The final Colchester brick works namely ‘The Moler Works’ is not strictly within the confines of this Gazetteer because the clay was not dug on site or even in the United Kingdom. The clay was imported from Denmark but as the bricks were made at Moler’s Hythe Works it is included.

The Moler Works, were situated at the Hythe, north east of the River Colne and south west of the Colchester, Clacton and Walton Branch of the Great Eastern Railway.
Dates:1919 to the 1970’
Op.:Vickers Limited and the Moler Fire Proof Brick and Partition Company Limited, from 1919 to 1927.
Moler Products Limited, from 1927 to the 1970’s.
Products:Flue, Insulating and Refractory Bricks.
Use of products:The selling agents for Moler Products were J. H. Sankey and Son Limited of Canning Town. Many Moler bricks were used in all types of furnaces and kilns.
Brick marks: MOLER
M. P. = Moler Products (also M. P. 21., M. P. 23., M. P. 25., etc.,)
FOSALSIL (insulating bricks)
MEDIAL (insulating refractory bricks).

F.Inf.:The original works were erected by Vickers Limited in 1919 when they traded as the Moler Fire Proof Brick and Partition Company Limited until 1927. The later Moler Works belonging to Moler Products Limited re-opened in September, 1927. All the clay was brought by ship from the two islands of Mur and Foa near Denmark which alone in the whole world have deposits of Moler earth. This raw material was discharged by large travelling cantilever cranes from ships and later Dutch motor-coasters in the River Colne. An exception was during the Second World War when a substitute clay was brought from Ireland to the London Docks and carried thence by barge. It was a popular freight as it filled any chinks in the hold sealing with a handy cement stopping. Moler is a material somewhat resembling Kieselguhr, but is less refractory, as it contains a considerable proportion of clay and volcanic ash, for which reason it is self —lk4ing and can be made into bricks without any other bond. Moler bricks fr heat-resisting purposes are made by mixing the material with water in a pug mill, shaping the bricks by hand in the same manner as fireclay bricks, and afterwards drying and burning them in a similar way, but the finishing temperature is only about 1000°c. Owing to their fusibility they must not be exposed to very high temperatures. The bricks were dried by drying stoves and fired in ‘Shaw’ type gas kilns of which there were initially two which gradually increased to ten kilns over the years. The bricks and insulating material manufactured here was largely transported away by a siding into the Brick Works from the Colchester, Clacton and Walton Branch of the Great Eastern Section of the London and North Eastern Railway. In 1946 Moler Products Limited acquired Thomas Marshall and Co. (Laxley) Limited and its subsidiary, Kingscliffe Insulating Products Limited. By 1968 more than 20% of the total production was exported to Sweden, Germany, Spain, Israel, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. The total output was about 18,000,000 bricks a year. By 1968 two more kilns were built to augment the existing eight kilns.

Con.:Field assessment needed to determine presence of standing remains.

Refs.:OS 25in. 1923 (sheet XXXVII.4.)
OS 25in. 1936 (sheets XXXVII.4. and 8.)
“Refractory Materials: Their Manufacture and Uses” by Alfred B. Searle,
1950.
“Down Tops’l” by Hervey Benham, 2nd Edn. 1971.
Kelly’s Directories of Essex, 1929, 1933 and 1937.
Directory of Quarries, Sand Pits and Brickworks, 1927.
Directory of Clay Products 1961/62.
Directory of British Clay Products and Manufacturers, 1966 and 1967.
The British Clayworker: September, 1927 pps. 168 to 172. December, 1931 pps. 330 to 331.
April, 1937 p. xxiii.