Tablet 5
Found: Cwm Lickey, Pontypool, near the coal levels. There were hundreds of bricks scattered and dug in for hard standing, the purpose of which is unclear. Bricks were predominantly Star Newport, although there were Star Caerleon and Star Cwmbran. All appeared to be seconds or rejects, including a few "Siamese twin" bricks, fused in the kiln.
This brick has a "5" embossed in the panel, and the base is tongue and grooved. Although all the other bricks in the vicinity were Star, suggesting a purchase of reject bricks for this project, this example cannot be conclusively linked to the the Star works.
A possible explanation for the Star "debris" at this site: a Torfaen County Borough Council guided walk leaflet gives the location of where these bricks are as where Star Brick "in the Mid 1950s produced the very first breeze blocks from waste or spoil from the mines of Blaendare". It appears that a temporary site was set up to produce breeze blocks, possibly experimentally. The site is right up against the slag tips, but there is no evidence of any permanent building. Certainly the works would have had a ready supply of reject bricks to creat a hard standing and firm up the access path. This would mean that this "tablet" is most likely to have been produced at the Star works, probably in Ponthir-Caerleon.
Tablet 5
Found: Cwm Lickey, Pontypool, near the coal levels. There were hundreds of bricks scattered and dug in for hard standing, the purpose of which is unclear. Bricks were predominantly Star Newport, although there were Star Caerleon and Star Cwmbran. All appeared to be seconds or rejects, including a few "Siamese twin" bricks, fused in the kiln.
This brick has a "5" embossed in the panel, and the base is tongue and grooved. Although all the other bricks in the vicinity were Star, suggesting a purchase of reject bricks for this project, this example cannot be conclusively linked to the the Star works.
A possible explanation for the Star "debris" at this site: a Torfaen County Borough Council guided walk leaflet gives the location of where these bricks are as where Star Brick "in the Mid 1950s produced the very first breeze blocks from waste or spoil from the mines of Blaendare". It appears that a temporary site was set up to produce breeze blocks, possibly experimentally. The site is right up against the slag tips, but there is no evidence of any permanent building. Certainly the works would have had a ready supply of reject bricks to creat a hard standing and firm up the access path. This would mean that this "tablet" is most likely to have been produced at the Star works, probably in Ponthir-Caerleon.