GamlaVærket

Over 200 years ago, a man walked along the banks of Gandsfjorden, his footcloths tightly wrapped beneath coarse boots to navigate the sticky terrain. He may have paused to inspect a piece of gray clay through a monocle—perhaps even tasted it, listening for that telltale crunch. It was the surest way to tell fine clay from common soil.

On April 28, 1782, the Royal Residence of Christiansborg in Copenhagen granted Lauritz Smith Pedersen exclusive rights to produce bricks for all of Western Norway. This moment marked the beginning of Sandnes’ industrial history, unfolding on the slopes of Gandsfjorden. Pedersen established what would become Sandnes Tag- og Mursteens-Fabrique—later known as GamlaVærket—a pioneering force in Norway’s renowned brickworks industry and the very first of its kind in Sandnes.

With county commissioner, two tax collectors, two priests, and the sheriff of Høyland, Pedersen set about producing bricks: a horse powered the clay mill while every other task was done by hand. Within the factory walls a kiln fired with peat from Stokkamyra and cast a flickering light over the workers sweating for their livelihood. There were seven men in the pan team, six in the brick team—who had to keep a pace of twelve seconds per brick for 70 hours a week to earn a good wage, until the first brick-making machine arrived in 1873.

When Tjøl Larsen Søiland took the helm in 1807, the firm had already set the benchmark for Sandnes industry. More brickworks soon followed, along with busy potteries turning the town’s rich brown clay into barrels, chamber pots, spittoons, and storage jars. Sandnes bricks and ceramics earned a nationwide reputation, and the cheerful leirgjøk—the clay-cuckoo whistle that traveled by ship from Kirkenes to Baltic ports—became an enduring emblem, even gracing the city’s modern coat of arms. Today, you can trace those 200 years of craftsmanship firsthand at GamlaVærket Gjestgiveri & Tracteringssted, where the region’s industrial story lives on.