Our history: Harborough’s crucial role in the building of St Pancras Station in 1868

The brickyard in Little Bowden whose bricks formed the major London railway terminus, St Pancras.

A local man is delighted after discovering his family’s brick-making legacy in an old Harborough Mail news clipping (known then as the Harborough Advertiser).

James Bonsor hails from a line of brick-makers spanning from 1780 to 1940.

His great-grandfather, William Bonsor (1849 - 1938), was cousin to a former James Bonsor, referred to in the 1950 article. James and his brothers set up brickyards across the district in the early 19th century. The Market Harborough yard, on what is now the Symington Recreation ground, was among the last to survive.

The article confirms a long-standing rumour the yard in Little Bowden created bricks for St Pancras Station, built in 1868.

The Market Harborough brickyard sited on what is now Symington Recreation Ground.

It reads: “Most of the sixty-million bricks that went into the building of St Pancras Station came from a Market Harborough brickyard and they were all handmade.”

According to the article, the ‘little known fact’, was discovered after the editor received letters relating to a previous picture spread of the station.

It says: “Bonsor Brickyards had the reputation of producing some of the finest bricks in the country.”

They were chosen from among a few competitors, ‘declared the best’ by the building contractors.

A Harborough Advertiser (now the Mail) clipping from 1950 confirmed the St Pancras rumour.

James, a part-time school teacher, said: “It was a great feeling reading the article. My father told me his grandfather, a brick-maker, had said about St Pancras, but I was never sure if it was a rumour.

“They’d had a lot of experience through generations of brick-makers so they knew how to make a good quality brick. They were particularly famed for the blue hard Clipston bricks which have stood the test of time.”

He also pointed out the brickyard in Clipston had produced the bricks for the Oxendon and Kelmarsh tunnels which remain part of a cycle route today.

James explained his great-grandfather’s yard in Hollowell was the last to survive, when competition from London brick companies made it difficult to continue.

Brick-making is not the family’s only claim to fame.

More recently, it was discovered that Harry Potter star Emma Watson has links to the Bonsor lineage.

Family history researcher Nick Barratt found the Bonsors comprised a branch of her family tree.

Local historian Rachel Root commented the Bonsors were ‘a big family round here’.

Anyone who would like more information on Bonsor Bricks can contact James on 07754 602213.