Mewburn, Thomas

By his own admission, Thomas Mewburn was the earliest brick maker in Ballarat.  Little information is available about him other than him operating in Inkerman Gully (Ballarat North).  It is likely, although not certain that his brickworks was in Simpson Street on the site of the Inkerman Gully Playground and reserve.  At the time, he would have made bricks by hand.  I have seen one example that is hand made and stamped with a metal brand “T Mewburn” on one face.  This was most likely made in a Scotch Kiln, like many other makers of the day. 

Thomas, a brick maker (1816 - 1902) was born in Huxworth on Tees, County Durham.  He married Jane Hurst on the 21^st of August 1837 at Deanne Bolton, Lancashire.  They had 9 children, including a son, also named Thomas   Thomas (Snr) died in 1902 in Ballarat, Australia at 86 years of age.  He is buried in the Old Ballarat Cemetery, Area Private D Section 13 Graves 16 & 17.    His son George (1846-1918) was also a Brickmaker in Ballarat.

He advertised his bricks often and invited people to visit his brickworks to see the quality of his bricks compared to other makers.  He says the brick works was the “top brick yard Inkerman Gully.”  In 1858, he began making fire bricks, advertising them as being “tested in five successive meltings of a blast furnace; the result is in every way, satisfactory.”  The number of blast furnaces in use in Ballarat at that time would not have been large.