Not only was I 'West of the 5th' last week, I was West of the 6th and 7th too! Everything happened last minute and we headed off for a short trip out to Victoria, BC stopping at various points along the way and back.
I decided to look up ghost towns (BC has some great ones) but only 1 was near where we happened to be. Turned out to not be a ghost town at all but a little village with some history. Enough history that it was designated for conservation as a Heritage Site in 1996.
Welcome to Clayburn, British Columbia, at the foot of the Sumas Mountains. Info from the village
website states that Clayburn was the first 'company town' in BC.
They Clayburn Company made bricks from the high grade of clay found in the Sumas Mountains. The factory built in 1905, was dismantled/destroyed in 1931 with scaled back operations continuing at a sister factory, Kilgard, further up the mountain. Clayburn's last local brick making facility closed in 2011.
During its heyday, not only did Clayburn make standard coloured bricks but they made buff coloured and specialty bricks. This made them sought after by architects and contractors for their originality. Clayburn bricks can be seen in many prominent buildings in Vancouver and Victoria built before WWI. During the 1920's the 'new wing' of the famous Empress Hotel in Victoria was built using Clayburn bricks. (The Empress deserves it's own post, it has fascinated me since I was a kid).
Not much remains of the original Clayburn brick works now (that I could see) except what looks like part of a wall, some ovens and pieces of brick embedded in the path way. The village itself has a quaint atmosphere with nice brick houses and lovely gardens. About half the original homes, a store, the church and the schoolhouse remain. The church and school are on the historic register of Canada.
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| Enter here and follow the path |
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| Brick ovens |
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| Not a brick in this wall |
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| Clayburn Church built in 1912 |
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| Clayburn Store...lots of candy and ice cream inside! |
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| Clayburn School built in 1907 |
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| Clayburn School c.1925. |
Stay tuned for more pics from our trip!
I look forward to more from your trip. Jenn. I love that first photo. It draws you into the post!
ReplyDeleteThanks Marie, it was neat little stop!
DeleteWhat a great place to explore. The brick ovens are interesting and so is the Clayburn Store. Looking forward to seeing more from your trip.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bill....a short vacation is better than no vacation! Saw lots of neat stuff.
DeleteWhat marvelous photos, especially the ones of the brickworks!
ReplyDeleteThanks Debra, such a great place to explore....someday I want to explore more of the old mining towns.
DeleteInteresting.
ReplyDeleteThanks Gorges, I am glad we stopped even though I was expecting a full ghost town.
Delete...now Clayburn looks like my kind of place. The store and school are of a style that I would see here. Thanks for taking me along!
ReplyDeleteThanks Tom, it sure felt like a charming little country village.
DeleteThat's a lot of moss.
ReplyDeleteAlmost 90 years worth! :)
DeleteWhat a great little place to stop. There used to be brick-works all around here - just the right sort of clay for brick-making apparently - and they too made light-coloured bricks.
ReplyDeleteHi John, the perfect stop, candy for the kiddo and history for me!
DeleteSeems like brick making was almost an art form.
Wonderful shots!
ReplyDeleteThanks William! It was too bad that their little museum wasn't open when I was there.
DeleteIt is surprising that the school isn't brick!
ReplyDeleteI thought the same thing!!
DeleteYou find some neat places.
ReplyDeleteThanks BW, this one was purely by chance.
Deleteas a child i loved finding spots like you pictured in your first photo, secret hiding places....it was a great way to begin this post!! this looks like quite the find, i liked seeing those brick ovens, covered in moss. i must stop back to see what else you found!!
ReplyDeletehave a wonderful weekend!!!
Thanks for stopping by, I am going to try and blog more often!! That archway in the bushes just needed to be followed!
DeleteNow this is a cool place! Great pics there Jenn.
ReplyDelete