Brick By Brick

BRICKby BRICK

The humble brick has been around for several millennia. Originally made from sun dried clay, then kiln-fired clay, they’re long lasting and extremely strong.

Bricks are laid in courses, bound together by mortar to produce brickwork in a style of patterns or bonds. Some are structural, some are decorative and the range of names is extensive: Flemish, Monk, Sussex, Basket Weave and Herringbone to name but a handful. Look up at old brick buildings and inlaid in the brickwork, the date of construction, or the name of the local brickworks is often clear to see.

The brickwork industry existed across the county, in towns and villages making bricks with local clay, creating subtle, uniquely coloured products that varied from one manufacturer to another.

Bricks have their own lexicography; the ends are The brick may not appear to amount to much, but just as DNA forms the building blocks of life, the brick can be described as a form of DNA integral to buildings and social history, as Robert Veitch explains

Battersea Power Station

known as Headers, Beds form the top and bottom faces, and Stretchers are the sides. The depressions in the Beds are known as Frogs. Early bricks were of a size to be conveniently held in one hand, with the mortar trowel held in the other. As a rough guide the length is double the width, or thereabouts.

The mortar that binds brickwork these days may be made of sand and cement, but the lime mortar of the past has its own foundations in the local landscape.

The pockmarks of old chalk pits scar the Sussex downland. Quarried chalk

was burnt at around 900°C in limekilns to release the carbon dioxide, the remainder becoming quicklime. Once mixed with water a chemical reaction takes place and the dried out mixture is lime. In the building industry lime can be used in plaster, cement, or as mortar, binding the brick courses together.

Handmade bricks of the past would have been made on site, in a factory adjacent or close to the clay quarry. Shipped around the hinterland initially by horse and cart, then an early Austin A30 van or a Bedford lorry, these bricks helped create a unique identity to the oldest parts of any town or village. Decades later these areas remain distinctive and are unlikely to be replicated elsewhere.

Bodiam Bridge

Many towns and villages across Sussex have had a brickyard or brickworks in their time. One by one they’ve disappeared as consolidation within the industry slowly rendered them uneconomic. With mass manufacture, bricks and homes had become somewhat homologous, designed in a central office and

The lime mortar of the past has its own foundations in the local landscape

replicated across the country in fiscally efficient housing estates arguably lacking the character of their ancestors.

A few old brickworks still survive, and there are locations across Sussex where bricks are still made by hand, using methods handed down through the generations, locking the historical DNA into new buildings, into listed buildings in conservation areas, or into structures built by folk who admire the authenticity of something made by hand, one by one.

It’s mind boggling to think that a building block as simple as a brick can have so many variations in size, colour, constitution and usage. Over the years brick has lent itself to the construction of some magnificent structures.

The current and very picturesque Bodiam Bridge was built in 1797 for £1,150. It’s a single track, humpbacked tripled arched brick structure that has received improvement work in recent years and has long been subject to a weight limit.

The Ouse Valley Viaduct spans a length of 450m (1,480 feet), and consists of 37 arches up to 29m (96 feet) in height. It opened in 1841 and was built

Decades later with limestone slabs and 11 million bricks that were either shipped up the Ouse on these areas remain distinctive and unlikely barges from the Netherlands to be replicated or manufactured by local suppliers. elsewhere

The fourth Dungeness Lighthouse was built with three million engineering bricks and operated from 1904-1960. At 46m (150 ft) its beam stretched into the English Channel for 18 miles. It’s painted black these days and is open to visitors

Brooklands in Surrey may have been the world’s first banked motor racing circuit, but the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a close second. The Ouse Valley ViaductIn 1909 its 2½ mile lap was surfaced with 3.2

Local Builders in Mid Sussex

HELME & HALLETT LTD

We specialise in the alteration, refurbishment and extension of houses of any age, matching the materials and the style of your home from period to modern.

Members of the National Federation of Builders

Telephone 01444 454776

www.helmeandhallett.co.uk

Constructing solutions for our clients with care

The fourth Dungeness Lighthouse

The start-finish line at The Brickyard

million hand-laid bricks, of which a ceremonial 3 feet still remain to form the start-finish line. The circuit is still known as ‘The Brickyard.’

Battersea Power Station remains one of the largest brick buildings ever built. Taking over a decade to build in three phases. It took 6 million bricks to construct the power station, with over 1.75 million handmade new bricks used in the current renovation of the structure. More than just another brick in the wall, it was also the location for cover shoot of Pink Floyd’s 1977 album, Animals.

The job of a steeplejack might be one encompassing wonderful views, but it’s also one of great danger; “I’ve never fell off a big chimney. You only fall off one of them once,” said the reluctant TV star Fred Dibnah. “If you make one mistake, it’s half a day out with the undertaker.” The man who felled 90 chimneys during his life is commemorated in bronze in his hometown of Bolton.

Brick by brick, these small clay blocks have shaped the world in which we live, and although construction methods will continue to evolve, it’s safe to say that both the future and the legacy of the brick has been well and truly built. l

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