Locomotive firebox firebricks

[Nimbus]

Does anybody know if the LNER produced its own firebricks for use in locomotive fireboxes, and if so, where were they made? If they were bought-in from an outside supplier, is it known who supplied them? Did the same source(s) remain into British Railways days and the end of steam? Many thanks for any thoughts.

[Hatfield Shed]

I would be as certain as it is possible to be without direct knowledge, that the firebrick used to make the brick arch would be from a specialist refractory brick maker. There had to be established large scale manufacturing of refractory products to support the metal processing industries.

Interestingly in the 'Gresley and Stanier' volume authored by John Bellwood and David Jenkinson and put out by the NRM, there is a tender document of the outline build spec. for the V2. Notably absent when we get to the firebox is any mention of either the firebar castings for the grate, or the firebricks to form the arch, there's also no mention of the lubricants; perhaps these were on the referenced drawings? They had to be somewhere as the loco was to be delivered in working order and fit to work without defect for 2,000 miles.

[Nimbus]

I've found the name of one major manufacturer of locomotive firebox firebricks, from the mid-1800s onwards - J T Hall Refractories of Stourbridge and later Cradley Heath. The thousands of specially shaped moulds were supposedly destroyed when the business closed in 2008! I imagine that there were other manufacturers. . .