I recently revisited lovely Valentine's Park, just north of Ilford's shopping centre, on the east side of Cranbrook Road.
Adjacent to the park's junction with Beehive Lane there is Valentine's Mansion and gardens. The house is accessed via a curved path which is tiled in gorgeous little bricks, each approx15x4cm arranged in a herringbone pattern.
Some of the tiles, on the left side as you face the building, have a brand stamped into them. They read, 'Adamantine / Clinker. Regd.' in capital letters and, in all cases, the letter N is flipped – see how the diagonal goes the wrong way. Whether that was done on purpose, or it's just a delightful maker's error, I do not know. Notice also, that each brick includes a stamped illustration of what I think is the machinery used to produce them.
These bricks reminded me that I'd also seen the name Adamant before somewhere, and I don't mean the gorgeous 1980's dandy highwayman, though it's nice to revisit him and his double drum kits here. I instead mean I had seen brass letters embedded in the pavement somewhere in in the Crouch End area and I wondered if it might be the same company. I searched my files but, bizarrely, I hadn't taken snaps. That's not like me!
Well, today I re-found it... an Aberdeen Adamant access cover (probably to waterworks beneath) can be found in the pavement by the street sign for Elmfield Avenue, between the YMCA and the petrol station, just off Tottenham Lane. It's almost unnoticeable unless the sun is shining onto it, see here:
A quick bit of googling leads me to information about the company on The Other Aberdeen's blog. Thanks! Though he hasn't listed those brick tiles in Valentines Park.
And Maggie has found another example in South London – a metal ellipse in an Earlsfield pavement in hows the company also had a London office. A quick look at the 1899 directory shows Adamant at two City locations, in Cheapside and Bishopsgate:
That'll do for now, but if I do spot any other examples or find out anything else, I will add to this post.
