In his “How they built the Settle-Carlisle railway” (published by Castleberg in 1989, reprinted in 2001), W.R. Mitchell quotes the following from contemporary accounts relating to the brick works and associated clay pits at Batty Green (Ribblehead):
- Source: Lancaster Guardian (1871)
The brick-making establishment (at Batty Green) is under the management of Mr. Rixon. The brick works cover a large space of moorland and consist of extensive drying sheds, ovens, a large patent brick-making machine by Porter and Co., of Carlisle, a crushing machine, and a traveller seventy yards long to deliver the bricks in the shed above the ovens where they are dried by the waste heat. Porter's machine when in full work will make about 20,000 bricks a day. At present, as only half of it is at work, it makes from 11,000 to 12,000 a day. There are ten ovens with two fire holes to each oven. An oven holds from fourteen to fifteen thousand bricks, and it takes about a week to burn them. The quantity of fuel consumed at these works is only half the quantity used at an ordinary brick kiln.
The bed of clay which lies under a thin strata of peat is a mud deposit and much of it on account of its sandy nature is thrown aside. A crushing machine is employed to grind shale which, being intermixed with the clay used at the works, yields bricks of such a superior quality that when thrown out of the ovens they ring like pots. From 26 to 28 persons are employed at the works. Two girls were busy carrying bricks from the never-ceasing traveller. The large quantities of bricks made at these works are used for lining and arching the tunnel.