Over the past two weeks, we’ve been looking at buildings built using products from Tuckers, the brickmakers from Loughborough - Part 1, Part 2. This week we continue looking into some of the buildings constructed post-1934.
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| Advert from 1957 |
According to an article in the Nottingham Journal in 1935, the new St Cyprian’s church in Nottingham had many remarkable features, one of which was the use of a tasteful variety of bricks, rather than stone. The Portland cement, produced at Barnstone in the Vale of Belvoir, was used to complement the many thousands of handmade bricks, especially made to the architect’s particular design. The company who produced these bricks was G. Tucker and Son of Loughborough, who made their ‘tudorstyl’ facing bricks in a variety of colours, and these were used exclusively on both the exterior and interior.
As well as the facing
bricks, Tuckers also supplied the ‘Loughborough’ handmade sand-faced roofing
tile. This new church building, costing around £8,500 to build, was designed by
local architect C. E. Howitt of the firm of John Howitt and Sons, and was in a
modern gothic design, able to seat around 400 people. The new church complemented
an earlier building of 1913 which had become too small for the burgeoning
population of the Sneinton area of Nottingham, the latter now being used as the
church hall. There is a small bell hung in
an external bell frame on the north wall of the church, which is used for swing
chiming. Coming in at 20 inches, the bell is dated 1913, and originally hung in
the old church, being moved in 1935. It was created by Taylors bellfoundry.
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| St Cyprian's Church, Sneinton |
The following year, all the facing bricks used in the construction of St Margaret’s church in Aspley were supplied by Tuckers. According to the Nottingham Journal “ ‘Multiruf’ facing bricks were a registered speciality of Messrs. Tuckers.” St Margaret’s church has an entry in the 1979 edition of Pevsner’s ‘Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire’, which reads: “St Margaret, Aspley Lane, Aspley. 1934-6 by E. H. Heazell, Brick, typical reduced Gothic of the period.”
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| St Margaret's church, Aspley |
In 1937, following much controversy over the need for another cinema to join the three existing cinemas in the town, the Odeon in Rhyl was built, using Tuckers products. Even in its construction, the building was problematic, not least because it was built in an area that was subject to tidal flooding!
According to the Story of Leicester, in the 1930s there were over 25 cinemas in Leicester: the Odeon opened in 1938, and was, apparently, the grandest. Like Loughborough’s Odeon on Baxter Gate, Leicester’s was designed by architects from the Harry Weedon partnership, Leicester’s probably by Harry Weedon, and Loughborough’s by Arthur J. Price. The cinema is situated in the area now known as the Leicester Cultural Quarter, close to The Curve theatre, and what is now the Serbian Orthodox Church of St George (incidentally, chancel added by Blomfield in 1879), although it was converted to a catering venue around 2005 after the building closed as a cinema in 1997. The opening in July 1938, which was attended by Harry Weedon himself, was reported in the Leicester Evening Mail: “the whole of the facing bricks for the new Odeon cinema are two-inch hand-made ‘tudorstyl’ facings, manufactured by G. Tucker & Son, Ltd., Loughborough.”
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| Former Odeon in Leicester |
Up to and
including 1939, Tuckers appear to have been extremely busy providing roofing
tiles and facing bricks, the latter particularly in lighter colours, but also
in a great increase in the range of colours available, across the country. This
included materials for many housing estates; the swimming baths at Hitchen and
Willesden; cinemas at Lutterworth, and Birkenhead; various hospitals; a number
of libraries; a selection of police stations, and some hotels, including the
Test Match Hotel in West Bridgford and the Cocked Hat Hotel in Aspley. Like the
Bull’s Head in Shelthorpe, the Cocked Hat was built to serve the new housing
that had grown up in the area, and apparently in the late 1950s it was run by
landlord Bill Frame, who was an ex-Leicester City football player. Unlike our Bull’s
Head, which is now a McDonalds, the Cocked Hat at Aspley was demolished in 2004
and replaced with new housing. Other buildings of this time include offices for
Evans Lifts, on Abbey Lane in Leicester.
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| Evans Lifts, Abbey Lane, Leicester |
Over in Peterborough, head offices were built at The Lawns Eye, for Derek Crouch, contractors involved in mining. The offices replaced a large house called The Lawns, and were “faced externally on the east and west elevations in Tuckers Tudorstyl facing bricks”. This office building looks very similar to John Storer House, in Loughborough.
Some of the many houses built with Tucker’s products include the following:
An ‘architect-designed’ house in Woodhouse Eaves, built in 1957 using Tuckers bricks was for sale in 1959.
A 4-bedroomed property in Breaston, construction date not known, was ‘built to a high standard with Tucker hand-made facing bricks … and matching brick and tile double garage’
The appeal of easy access to travel was espoused when in 1965 properties in Long Whatton were for sale – “Two detached bungalows with easy access to M1 and East Midlands Airport, built in Tuckers bricks …”. While, over in Draycot, Derbyshire, in 1966, an ultra-modern 4-year old dwelling in 7 acres of land was for sale, and described as being “Built in local cut stone and Tickers facing bricks.”
But, Tucker’s bricks weren’t just used for the exterior of properties. In 1967 a house came up for sale in Sawley, which had a “Through lounge/dining area, feature chimney breast in Tuckers facing bricks.”
Over on Deans Drive, in Borrowash, no.59 was up for sale in 1974 and was described as being constructed with “Tucker’s hand-made bricks” although the year of construction is not known. In 1977 a house on Briargate, Long Eaton was available for purchase, and according to the Long Eaton Advertiser, it was “built in 1954 to a high standard with Tucker’s facing bricks to all elevations”.
There are still more buildings to look at that use material from Tuckers. Hopefully, next time there’ll be more of a focus on local buildings.
Posted by lynneaboutloughborough 4 April 2021
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Lynne
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