1901 Our History

William Tribe Lamb founded W T Lamb & Sons as heavy side builders merchants, with his two sons, Bertrand and Antony Ernest, in 1901. They then purchased their first brickworks in 1910.
The company was subsequently run by Antony and Richard Lamb, sons of Bertrand, prior to currenlty being run by the fourth and fifth generations. It is believed that W T Lamb & Sons Ltd is the oldest brick making company in the UK still owned by the founding family.
The company supplied and manufactured bricks for the Victorian buildings of London and the South East with fine handmade bricks, thrown and clamp-fired in Essex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

Owning brickworks in Godstone, Faversham, Midhurst, Rogate, Wickford, Rayliegh, and for a short period of time, Folkestone, now home of the channel crossing, Lambs established themselves as leaders of traditional brickmaking, whilst also producing sand and gravel.

As a long-established traditional brick maker and brick cutter, Robert Lamb acquired the rights in the mid 80's to produce Thomas Lawrence Bracknell Red Rubbers and use the TLB trade mark, producing high quality gauged bricks by hand. These distinctive bricks and rubbers have been used on iconic buildings, including Hampton Court Palace, Westminster Cathedral, Kensington Palace, and the award winning Hans Place project, to name but a few.

Building on our reputation for quality and for providing authentic British building materials, Lambs expanded from bricks into natural stone.

In 2004, Lambs secured the right to excavate, and later purchased, Philpots Quarry, the last remaining large source of Wealden Sussex Sandstone in the UK.

Lambs continue to produce hand made specialist bricks and rubbers to some of the finest buildings to this day, whilst challenging our experinced staff with compliacted brick detailing.

Lambs Today

Five generations later, Lambs is still a family-owned business with a focus on providing quality products to the building industry. The fourth generation Group Chairman, Robin Lamb, who joined the company in 1959, worked his way through accounts, roofing and sales departments, before becoming Sales Director, then Managing Director, before assuming his current position. Robin's son James is also on the Board and has been an active non-executive director since 2000.

In 2001, Jonathan Lamb became Sales Director, with his father, Robert, taking over the role as Managing Director.
During this period, the brick industry continued to evolve and Lambs’ success continued, supplying some of the most iconic buildings in the UK.

Under Jonathan's guidance he continued to build on Lambs reputation for high quality and for providing authentic hand-made products. From being appointed to provide thousands of gauged squares to Fortnum & Mason in London to providing replacement arches at Kensington Palace, Lambs continue to be involved with some of the UK’s most historic buildings whilst at the same time continuing to service our day to day clients.

Jonathan became increasingly involved in other areas of the group’s business activities and in 2015 he became Development Director of WT Lamb Holdings handing the role of Sales Director to James Mitchell, who has worked for the company for over 30 years.

Lambs continue to work with some of the most respected architects and contractors in England, bringing a wealth of experience and providing customers with expertise and re-assurance from the design stage through to works on site.

Our activities are not just limited to the UK, in recent years, Lambs have exported bricks and arches to various projects in the USA and Dubai, including The Knickerbocker Club chimneys in New York and a new build apartment block in Brooklyn.

Lambs & Mr Churchill

After buying Chartwell House in Kent in 1922, Sir Winston Churchill carried out various major works. Around 1928 he asked his good friend and one the finest engineers of the day, George Mowlem-Burt where he could find bricks to match his house. George suggested that Churchill contact his friend, Bertrand Cardain Lamb.

Mr Churchill arranged to visit the Lambs brickworks at Godstone. At the time Bertrand and his wife were on holiday in South Africa, and their sons, Richard (18) and Anthony (20) had been left in charge of the business. Churchill explained to Richard that he was unable to source bricks to match those at Chartwell. Richard agreed to visit Chartwell with samples to try and find a match.

On his first visit, Richard was unable to find a match that satisfied him. It was agreed to remove four bricks from an existing wall to allow Lambs to match them perfectly. This was with the proviso that, should Lambs be unable to match them, they would pay for them to be replaced in the wall.

On Richard Lamb’s second visit, the samples of Godstone semi engineering bricks were deemed a good match and Sir Winston agreed that Lambs would supply him with 4,004 bricks: 4,000 were to be paid for; the remaining four would be provided free of charge to replace those removed from the wall.

During this visit the two men had lengthy discussions on bricklaying, and Richard gave Mr Churchill a demonstration. (In 1928 Winston Churchill received honorary membership of the local Bricklaying Union, but gave it up after political pressure and objections from Union Members.)

On returning from his trip, Bertrand visited Chartwell House to check on the service his young son had provided. On meeting Mr Churchill, the two men got on so well that Winston insisted Bertrand stay for lunch. Many glasses of wine later, Bertrand Lamb emerged having acquired a cigar-smoking habit which, much to the annoyance of his family, he continued into old age.

Over time Lambs have continued to supply bricks to Chartwell House, and more recently to Sir Winstons Great Grandson, Randolph, who owns a property nearby

Following the replacement of several rubbed & gauged arches, Randolph kindly wrote to Lambs with his appreciation of the products he received.

"Many thanks for so cleverly making the replacement brick arches. We are really thrilled with them."
Randolph Churchill

Award-winning craftsmanship

Our quality materials have been used by some of Britain's leading architects and craftsmen in these award-winning buildings. From small modern houses to historic country homes, housing developments to public buildings.

HANS PLACE

Location: Knighsbridge, London.
Architects: Squire & Partners
Awards: Architectual Journal Brick & Stone
Winner 2019
Supplied: 4,500 no Cocoa Bean Shaped TLB Red Rubber Specials & Arches

THE RIVERSIDE HOUSE

Location: South Street, Lewes, East Sussex.
Architects: Sandy Rendell
Awards: Sussex Heritage Trust, 2016
Sunday Times Best One-Off Home 2016
RIBA South East Reginal Winner 2017
British Homes Award 2016
Featured on C4 Grand Designs. Series 16
Supplied: Clamp Fired Mixed Ash Glazed Stretchers

DOWNLEY HOUSE

Location: South Downs National Park.
Architects: Birds Portchmouth Russum
Awards:
RIBA Award Civic Trust Commendation 2013. Sunday Times Luxury House of the Year 2013. Daily Telegraph Most Innovative Home 2013. Evening Standard Luxury House Award 2013. RIBA Manser Medal Shortlist 2013
Supplied: Wealden Sussex Sandstone Tooled Walling & Copings

OUR PROJECTS

TESTIMONIALS

"Many thanks for so cleverly making the replacement brick arches. We are really thrilled with them."

Randolph Churchill

"Lambs have always given us an efficient, professional and attentive service. When we were searching for a compatible stone for Chilham Castle in Kent. We were fortunate that Lambs were re-opening the only quarry now able to provide Wealden Sussex Sandstone."

Dr Archie Walls
Giles Quarme and Associates

"Traditional architecture relies on the quality of materials as well as on good design. The beauty of using Lambs products is that they enhance the quality of the whole building, whether for new or conservation work."

George Saumarez-Smith
Robert Adam Architects