Cambridge Brick & Tile Works

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There were kilns with very tall chimneys, used to make bricks and tiles in the 1800s and 1900s. They were located in buildings stretching across a vast area on both sides of the Newmarket Road and all the way over to Coldham’s Lane, now known as Cambridge Retail Park. This means that there used to be chimneys everywhere and smoke-filled air. Abbey became a very industrial area of iron works and timber merchants, brick and tile factories which provided materials for Cambridge buildings in the 19th and 20th centuries. These factories grew in number after 1845 when the railway line was built for Cambridge.