IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Parry Close, PETERBOROUGH, PE7 0NG

From being one of the old main roads into and out of Peterborough the A15 is being traffic calmed by several sets of traffic lights and pedestrian crossings for the citizens of Hempstead as this area is being named. The grand building in the distance is Phorpres house once the headquarters of the London Brick Company, now flats.

Environmental factors are very much in evidence on proposed building sites. Protecting what's already there is fundamental. On this site new trees were planted as soon as the underground services were laid and before any above ground work started. For a reverse view 12 months later Image

Viewed from London Road looking east. This line would have served the brick yards and the sugar beet factory. Both long gone.

The blue building in the background is the colossal (460x190m) IKEA distribution centre in Image and seen on the right in Image

The Great Northern Railway built this branch line from Fletton Junction to Longueville Junction on the London & North Western Railway's line from Northampton to Peterborough, a distance, in railway terms, of 1 mile and 50 chains. Today the branch line enables a connection to be made between Network Rail tracks and the Nene Valley Railway. When it was built the railway ran through an agricultural landscape, but as Peterborough grew the line formed the southern boundary of the residential expansion with the brick works beyond. Today, with the brick works gone, that residential zone has now begun to expand beyond the railway. This is the view looking towards Fletton Junction from the London Road bridge.

Hanson Aggregates operate a concrete batching plant in an area that was surrounded by brick making activity and allied trades. Now it is the only business left and no doubt will continue to operate here because of its proximity to many housing and warehousing developments.

The 1889 Ordnance Survey map shows this area to be the Fletton Brick and Tile Works. However by the time that the 1926 edition was published it had become the site of the Hicks Brick Works Yard Number 2. From the 1971 mapping the older buildings on the site had then been removed and a double track railway had been built to serve Hicks' other works further to the south. The swathe through the centre of the photograph shows the route of the railway, taken from the bridge over it on Hicks Lane. For a view in the opposite direction please see Image