The Bedfordshire village of Stewartby is remarkable for two things: its name, and its bricks. The village was named after the Stewarts, directors of the London Brick Company. The family name is still commemorated in the street names of Stewartby Way and Stewartby Drive. But it is the bricks for which Stewartby is most famous.
The bricks made in Stewartby were used to build some of Britain’s most iconic buildings, including the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge. The brickworks closed in the 1980s, but the legacy of Stewartby’s bricks lives on.