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Lexicon Kirkness bricks _____________________________________________________ JJ KIRKNESS established John J Kirkness Ltd. and built the Kirkness Brick Factory in Groenkloof under the name of Groenkloof Brick, Tile, and Pottery Works in 1888 and can be rightfully claimed to be the pioneer of the production of high quality bricks in South Africa. The factory was situated east of the fountains circle where the Groenkloof Campus of the University of Pretoria’s Education Faculty is today. This factory grew with the years and was capable of an annual output of 50 million bricks, plus a range of other clay products, such as clay pattern book decorative assembled fired clay elements such as columns and fireplaces, roofing tiles, quarry tiles, structural hollow tiles and decorative landscape earthenware. The Company operated another factory, also in the Pretoria district, with a capacity of 36 million bricks per annum. The cover of the 1931 Kirkness Catalogue was designed by REC BOWEN.