Fireclay

Walking down to the River Derwent from Great Clifton becomes an exploration of by-gone industry with every turn and hollow representing the grass and vegetation covered remains of railways, spoil heaps, drifts and mines. 
This brick is now part of the footwell for a stone bench overlooking the river and from its smooth finish and buff colour will be made of fireclay.
Upon reading up, I found that Fireclay, is always associated with coal. Coal is the made from plants of the carboniferous age and fireclay is the soil they grew in So, when mining coal, fireclay extraction becomes a subsiduary industry . This was handy as the clay, being heat hardy, could be used to line furnaces. 
Thus, the nearby steel industries took a vested interest, and in 1918, the Millom and Askham Haematite Iron Company acquired a controlling interest in the Camerton mine, which from 21 January 1918 was known as the Camerton Coal and Firebrick Company, a brickworks being established by around 1900.