Created from the slag produced in the steel making process, the waste at the bottom of the blast furnaces was initially used in order to create land mass in the more boggy areas of a burgeoning industrial Teesside. Then it was removed and used to create walls on the River Tees.

It was then used to form a rudimentary insulating product.

Darlington’s Joseph Woodward in 1872 formed the Tees Scoria Brick Company and was turning the slag into these distinctive shiny grey-blue bricks. They were fired for three days and formed the durable, waterproof and chemical proof bricks which still line many roads in the Tees Valley.

These bricks, from the company are some of the more plain items produced, there were some beautiful ornate designs including double hexagonal designs which locked together.

The company went bankrupt in the 1960’s and was wound up formally in 1972.

This is certainly the most stamped bricks I’ve seen in a “gutter” setting, and they sit opposite the former Post Office in Staithes, now the Kessen Bowl.