For 90 years, we have supplied red brick to Janakkala, throughout Häme, and far beyond. The good clay of Janakkala and the expertise of our workers have made our bricks well-known for their high quality. Sipilä Brick Factory Oy Leppäkoski – Phone 24.

Quote: Advertisement of the Sipilä brick factory, Janakkala then and now V, 1955

The most famous Janakkalans in Finnish history come from Leppäkoski. Uno Cygnaeus was born in Hämeenlinna on October 12, 1810, but spent his childhood in Janakkala at the Leppäkoski manor, owned by his father. 47 years later, actress legend Ida Aalberg was born in the side building of the same manor. The house of the master of the railway, where the Ahlberg family later moved, now serves as the Ida Aalberg Museum.

Like the rest of Janakkala, Leppäkoski’s history is also connected to manors, including the Leppäkoski manor, the baroque-style Vanantaan manor, and the Sipilä farm, whose distinctive and magnificent buildings were constructed from bricks from their own factory.

Bricks marked the most distinctive period of Leppäkoski. The clay-rich land of the area and the railway completed in 1862, which ran from Helsinki to Hämeenlinna via Leppäkoski, gave rise to a flourishing brick industry. Initially, clay was dug from the ground with shovels and transported to the brickworks by horse power. The bricks were made by hand and seasonally. Gradually, operations became mechanized, production grew in all three brick factories, and the daring chimney masons from Leppäkoski became world-renowned.

In time, element construction replaced masonry, and even the factories of Leppäkoski could not survive the difficulties in the industry. The last brick was produced in Leppäkoski in 1987. The beautiful and decorative Rauhaniemi chimney, reaching towards the sky, and the brickmaker’s monument, located near the Leppäkoski school, still tell the story of an era that lasted for nearly two hundred years and had a significant impact on the entire village.