Minerva Brick and Tile Works, East Cowes
The 1864 OS map shows the East Cowes Park Brick Works to the west of where the road to the East Cowes Cemetery would run.
Later, on the 1897 and 1908 OS maps, it is shown as the Minerva Brick and Tile Works and in 1938 just as Brick and Tiles Works.
From "Memories of a Cowes Born Lad" by Harry Guy says that the Minerva Boatyard was built on the site of the brickworks run by Tommy Langley. Harry spent many hours working the machinery. David Stotesbury (Ventnor) says that the site of the yard was right on the edge of the river and at high tides the clay pit at the end of its life was submerged. This, eventually with the working out of the clay, caused its closure. Bricks were larger than most and stamped in the frog "ECP." It would seem from this that the Minerva yard kept the old moulds and continued to mark them with the old lettering.
