Sunday, January 5, 2014
Knight's Brickworks, Lal Lal
The Lal Lal brickworks was founded by the Knight brothers, Andrew (1837-1922) and Charles, in 1862, and produced ornamental bricks, pottery, malting tiles and other clay products using local clay. The kiln closed down in 1898. Another Lal Lal Brickworks was opened by R Viccars in 1913, but it was not very successful because the bricks were very soft and of poor quality. It closed in 1915 and most of the shareholders, who were from Ballarat, lost their money. One of the Lal Lal kilns tried to make briquettes from the local lignite, the first attempt of this kind in Australia, but with the primitive methods used, it was a failure. The Lal Lal ironworks, of which the blast furnace survives in ruins, is nearby. (from Sue Prosser)
