Dennis of Ruabon - March 2011

[The Littlest Jellyfish]

There are lots of Dennises in Ruabon - three off the top of my head are Dennis Jones, Dennis Bevan and my personal favourite, Dennis Taylor, the guy from the chip shop. Today, however, we're concerned with Dennis the former tile manufacturer, who is no longer a person, but rather a company in administration; a Mary Celeste of the tile industry.

Henry Dennis of Bodmin, Cornwall (no relation to Les), studied civil engineering and travelled to Wales to supervise construction of a tramway at the Llangollen slate quarry. After a stint in Spain at a lead mine, he later returned to Wales after amassing a considerable personal fortune. Dennis became managing director of the Hafod Colliery and by 1878, had established the Hafod Brickworks. By 1893, a new factory, which became known as the "Red Works", was constructed on the site where the present-day building still stands. There, workers produced ridge tiles, chimney pots, tiles and other products using 24 coal-fired "Beehive" kilns.

Under the control of his son, Henry Dyke Dennis (also no relation to Les), the Hafod Brickworks became a private limited company in 1934 - Dennis Ruabon Limited - and continued to produce materials including tiles, chimney pots and ornamental terracotta.

In 1944, Dennis's grandson, Patrick Gill Dyke Dennis (still no relation to Les), took control and launched a modernisation programme. By the end of the 1970s, brick production had largely ended, and the company concentrated its efforts on making quarry tiles. It was the last manufacturer in the UK of quarry tiles, when suddenly in January 2008 the workforce was told to go home and stay there as a result of continued poor demand for their high quality products. What remains is fairly extensive, fascinating and creepy/bizarre - it's as if the workforce really have just popped out for a fag and will be back any minute.













































Thanks fer lookin'!

[Nicola]

Wow - that looks like a fab explore - loads to see and rummage around in - I love it!

[Kevsy21]

Not bad at all this place.Good stuff.

[BB]

Looks like a nice interesting place

[Only2Eyes]

I like that, nice one.

[wolfism]

Snap, I've spec'd their Heather Red quarry tiles in the past and always wondered what the works was like.