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By Gay Peppin
On a sunny day in May, I strolled through
the new Brickyard Park on Clayhill Road and climbed to the top of a hill
to gaze out over the new subdivision and retail stores that have sprouted
like mushrooms on the northeast corner of Mavis Road and Dundas Street
West in Mississauga. There is little here to suggest that this was once
the site of  reportedly
the largest brick making factory in Canada. I picked up fragments of brick,
artifacts of a ghost industry, and stood in the abandoned baseball diamond
which once hosted the home games of the brickyard employees. These are
the only visible evidence of what once was the Cooksville brickyard. In
less than one person's lifetime, this site has been transformed from a
farmer's field to a thriving industry and then again to a bustling housing
and commercial site.
 The
history of this site begins, however, thousands of years ago when glacial
deposits of dense clayey and sandy till mixed with the underlying bedrock
shale to create the raw materials on this 300 acres which would provide
building materials for communities and cities across the country. Ontario
National Brick Company purchased it in 1912 and immediately began building
the factory and excavating the site. The Cooksville brickyard operated
under a number of different company names until the early 1990's when
it was closed and Jannock Properties Limited submitted plans to redevelop
the site to its present uses.
The factory had a complete water works,
an internal rail system, was capable of producing 300,000 bricks in 10
hours and at one time employed 400 men. During the early years, drying
machines and kilns were heated by coal and horses were used for transportation.
The coal was later replaced by natural gas and horses were traded in for
mechanical carts called Tip 40's. It was not an easy life working in the
brickyard. In early times, employees reportedly worked up to 13 hours
a day, six days a week and earned between 25 and 40 cents an hour.
The company began building housing for the employees in 1913. The brickyard
village, as it became known, consisted of four rows of brick homes and
boarding houses. Along with local residents, the Cooksville brickyard
employed and housed many immigrants of different nationalities including
Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, English and Irish. During World War II, the
Cooksville brickyard was commissioned to hold German prisoners of war.
Barracks were added to the property. Interestingly, the prisoners were
not soldiers but German merchant seamen caught off the shores of Canada.
They worked in the factory but were allowed quite a bit of freedom including
participating in recreational activities at the brickyard.
The employees organized a number of
sports teams including football, hockey, lacrosse and softball.  The
football team played in the Peel-Halton League series. Softball home games
were played in the brickyard's ball diamond on Dundas Street West, opposite
Mason Heights. The same ball park that stands as a mute reminder of bygone
days. On the less formal side, as a consequence of extensive digging on
the site, the brickyard had acquired its own pond which was used by some
for swimming and fishing in the summer and pick up hockey in the winter.
The Italian bowling game of bocce was also popular amongst the villagers.
The Brickyard Park continues the tradition of sports and recreation on
the site with two baseball diamonds, a soccer field, playgrounds and a
splash pad. The officially opening ceremonies for the park were held on
June 13 at 2:00 p.m. At that time, Heritage Mississauga displayed the
artwork for five historical plaques that interpret the site and will be
installed in the fall on the washroom/utility building in the park.
The plaques will also display Heritage Mississauga's website that will
provide more information on-line about the Cooksville brickyard. Sponsorship
of the five plaques has been received from The Iannicca Family, Jannock
Properties Limited, Daniel Zanon School and individuals who lived or had
family members who lived in the Brickyard Village. The Cooksville brickyard
may be gone but it is hoped that its contribution to this community will
not be forgotten.
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