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Brickmaking was hard work in a harsh environment and partly seasonal. In winter the clay was dug by hand and built into piles known as Kerfs about 3ft. high and 20ft. square. Chalk and cinders along with other rubbish were then mixed in and the pile left to weather. The cinders were the secret of the Kentish Stock Brick because the bricks, when placed in the kiln provided much of the fuel themselves thus reducing the cost of fuel. The "fuel" for the bricks came from London rubbish brought to Milton Creek in barges. Moving the rubbish was dirty smelly work.

In the spring the process of making the bricks began. The work was organised in gangs paid by piecework. Lumps of the weathered clay were taken to the moulder's table often by women and children. The moulder shaped the clay into bricks making close on 1000 every hour for an 8½ hour day and a 58 hour week. One brickie is on record as having made 986,091 bricks between April and September. In 1880 the Murston brickfields were producing some 50 million bricks a year. After moulding, the bricks were moved  in barrows to the drying racks. One man said that as a child he was required to carry about 40lbs of clay at a time to the moulder's table and then move the shaped bricks to the drying boards. After drying, the bricks were moved to the kilns by Crowders who pushed loads of 80 bricks in a barrow, total weight some 400 pounds. When the kilns were fired, the burning rubbish gave of fumes and unpleasant odours.

The same barges that brought the rubbish were used to transport the bricks to London. Loading the barges was a skilled job. Bill Shilling, an old brickie, said he could load between 40 and 50,000 bricks in a day. The coming of the railway in 1858 also provided a source of transport for the finished bricks.

above: Charles Smeed

The great entrepreneur of brickmaking in Murston was George Smeed (b.1812 d. 1881) He was described as a man of strong purposes and stronger language. He began brickmaking in 1846 and by 1860 owned expanding brickfields, barges and shipyards along the creek. But he helped to build the present Murston Church, constructed houses for his workers and when he died left a bequest to help the needy.

In 1873 the Rector of Murston decided that the old church was no longer suitable being in poor repair and invaded by noxious fumes from the nearby gasworks. The sexton was John Wakelin who also acted as nightsoil man. He smoked his pipe as he drove the noisy nightsoil cart to the confusion and sometimes the curses of the awakened residents. In the confined and crowded graveyard he dug graves surrounded and clouded by dust and soot and by the sulphur emissions of brick burning and gases from the gasworks.

The Rector of Murston was the Rev. Hoare a strong personality who demanded respect. Any schoolchild who met him on the street and failed to salute him was, if reported, caned before the whole school. When visiting houses in the village he made a point of sometimes calling around mid-day to see if the housewife  was making suitable preparations for the good man of the house on his arrival from work. Yet, the Rev. Hoare's rectory was stated to be a rendezvous for the needy.

In 1865 Smeed engaged John Andrews as brickfield foreman. Andrews, born in 1827 had no schooling  but learned to read. He could not write beyond signing his name. In his youth he was a rough character but he knew how to make bricks and above all he knew how to manage men. He was paid 30/- p.w. plus a rent free cottage. He rose to become a Director and works general Manager.

His wife was the daughter of a farm labourer. She worked in the fields at the age of 10 picking up stones and at 12 she was sent to London as a domestic servant. They had 4 children who all achieved good positions in life. One son, George, succeeded his father as Works Manager and became Chairman of Sittingbourne Urban District Council although he had only an elementary education and started work at the age of 12. The family were Wesleyan Methodists and it is difficult to exaggerate the part which Christian teaching and duty played in their lives. George said his father was a stern disciplinarian who would brook no challenge to his authority and the threat of the strap was ever present. "My mother taught me to pray and my father taught me to work". John Andrews would not tolerate laziness or slipshod work. Such men were "Heading for the bottomless pit". Yet this man was noted for his caring visits to families in difficulties.

These Victorians lived in a harsh environment, they believed in success through personal endeavour and in the Bible they found precepts which they saw as leading to a more just society always bearing in mind as George Andrews commented, "The Lord helps those who help themselves"

In the winter, the more skilled men were retained , digging clay and unloading barges. In the spring and summer there was a large temporary workforce. Brickworkers were rough tough men. George Andrews wrote "Every day there was fighting and quarrelling, brutal fighting and nothing was more common than drunkenness. On Sunday mornings after heavy drinking, men would reach back home to a late lunch and frequently in no mood for domestic bliss.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, Sittingbourne bricks began to suffer from increasing competition. Larger fields elsewhere in England could offer economies of scale and there were cheaper imports. Sittingbourne became less competitive.

While brickmaking is no longer a major industry in the town, a correspondent has kindly provided the following details to show that the industry still continues in 2006.

"Brickmaking continues in Murston at what was originally the Smeed Dean works, which has undergone a number of changes of ownership over the years.

"The process is now fully automated and a workforce of around 22 produce some 18 million bricks a year. Brickearth is still dug locally at Teynham during the summer months and the process involves mixing in ash to make the brick self firing which was a characteristic of the yellow stock brick. The firing is now done in a tunnel kiln instead of clamps. The Murston works along with a brick making plant at Funton near Iwade  are the last survivors in the area, of an industry which once dominated our landscape."