leighton Buzzard and founded Marley Tiles, he decided to do likewise and in 1935, set up Stonehenge Bricks Ltd at a site on Mile Tree Road, producing calcium silicate facing bricks made from sand and lime and employing 150 men. Lewis Emmett senior was one of these men he came from Manchester to be a manager, his son talks about that.
In 1949, a subsidiary company was set up on a site adjacent to the brickworks, manufacturing cement roof tiles.
The sand for the bricks was transported from the quarries to Stonehenge by the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway. The brickworks prospered, and in 1961 a brick press was purchased and the plant was modernised. However, by 1966, the number of bricks being produced decreased.
Whilst at the brick works William Cosby was asked from time to time to work for the Stonendge Tile factory so then few fears later he went to work there.
In 1974, the brick works was acquired by Redland Tiles. The Stonehenge plant outlived its usefulness and today is the site of the end of the line for the Leighton Buzzard Railway. Work on rolling stock is carried out here, and visitors can wander around the museum or take a cup of tea in the café.
