Geograph - photograph every grid square

The flooded quarry is now home to Thrunton Long Crag Trout Fishery. The fishing lodge can be seen on the right.

Part of the Swarland brickworks, which had been mothballed in 2011, was destroyed in Spetember 2013 in a huge fire which started in a warehouse housing shredded carpet waste.

The brick company was set up in the late 1930s by Commander Vyner to create jobs for the unemployed of Tyneside. In 1942, current managing director Chris Blythe’s grandfather bought the company and the grandson took over in the early 1980s, having worked there since 1972.

At the time of the mothball, Mr Blythe said the company was not selling enough bricks due to the worst building recession since the 1940s. Production had stopped and a total of 4.2 million bricks were sitting on site. A skeleton staff was kept on to sell them.

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