Brick-pits of Leicestershire

Leicester City once had thriving extractive industries
within its limits, but these have changed over the years as
workings have developed more within the surrounding
county. The extractive industries were the quarrying
of clay for brick-making, gypsum for plaster, sand and
sandstone for building, as well as limestone quarries
worked for lime, building stone and the manufacture of
mortar. Few traces of these are visible today. The brick
industry is therefore only one of many that worked the
ground in the city and county. Surveys of Leicester’s
industries for the British Association meetings of 1907,
1933 and 1968 (which were held in Leicester) make
little mention of brick making, but there are records of
much earlier production (McWhirr, 1997).