A brickworks was established beside the Blue Bell mine in 1937 by Backworth Collieries. It comprised a 16-chamber Hoffman kiln with a 124 feet high chimney. Shale from Holywell was used, producing a red-coloured brick. A Bradley and craven machine press made mostly common bricks, firstly marked BLUE BELL but later stamped BACKWORTH, to avoid confusion with another firm using the same name. Production in the 1950s averaged 120,000 bricks per week. The works closed in 1965.
Dates: 1937 – 1965
20th Century brickworks
Source: Davison, P J, 1986. Brickworks of the North East, 56 site 5, 61.

In 1908, the Wallsend and Hebburn Coal Company established a brickworks at Rising Sun Colliery, mainly to supply common bricks for the company’s own collieries. The bricks were fired in a 16-chamber Hoffman kiln, each chamber capable of holding 10,500 bricks. Some time before 1963 the height of the kiln chimney was lowered and an electric fan installed to supplement the draught circulation. An Octopus automatic feeding system was installed in 1965.
The raw material for the brickworks was primarily shale from the Main Coal seam under Rising Sun Colliery. However, opencast shale was brought in between 1963 and 1965, from Ewart Hill and Acorn Bank; and between 1965 to 1968 shale from Wardley.
Weekly production at the factory in the 1960s was 86,000 bricks.
Dates: 1908 – 1960s
20th Century brickworks
Source: Davison, P J, 1986. Brickworks of the North East, 56 site 4, 60.

The large plot to the rear of The Grange Farmhouse (HER 8144) is still very much farmyard in character. The roughly surfaced yard is surrounded by brick and stone boundary walls and contains a collection of simple traditional agricultural barns and outhouses in sandstone with slate pitched and hipped roofs and several timber lean-to additions. A 5-bar gate leads to the farmyard from High Back Close whilst a longer track leads in from the west end, round the back of The Grange's (HER 8167) garden from the north footpath. A roughly-coursed sandstone barn was recorded in 2012 by Alan Williams Archaeology ahead of its conversion into a residential unit. The barn was constructed between 1839-1857. It is a simple, double-pitched structure just 12.23m in length and 5.9m wide. It has a Welsh slate roof. The walls of the barn are pierced by splayed vents - all now blocked. A gin-gang (shown on the first edition ordnance survey plan) existed against the south wall of the barn. The gin-gang survived until at least 1916. It was replaced by the curren lean-to running along the south side of the barn. A small stone lean-to building with pantiled roof to the west end of the barn was constructed between 1860-1897.

Bricks were first made by the Seaton Burn Coal Company in 1908, near the Augusta mine. By 1922, the brickyard had a 26-chamber Belgian kiln, each chamber capable of holding 6500 bricks. In 1939, the dampers in the main flue of the kiln were renewed to improve the working rotation; previously a blowing fan had been necessary to cool off the bricks. The brickworks were taken over by Hartley Main Collieries in 1939, and in September of that year 266,000 bricks were made. Most were sold to outside customers with the remainder used in Dinnington and Seaton Burn collieries. Production was increased in 1950 by the conversion of the Belgian kiln to a top-fired Hoffman type kiln. Partition walls and firegates were removed to increase capacity to 8500. An electric fan was installed in the chimney to help draw out steam and gases. By the late 1950s, some 100,000 bricks a week were being produced, 80% of which were facing and rustic bricks. Shale was brought from local collieries, left to weather in a heap and then fed by conveyor belt to a primary crusher; from here the clay went into a hopper and was automatically fed into a Bradley and Craven grinding mill. There were two Bradley and craven brick machine presses, which made up to 3000 bricks an hour. They were the first machines in the area to use an electric element to heat the dies in the press instead of using live steam. The finished bricks were put on a conveyor and loaded into a waiting lorry, saving time by cutting out wheeling and stacking. After Dinnington Colliery closed in 1960 the brickworks only continued operating for a short time.
Dates: 1922-1960
C20 Brickworks
Source: Davison, P J, 1986. Brickworks of the North East, 41 site 13, 50.

Mentioned in 1802.

In 1754 the Silksworth Pottery was let by Mrs Ettrick.

In 1790 the South Shields Pottery was a going concern.

In 1759 and 1760 the Heworth Common Pottery was making Tortoise-shell, Agatestone and Black ware. Possibly owned by Robert Callendar of Newcastle.

There is reference to a pot-house at Hebburn Key in 1757, making earthen and stone ware.

A pot-work at Newburn, a small affair, established in 1749 by John Brougham, china dealer of Newcastle for making Garden Pottery.