Molly Beswick describes in her article how the adjacent brickworks of Benjamin Ware & Sons thrived in the early 1920’s under the able management of William Ware. Whilst clay was initially dug from a large pit on the brickyard site, other sources were constantly sought to keep up with the demand for bricks and tiles.

The land of Shipreed Farm was an obvious local source of clay that could be obtained with minimal additional transport costs and, on the 9th March 1922, a lease for the site was granted to Benjamin Ware & Sons. Yellow clay was dug for flowerpots from all over the site whilst clay pits were dug to allow extraction of grey clay for pipes and shale clay for brickmaking. Clay-working machinery was quickly installed and a narrow gauge track laid to allow raw material to be hauled to the brickworks by small locomotives. Although the slump of the late 1920s caused a temporary decline in brick and tile demand, by the mid 1930s business was again booming. With such prosperity William Ware was keen to secure his major local source of raw material and on the 21st December 1937 he purchased the site for £2000. Francis Barchard had died by this time, the sale deeds being engrossed by his widow, Maud Agnes Barchard.

For the next 20 years the land was worked to exploit the available clay. Since its first occupation by Benjamin Ware & Sons in 1922, two deep pits had been dug and two shallower workings created. However, by the early 1960s suitable clay on the site was running out. Although new sources of clay were being obtained from a company-owned site at Holmes Hill in Whitesmith, the introduction of both building blocks and the plastic flowerpot rendered handcrafted items non-competitive and in 1970 the works closed.