In 1840, Joseph Brooke founded the quarrying organisation with around 12 sites in the Hove Edge, Hipperholme, Lightcliffe and Southowram districts, including Gaubert Hall Quarry, Lightcliffe, Park Quarry, Lightcliffe, Tuck Royd, Hipperholme, Walterclough Pit, West Lane, Southowram.
They acquired several local firms including Smith & Greenwood.
The company had other quarries in Wales [with Conway Stone Quarries] in Alderney & Guernsey [with Brooke's Granite Company Limited] and in Scandinavia.
The company expanded into artificial stone, brick-making, chemicals, house-building, non-slip flags, ornamental architecture, and road-building.
In 1896, the company patented the world's first nonslip flags which were made of the hard-wearing mineral silex found in the Lightcliffe area. These were marketed world-wide, not least the promenades at Blackpool and Bridlington. They produced other patented products, including
As a result, Brookes' expanded and owned quarries in various parts of the world. It had its own steamship to carry stone to its customers.
In December 1900, Joseph Brooke & Sons and the Nonslip Stone Company merged to become Brooke's Limited.
The head offices at Hipperholme – aka The Hall – were designed by the company architect, R. Fielding Farrar, and built in 1905. The design incorporated many of the company's products, including a 20 ft-long piece of granite from the firm's quarries in Scandinavia.
During World War I, the company began to manufacturer picric acid for use in munitions.
By 1910, around 500 local authorities and railway companies in Britain used Nonslip stone.
On 22nd December 1917, 5 workers died in an explosion at the factory.
In 1930, the firm was the world's largest supplier of road and building materials.
The company had one of the smallest steam railways in the country carrying materials around the works at Hove Edge and Hipperholme.
The company fell into decline in the 1960s. In the 1960s, East Lancashire Chemicals Limited of Droylsden bought the company. The mines closed on 18th February 1969, and the brickworks closed on 18th March 1969. The railway was dismantled and sold at auction in 1969. The chimneys were felled on 30th October 1969. The site was cleared and sold to Philips Electronic & Associated Industries. The Number 2 Nonslip Stone Company works were sold to Marshalls PLC, and the factory closed in 1969.
Part of the land was occupied by a transport organisation and was used as a depot for the vehicles. The building was demolished in the 1990s
See Brookelea, Hipperholme / Brookeville, Hipperholme / W. & J. Glossop Limited / Grange Terrace, Lightcliffe / Harley Head Farm, Hove Edge / Hipperholme Tannery / Leeds Fireclay Company Limited / Pearson Brow, Hove Edge / Richard Fielding Farrar / Southedge Works, Hipperholme / Stubbins Quarry, Hove Edge Edge / Sunny Leigh, Lightcliffe / Waterloo Road
Page Ref: MMB2035
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