By Cathy Jones 2021
Local and regional demand for building construction supported the many brickworks in the inner west including Strathfield South and Greenacre. Firms such as Strathfield and Enfield Steam Brickworks, Lion Tile Company and Western Suburbs Brick and Tile Company Brickworks operated close to the Cooks River in southern Strathfield.
Until the 1970s, the vast majority of Sydney’s bricks were manufactured within the inner west, which had an abundance of clay in the form of Wianamatta Shale and access to fresh water. The Wianamatta beds, which lie above the Hawkesbury sandstone of Sydney, produced clays which were predominantly red and brown.
Some of the early English migrants in the Strathfield district had worked with clay and operated small pottery and handmade brick yards. One of the walls at St Thomas Anglican Church Enfield features local handmade bricks. Handmade bricks which were dried in the sun rather than kiln-burnt.
With the expansion of residential development In the Strathfield district, the demand for building materials increased. The availability of increasingly better quality bricks influenced architecture of the period supporting the brick faced Federation and Interwar bungalow styles. The dominance of brick in building was mandated in Strathfield by the Council building codes from 1920 that forbade the use of materials other than brick with slate or tile roofing in new building construction.
A number of brickworks and tile companies were located and serviced the local area including the Western Suburbs Brick and Tile Company, Dean Street Strathfield South; Strathfield and Enfield Steam Brick Company, Water Street Strathfield South; Lion Tile Factory, Liverpool Road Enfield and Eagle Brickworks, Juno Parade, Greenacre. All the former brickpits were filled and remediated and are now occupied by either parkland or industrial sites.
Strathfield and Enfield Steam Brick Company
The Strathfield and Enfield Steam Brick Company was located in Water Street Strathfield South. It was one of the largest brickworks in the district. The company began production in 1892 and produced bricks, tiles and pottery. The Company was managed by Henry Garratt until his death in 1930. Garratt was also the licensee of the Castlereagh Hotel in Sydney. The Strathfield and Enfield Brickworks supplied most of the bricks for the thousands of brick bungalows and cottages built before WWII to house the growing population of the Strathfield district. The Company produced a wide variety of bricks including fancier styles used at Santa Sabina College and Mount Royal (now Australian Catholic University).
The bricks from this brickworks were dry pressed and marked with Enfield or Garratt brick pressing.
Like many other brickworks in the area, this company closed with the collapse of building construction in the 1930s Depression. The brickworks remained closed until 1950. Shortages of building materials after WWII, promoted a boom in private building construction and NSW Government programs for large scale public housing projects.
The Strathfield and Enfield Brickworks was reopened in 1950 by the Co-operative Brick Tile Works Ltd, a subsidiary of the NSW. Group of Co-operative Building Societies, which was committed to building of new brick homes. It was estimated that old brickworks could produce 150,000 bricks per week. However, within two years, the Brickworks was resold and closed permanently.
