The Parks Trust appointed specialist contractors Lang Conservation who have carefully repaired the brick work and ensured they are structurally sound and preserved for future generations.
If you follow the canal from Great Linford Park towards Campbell Park you will find two Victorian brick kilns and the base of a third. These, as the name suggests, were large ovens for making bricks. They were built in the late 1800s by a coal and lime merchant who lived in Newport Pagnell, George Osborn Price.
Why were they built here?
Many brick kilns were built along this stretch of the canal from the mid-1800s. Milton Keynes is largely built on clay, so this area provided the material needed to make bricks (the two ponds on site are excavated clay pits). The kilns are right next to the canal because this allowed bricks to be transported to building projects in both directions, and also enabled coal to be brought to site. It was much easier and quicker for a horse to pull heavy loads by a boat on the water, than by a wagon along poorly surfaced track.
Thankyou to The Parks Trust for providing us with such amazing knowledge on the Brick Kilns. You can read more by clicking here.