De Werklust Brickworks

De Werklust is a brickworks that shows every part of the process from digging the clay to the final product. It made bricks for over a century from 1910 when the German manufacturer Lindenbaum developed the site with steam power. In 1923, the Osse brothers took over and built an efficient Hoffman kiln. In the 1930s they began using a mechanical excavator at the clay pits and installed a cable system to take unfired bricks to the drying sheds. The site was designated a monument in 1999.

Visitors can ride on the narrow-gauge railway with a diesel locomotive. At the clay pits, today full of water and wildlife, they can see an excavator and railway tipping trucks. The brickmaking shed contains the mill where the clay was mixed with water pumped from a well, sieved to remove stones and formed in brick moulds. The long drying sheds are particularly impressive but the star for many visitors will be the Hoffman kiln. This is complete with its fuelling floor, roof and 45-metre chimney. The kiln could fire 250,000 bricks in one circuit at 1,000ºC.