bricks from the - Department of Architecture

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2 ship of Ann Los as well as to the happy relationship with the Brick Development Association through Michael Harnrnett.If I can maintai:l something of this standard I shall indeed be pleased. The Information plays a valuable r8le in providing members with knowledge and in allowing them to exchange ideas, and that value is enhanced by the relative frequency with which the publication appears. This can only continue, of course, so long as members submit articles and notes for inclusion. In Information 28 (November 1982) Ann Los had to appeal for material for the subsequent issue; judging from the size and quality of Information 29 (February 1983), that appeal brought a good response. I should therefore like to repeat it here, and ask members to submit material as soon as possible for issue 32 and for subsequent issues. I know of a county archaeological journal of which the complaint has occasionally been voiced that the same names appear in volume after volume. But, of course, an editor can only include material which he or shereceives. May I, then, look forward to receiving articles or notes from many members? I hope too that we can continue "the wide variety of articles that Information has contained in the past. In the present issue we range from the thirteenth century B.C. to very recent times and from the Middle East to the Isle of Anglesey. Contributions will be welcome on any aspect of bricks, brickmaking, or brick building, whether in Britain or elsewhere. As Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote (though, in paraphrasing the Book of Exodus, he was using the word 'tale' in a different sense): IGive us the tale of bricks as heretofore.' Terence Paul Smith Editor It's a Thought~ From Bleak House"by Charles Dickens, 1853 (Penguin edi tion, Harmondsworth, 1971, pp. 485, 488): 'The~rickJkilns were burning, and stifling vapeur set t~wards us with a pale-blue glare;... " 111 I don' t want no shel ter, 11 he said; 11 I can lay amengst the warm bricks." IIIBut don't you know that people die there?" replied Charley. 111 They dies everywheres, 11 said the boy. I
BRICKS WITH SUNKEN MARGINS R.J. a"nd PE. Firman We welcome the suggestion by M.G.Reeder 1 that some medieval bricks may have been made by pressing a frame over dollops of clay resting on straw. Not only is this a more practical and plausibletechnique than the I pastry r method invoked by several wri ters 2,3,4 to explain straw-face bric~s, it also provides a ready explanation of.a type of brick whose structure and surface markings have puzzled us for almost twenty years ~ namely, bricks with sunken margins. Nathaniel Lloyd suggested that these bricks were made on a stock whose worn margins had been 'repaired by a strip of leather or otherwise, the immediate effect .of which was to form a raised margin round the face of the Fig. 1. Irregular edge thickening (not always present) Sunken margin \. S.traw . impressions on under surface stock, whieh became a sunk margin round the bricks 1.5 Our dissatisfaction with thishypothes~s arises from the fact that all bricks ofthis type which we have examined have striae on the face which has the sunken margins (fig.l). Such striae are parallel with the long axis of the.brick and are consistent with the marks made when surplus clay was struck off the !£B of a mould (or frame). Therefore, if these are strike-marks, the face with sunken margins cannot have been resling on a stock when the clay was struck off. Nor is there any conceivable reason that we can envisage for this surface to have been striated after it was removed from a stock. The logical explanation is, therefore, that .the sunken margins were caused by something pressed down on to the clay. Deep straw impressionson the opposite face and adjacent edge thickening, which could have been formed by clay oozing out from under a frame, strongly suggest that the clay was resting on a bed of straw when it was moulded into a green brick. All the surface marking can be satisfactorily explained if it is postulated that these bricks were made in situ, as suggested by Reeder, and that the frame was reinforced by beading or strips of leather around its .upper inside margins (fig.2). This reinforcement would help to ensure that the clay was firmly compressed around the edges of the brick. Probably, after the frame had been placed over the dollop of clay and the clay firmly rammed down, the frame may have-been lifted slightly and then pushed down again so as to produce firm edges before the excess clay was struck off. Evidence of such secondary adjustments of the frame is shown by the steps in
Page 1 and 2: B R I'fl S ~J ~;). D R'"''~ C ,tr '
Page 3: BRITISH BRICK SOCIETY ce w ca .~ w
Page 7 and 8: straw, since similar structures mig
Page 9 and 10: 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. London, 197
Page 11 and 12: c '- watermill originally built ~14
Page 13 and 14: 1 2 Map 1 o 2 345 10 20 30 40 50 10
Page 15 and 16: measured by the writer at the Buurk
Page 17 and 18: 15 two years ago £220,000 was aske
Page 19 and 20: li Brownhi11 Brickworks, Newarthi11
Page 21 and 22: 19 its construction. Each of the ha
Page 23 and 24: 2; ACCOUNTS FROM ARCHIVES: EAST YOR
Page 25 and 26: EAST o I o YORKSHIRE i 10 Milu ' 15
Page 27 and 28: 25 BRICKS FROM THE 'MARY ROSE' (The
Page 29 and 30: 2, the Public Library), a curved bl
Page 31: BAN K. 0 LJT L E v E L LORI'JER BRi

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