Traditional Brickwork E-Book

Terrence Lee

• Herausgeber: The Crowood Press
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 325

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Used in the British Isles since its twelfth-century reintroduction into England from the continent, brick remains the most versatile of all building materials, standing as testament to the often-sublime skills employed in its use for construction. Yet, despite growing interest in historic buildings and the need to conserve them, many remain under threat from the ravages of poor practice and modern inappropriate materials. Traditional Brickwork is an informative guide to working with traditional brick. Based on the author's hands-on experience, it explains the manufacture and use of brick in England, revealing its characteristics and vulnerabilities. It also examines the survival of traditional brickwork and the practical methods to assess, construct, repair and maintain it, together with the necessary tools and materials. Featuring over 400 images, this helpful book will be of great interest to bricklayers, instructors and all interested in the use of traditional brickwork both past, present and future.

Leseprobe

Tattershall Castle by I. Greenshed

First published in 2022 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

[email protected]

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2022

© Terrence Lee 2022

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 7198 4142 2

Cover design: Blue Sunflower Creative

AcknowledgementsThe author acknowledges those who have provided help and assistance, including N. Charrington of Layer Marney, East Malling Trust and staff at Bradbourne House, Peter Minter for his assistance in Chapter 2, and all those on whose property I have worked and who have allowed me to take the photos of it – A. Ellis; P. Graham; J. Hoole; P. Kanas; N. Narramore; A. Richards; M. Standage; G. Whitfield; W. Zuk.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter One The Use of Traditional Brick to the End of the Eighteenth Century

Chapter Two Traditional Brick Manufacture from the Twelfth to the Eighteenth Century

Chapter Three Characteristics of Traditional Brick

Chapter Four Knowledge and Skills for Traditional Brickwork Conservation

Chapter Five Tools and Equipment

Chapter Six Materials

Chapter Seven Assessment of Traditional Brickwork

Chapter Eight Vulnerability of Traditional Brick

Chapter Nine Construction and Repair of Traditional Brickwork

Chapter Ten Gauged Brickwork Arch Construction

Chapter Eleven Lime Pointing

Chapter Twelve Maintenance of Traditional Brickwork

Brick and Brickwork Timeline 11th–18th Centuries

Glossary

Bibliography

List of Suppliers

Index

Introduction

This book is about the construction, repair and maintenance of buildings constructed from one of the most versatile building materials yet created – the brick. Wrought from the topmost clays or brick earth, bricks were manufactured in a way that remained essentially unchanged from the twelfth century until industrialization in the nineteenth century when much deeper, harder clays began to be exploited.

Only twice during the long pre-industrial period of brick manufacture covered in this book, did English brickwork reach levels of sublime skill unrivalled in Europe. Yet the repair of this brickwork was as ingrained a tradition as the construction of brickwork itself, a fact observed by Batty Langley (1696–1751), a commentator and architect who observed that ‘decay is the life blood of the trade’.

The intention in this book is not to try to elevate lime mortar-based traditional brickwork skills over those of modern conventional cement-built brickwork on a building site, any more than it is to place lime as a binder over cement in terms of their importance to construction. On the contrary, the aim is to regard them as two sides of the same coin, each equally important in its own realm; well-constructed new build on one hand and traditional brickwork conservation on the other, in the hope that the practitioners of each elevate their skills to a craft through the love and care that they put into it.

Whilst there are interchangeable skills in modern cement-based brickwork and traditional work, many would agree that the skills needed in the use of lime (the interpretation and approach to the myriad of variables in features, qualities and natures of brickwork found across seven centuries of historic brick buildings) requires a different and more varied set of skills. Yet, in undertaking the conservation and restoration of traditional brickwork, my own experience has shown that there should be a balance struck between maintaining tradition and efficiency, and economy of practice so that the skills can be adopted and executed by the modern skilled bricklayer who wishes to learn and bring the skills to site without being shackled too much by the past.

The knowledge and skills included in this book are based on personal experience of working on and studying a diverse range of traditional and historic brick buildings in different parts of the country. I have attempted to base the chapters on the knowledge which I have gained and found to be useful in my own journey within the brickwork craft, and in brickwork conservation in particular.

I have examined the background to the use of brickwork in England, its manufacture and spread, and provided examples of some brick buildings in different parts of the country and particularly those of the southern counties and West Midlands. I have investigated the identification and vulnerability of traditional handmade brick and set out an approach to its assessment and physical examination, as well as tools, materials and aspects of knowledge and principles to both inform and execute repairs. Finally, I have provided examples of some problems which can be encountered when using lime mortars and their maintenance.

Whilst I state from the outset that it is not possible to learn such skills from a book alone, it is hoped nonetheless that it will provide inspiration and information for bricklayers who want to enter the heritage arena, homeowners who are also the custodians of traditional properties and building professionals and enthusiasts alike who wish to understand more about some of the techniques which can be used in the conservation of traditional brickwork.

Chapter One

The Use of Traditional Brick to the End of the Eighteenth Century

Bricks have been used in an unbaked form for perhaps 10,000 years. The searing heat of the desert regions in which they were made baked them sufficiently hard for use in construction. From around 3500 BC, some civilizations such as the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires of Mesopotamia used baked bricks to great effect achieving an extremely high standard fired bricks, often lavishly decorated with coloured enamels, and laid on beds of naturally occurring pitch.

The Romans became consummate manufacturers of tiles and bricks, or tegula, both unbaked crudus or baked coctus. The large increase in population in Rome and other Roman cities by the late Republic (509–27BC) required buildings to be built taller and with baked bricks that were required for this purpose. The Romans possessed the technological skill required to do this and were able to exploit clay deposits to make bricks during their occupation of the British Isles.

Roman bricks, or tegulae, were in fact more like thick tiles than bricks as we know them today. They belonged to different size orders measured in multiples of palms of the hand and were serrated so that they could be broken into triangular shaped pieces. This facilitated their use in wall systems, such as opus testaceum, in which the bricks provided either a brick facing and/or one or more bonding courses for walls made with either a masonry rubble, or lime, concrete filling. Because Roman bricks have been found in Britain in this form, one could be forgiven for thinking that the Romans left brickmaking as part of their considerable legacy following their departure from the British Isles in 450 AD, but this was not the case.

Roman bricks were often used as facings or bonding courses with an infill of lime concrete.

Roman bricks continued to be used in Medieval walling as bonding courses in a lime and rubble wall. Reclaimed brick would have been used wherever it could be found.

Saxon and Norman Brick

When the Romans left Britain in the mid-fifth century, brickmaking of any scale appeared to lapse as there is little knowledge of any such production in this period. This comes as little surprise since the Saxon people who arrived in Britain, and pushed the native Britons westwards, were a timber-working people in a land where timber was still the most accessible construction material, particularly for ordinary people. By the seventh century, the Christianized Saxons carried out considerable salvaging of Roman bricks which can today be found in some of their early churches. Following the Norman invasion and conquest from 1066, stone masonry was used for such churches, too, but only after the Normans had fully established their conquest of England did the skills of masonry become adopted by the Saxons. Whilst there is little available archaeological evidence of Saxon brick manufacture, it is likely that their economic links with Europe and Christian pilgrimages to Rome must have made a deep impression on them, and that their experimentation with brick production was a likely consequence.

Medieval

Norman domination of England led to the gradual replacement of temporary timber fortresses with stone masonry structures, as well as the construction of cathedrals and castles. But the usefulness and versatility of brick was recognized as thousands of bricks were imported as part of the construction of the Tower of London in the late 1070s. In the twelfth century, brickmaking skills were reintroduced to England from the continent where there was already a tradition of brickmaking, the word brick derived from the French brique. Examples of early bricks can be found at St Nicholas Church in Essex and large numbers of Roman bricks continued to be used – when they were available – at places such as at St Botolph’s Priory. The artery of goods, ideas and skills was the Hanseatic League, a Northern European trading block which had ports in England, and which provided an important conduit via her eastern counties. The introduction of brickmaking skills in England can probably be attributed to craftsmen and brickmakers from Flanders, possibly Flemish immigrants fleeing war or religious persecution and who settled in the eastern regions of England around Hanseatic ports such as Norwich or Hull. The use of brick at this juncture was fashionable and expensive and used exclusively by royalty, nobility, the Church and seminaries of learning. Methods of brickmaking and bricklaying were gradually assimilated by the English with the first brickworks set up in the Hanseatic port of Hull by the end of thirteenth century.

St Nicholas Church, the Capella ante Portas of Coggeshall Abbey. Bricks here measure 330mm × 152mm × 51mm within its walls. These ‘great bricks’ date from the end of the twelfth century and are perhaps among the oldest Medieval bricks to be found in the country. (Photo: John Armagh)

Remains of St Botolph’s Priory, Colchester, Essex. Roman bricks continued to be salvaged and used where they could be found, such as in St. Botolph’s Priory, dating to the late twelfth century where large quantities were used. (Photo: John Armagh)

Reasons for the Spread of Brick in England

The prime mover of the introduction of brick in twelfth-century Medieval England was a growing population and prosperity of the country, largely as a result of the wool trade which set in train the introduction of brickmaking and brickwork to England, and which was to transform the built environment. The skills of both manufacture and use of brick were imported from ideas emanating from continental Europe, primarily from Flemish immigrants who were hired for their skills. The skills that were introduced were assimilated into the eastern and south-eastern counties of England where there was comparatively little standing timber and negligible building stone, but where there was an abundance of good brick earths and clays beneath their feet.

Brick was far cheaper to manufacture than it was to extract and shape a piece of stone of the same size and could be deliberately manufactured to a durable hardness and to a size convenient for use. It was also very versatile and could easily integrate into, or be used in conjunction with, other materials such as stone or flint to form composite walling, or with timber. The abundance of good brick clay in some regions enabled clay to be won and bricks to be manufactured close to, if not on, the site of construction making it highly convenient and far more economical. From a practical viewpoint, it was found to be less draughty than wattle and daub when built between timber frames, both storing heat and insulating against sound. It was also fireproof – a crucial factor in a built environment which consisted, for most of the population, of timber-framed buildings whose panels were infilled with wattle and daub, whose floors were covered with rushes and whose rooms were lit with tallow candles. It is no coincidence that because of the threat of fire, it would be the chimney stacks of lesser houses that were among the first elements to be constructed of brick in the fifteenth century.

A significant factor in our understanding of the spread of brick in England was the nature and condition of transport links. As late as the eighteenth century, there were barely any roads as such, but very often simple mud tracks which would have been treacherous, if not impassable, during the winter, and would involve the loading and offloading of carts to enable them to travel up steeper inclines, not to mention the potential for brigandage and robbery. Bricks, on the other hand, could be made and used wherever good clay was found and often near to where the building was intended to be built. This factor only began to change with the advent of canals in the late eighteenth century.

Brick already had a long tradition of use in the Netherlands, Germany and Poland, and where brickmaking had continued to develop after the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire. Now English royalty, nobility and the Church could demonstrate their largesse in a fashionable material that, quite apart from all the practical benefits as a fireproof material, could be either cut and shaped on the spot by the use of a brick axe, scutch hammer or the edge of a trowel, or deliberately moulded and fired into desired shapes for architectural enrichments or for decorative finishes and then finished in situ. It could be colour washed both to unify and add lustre to walling or arranged in patterns using contrasting brick colours and glazes, with the jointing painted or struck to form shadow and symmetry.

At first, many thousands of bricks were imported for use in high status properties and ecclesiastical buildings. By the thirteenth century, England’s eastern Hanseatic ports such as Hull, founded in 1290, not only provided a conduit for the importation of brick but in 1303 also became the first English town to have its own brickmaking facility. Because fine clay deposits were found to be abundant, particularly in Eastern England where good stone was scarce, it was only a matter of time before enterprising craftsmen – driven by the needs of the nobility and of the Church – began to make them in England.

Medieval Brickwork

Medieval brickwork focused on the desires of royalty, nobility and the Church to construct palaces and castles as status symbols and power projection in England and Europe. Ordinary people continued to live in timber-framed houses, with few lesser houses being built entirely of brick until the eighteenth century. Before the skills of brickwork and brickmaking were adopted in England and assimilated into working practice, brickmakers and bricklayers were often hired from the continent and commissioned to produced work of a very decorative nature including intricate coloured patterning of the exterior, moulded work and coloured joints and walls. Medieval brickwork tends to be generally irregular in composition, not least because of the wide irregularities of the bricks used but also perhaps due to the inexperience of indigenous bricklayers. Medieval brickwork, though characterful, can tend to be nuanced in appearance and can include such idiosyncrasies as the use of random sized cuts of brick in the wall and an inconsistent bonding arrangement on successive courses. Inconsistencies in brick length affected the arrangement or bonding of the brickwork leading to ‘straight joints’ in which one perpendicular joint appeared directly over another (inexcusable in modern brickwork) in a run of brickwork where a consistent overlap or bond could not be achieved.

Photograph of Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire 1434–35. The skills of brickwork were seized upon by English nobility during the Medieval era. (Photo: I Greenshed)

Yet another factor in the reason for the irregularities of brickwork in this period (and to an extent in later work, too), was the fact that English brick working was in its infancy and the skills had not developed or been fully assimilated from their continental cousins. It was not yet subject to the principles or rules of bonding which bricklayers would in time apply to their work, and which would be developed over the centuries and make the work more pleasing to the eye. Medieval masons who were used to working with stone appear to have treated the bricks rather like random stone masonry, in which the requirement for bonding was perhaps less stringent. Perhaps they were also driven by the need to minimize wastage of the precious commodity of brick, and to use any cut that could be put in the wall.

Two bonds of this era were English bond and English cross bond. These are the strongest of brickwork bonds and consist of alternate courses of headers and stretchers. Of these, English bond could be considered more austere visually. This bond gives the greatest strength (over appearance) of all bonds because of the number of headers projecting into the wall. It was a bond which perhaps provided medieval bricklayers, who had been used to working with stone masonry, assurance of strength.

English bond quoin indicating brick craft terminology. A ¼ bond, or lap, is achieved by use of a queen closer of approximately ¼ brick in size inserted after the quoin header. Note that when the wall changes direction, the bond changes. A=stretcher; B=header; C=bed joint; D=toothing; E=queen closer; F=perpendicular joint.

A queen closer is a full half a brick lengthways, whilst a closer is half a queen closer and used to produce ¼ bond.

English cross bond was very similar to English bond, except that a header is inserted beside the first stretcher on alternate stretcher courses making them visually less monotonous and more pleasing to the eye than English bond. It enables patterns to be incorporated into the brickwork by using selected coloured bricks yet is as strong as English bond. Medieval brickwork was of substantial thickness which, when measured in multiples of brick length, could be several bricks thick. This was considered necessary to support the huge timbers, or bressummers, used in construction of floors and roofs of the palatial buildings constructed during the period.

English cross bond is an optimum bond because it creates the stepping effect to enable the use of patterning whilst still as strong as English bond. Note the bonding arrangement at the quoin in which a header is placed after the stretcher on alternate stretcher courses.

Pattern in the brickwork was a common feature of the grand medieval brick houses and castles of the nobility and royalty. The patterns were arranged in all manner of shapes including saltires, crosses, diamonds, etc. They were produced by using bricks that had been fired to a dark blue or grey colour due to being closer to the heat source in the clamp. They were chosen to be laid in specific places on each course of bricks to achieve the desired pattern. Salt glazes could be painted on the ends of bricks to increase the number of these dark headers.

Joints were often thicker on bed and perpendicular joints to compensate for differences in brick thickness, sometimes as much as 25mm thick, and were used to bring the brickwork courses up to gauge where required and to offset the irregularities of Medieval brick. Medieval joints were given different profiles such as a double struck profile which, in effect, separated the thick joint in two thereby reducing the impact of such a thick joint. They could also be painted in different colours to create shadow and contrast. The mortar used was lime putty which was relatively soft compared to the hydraulic limes used in later centuries. Brickwork was often colour washed using pigments to achieve a consistent colour and which would make subsequent patterning and jointing stand out to great effect. For this purpose, natural earth ochres were imported from the continent just as they still are today.

A profile of a double struck joint. The point of the joint was rarely as sharp as this one shown, but the shadow cast by the lower angle could be particularly effective.

Brick Sizes

Medieval brick sizes varied considerably, some known as great bricks could measure as much as 250mm × 127mm × 50mm, the width being slightly more than the 100–105mm which has been consistent throughout the history of brick development. Such large bricks would have been cumbersome and inconvenient to use and would in effect be treated as masonry blocks.

Brickwork in the Sixteenth Century

Background

The Tudor Period saw an increase prosperity and wealth in the nation based on the wool trade and new opportunities for building farms and country houses on new tracts of land by the gentry that had been recently seized from the Church during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Henry VIII encouraged the construction of stylish properties by wealthy landowners from lands seized from the church by the Crown. The use of brick, now highly fashionable and more accessible, became high status, not only in the south and east of the country but also now spread into the West Midlands. Consequently, brickwork began to be seen as a craft to be undertaken in the same league as stone masonry. It was fashionable with key figures of royalty, the nobility and the Church who chose brick for their substantial palaces. The skills of the bricklayers reached new heights of excellence too, and this period is notable for decoration and use of colour. This can be seen in fine examples of patterned brickwork at Layer Marney Tower in which the clever use of bonding enabled diverse patterns to be created. Although in general there was at least a partial reliance on commissioning continental craftsmen and brickmakers, the skills of brickwork were now being assimilated by English bricklayers.

Layer Marney Tower in Essex (c.1520) is an exquisite example of brickwork and terracotta with sublime patterning and moulded brickwork, including label moulding, over the windows. (Photo by kind permission of N. Charrington)

Tudor Approach to Brickwork

Tudor brickwork was characterized by red brick, elaborate gate houses, vivid decoration and stone features, particularly around openings. Moulded brick was popular because it could be used to replicate masonry features, such as for label moulds, but perhaps more famously in chimneys. The chimney stack was one of the first manifestations of brick for many people as coal burning, which was becoming more prevalent, made the removal of smoke and fumes imperative. For those that could afford one, chimney stacks became a major focal point. Appearing in the sixteenth century, the degree of decoration reached in chimney decoration was epitomized in buildings such as Hampton Court Palace which was built in the early sixteenth century with later additions which continued to be incorporated into high end brickwork construction centuries later. These highly ornate twisted chimneys were constructed by manufacturing moulded bricks into specific shapes and then rubbing them in situ to a final finish. Elsewhere, use of the brick axe to cut a brick into shapes to be finished it in situ was a common feature of this era.

Brickwork Bonds and Joints

English bond, or English cross bond, continued to be used, because the latter provided the means to insert elaborate decoration in the form of patterned brickwork or diapers using grey flared headers of the bricks. A myriad of patterns was used, including diamonds, saltires, zig zags and crosses, in particular diaper patterns formed by coloured headers, but many other patterns too. Binder-rich mortar joints were still relatively thick compared to later eras. The joints often double struck which reduced the visual impact of the jointing on an elevation by half by dividing the joint and creating shadow.

Brickwork and Timber Frames

Timber framing was a method of construction in England for many centuries, and most of those buildings that survive were built in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. When brick became available, it became fashionable to have the panels of these buildings bricked up in a method known as brick noggin, which improved resistance to fire and was less draughty than the original wattle and daub that had been used for millennia. Sometimes, the timber frame was constructed on a brick plinth to form a hard-wearing and fireproof base for the building.

Brick noggin is sometimes found to be a ½ brick thick (approximately 100mm) which explains why stretcher bond was often used in this situation. Brick noggin is sometimes found to have been built against an inner core of rougher brick infill which was plastered on the inside. Sometimes, two skins of brick are tied together by the occasional header brick or occasionally simply a ½ brick thick wall. In 1605, James I banned the use of timber to build houses and although one reason was the threat of fire, he may have also been concerned that timber stocks should be retained for construction of naval ships.

Brick noggin in a timber-framed house. Brick can place stresses on timbers when used in this way. However, given the size of timbers involved some examples have stood for centuries.

Brickwork in the Seventeenth Century

Background

Although brick was still considered a material reserved for wealthier people, its use in the construction of chimneys and infilling between timbers had spread rapidly. Meanwhile, influences and ideas of the Enlightenment in Continental Europe, which had already been active for years, manifested themselves in England led by Inigo Jones (1573–1652). His knowledge of architecture of the Classical Roman and Greek periods led to architecture as a new profession, and inspired those that could afford them to incorporate these features into their new houses.

The prime mover for the spread and development of brickwork in this century was the Rebuilding Act of 1667 governing construction which appeared in the period after the Great Fire of London in 1666. A part of this was the prohibition of the construction of timber-framed buildings completely and minimizing its use in other elements of façade construction, and incorporating methods intended to prevent the spread of fire within the brickwork itself. This pivotal event changed the nature of building and the rapidity of the spread of brickwork which forever changed the built landscape, first in the cities – beginning with London – but then eventually creeping slowly into the countryside where timber-framed houses began to take on coats of brick as their owners upgraded them with this new and fashionable material. Many bricklayers came to London during this period to help with reconstruction. Known as ‘foreigners’, they helped to spread bricklaying skills further afield into the rural counties. Whilst the threat of fire presented the practical reason to rebuilding in brick, it also lent itself to the style adopted by those that could afford to build the new classism whose ideas were borrowed from the continent, in particular Italy, and which was introduced into England by Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723).

Patterned brickwork of 1607, a continuation of the style of the previous centuries, here used in conjunction with stone quoins. The brickwork appears to be English cross bond, yet is still quite random in the use of ½ and ¾ bats, a factor which no doubt aided the forming of the patterns made with flared headers.

A brick façade in Rye, East Sussex (c.1623), with a distinct Renaissance feel and straight out of an artisan’s pattern book, here incorporating classical elements including panels, ‘streight’ arches above the windows, pediments, pilasters and moulded brickwork with a plinth at the base. The bond here is English, still common at this time as a façade bond.

Brick Quality and Size

The seventeenth century saw technological advancement in brick manufacture which improved the quality of bricks, together with ideas and styles influenced largely by the Netherlands. They still had a very rustic quality, though, particularly in the first quarter of the century. Brick sizes vary between different qualities of brick and, whilst they might be consistent within one building, they might differ from another of the same period.

These rustic bricks belong to the building shown above and are very rustic in appearance, resembling those of earlier centuries. The original light mortar can be seen underneath, whilst the modern cement pointing placed over the top of it is dark grey in colour.

A high level of skills shown here both in brickmaking and laying. Moulded brickwork at the pediments and cornicing, and gauged indented arches above the openings creating shadow and contrast. The bond used here is English bond.

An axed brickwork semi-circular arch. Here the brick voussoirs are cut to a templet but made from the facing brick rather than a rubber used in gauged work.

An example of a brick plinth built on sandstone footing, c. late 1600s, in Ellesmere, Shropshire. Note the difference in brick quality of the brick and brickwork of the lower plinth and the facing brickwork above it. The finer red facing bricks measure 230mm × 105mm × 60mm, whilst those of the plinth are 235mm × 105mm × 63mm but with considerable variation.

Foundations, Plinths and Footings

Buildings did not have foundations as we recognize them today, but instead might have had brick footings. Footings may have consisted of several courses of brickwork below ground level and were built from bricks that would not pass for the best facing work, but which were no less durable and were very suitable for this purpose. A similarly hard yet less visually attractive brick might have been used to form a plinth under the façade of a house, whilst some country houses were built on large masonry blocks seated directly on the earth and which provided a stable platform on which to build the brickwork. Lesser houses sometimes had a footing consisting of brick on edge laid directly on the earth. Damp proof courses (DPCs) were unknown and did not begin to appear until the nineteenth century.

Brick on edge footing laid directly onto soil. Foundations were practically unknown in early domestic brick buildings.

Anatomy of a Seventeenth-Century Country House Wall

Later in the seventeenth century, it became fashionable to transform earlier timber-framed buildings into brick ones and imitate ideas and fashions emanating from London as far as budgets would allow. To do this, the method used was often to fill in the timber frame and build a skin around it of facing bricks. Quite often, this outer skin was not tied into the inner brickwork, so whilst a building may have had walls nominally two bricks thick or more, the outer wall could be of a skin of brickwork approximately 100mm in thickness.

Brickwork Bonds

English bond continued to be used in the seventeenth century due to its strength, but Flemish bond was up and coming, and first appeared in its truest form in the Dutch House in Kew, Surrey in 1631. The Dutch House was one of a cluster of important brick buildings built during the reign of Charles I, known as the Artisan Mannerist, which alludes to the whim of the artisan bricklayer in constructing brickwork features for their clients from pattern books influenced by designs from the continent. Artisan is a word that today is more often linked with certain types of traditionally made bread or beer, but even as recently as the 1980s it was a term used when referring to City and Guilds craft disciplines.

The external skin of this Shropshire country house constructed during the late seventeenth century looks, from the outside, like a solid wall in Flemish bond but is in fact only ½ a brick (100mm) thick. The bricks used for the outer skin are of a good-quality facing brick with good arrises and are consistent in colour.

The infilling of the timber frame of the original building was done with relatively poor-quality underfired bricks, or semmels, and in no particular bond. Random sized pieces of brick have also been used in this backing brickwork and these do not conform to the gauge height (brick and joint) to that of the outer skin. An avoidance of waste of materials was probably a major consideration in the construction.

From the mid-seventeenth century, Flemish bond became the bond of choice in brickwork until the beginning of the twentieth century. It was considered more attractive to look at than the austere English bond. Whilst weaker than English bond (it has internal straight joints), it was more economical because it enabled poorer-quality bricks to be used behind the front or face bricks, thus reducing costs. The Dutch House also demonstrates the first instance of gauged work in England. The term gauge simply means ‘measure’ and it suggests the degree of accuracy in preparation, setting out and execution of this sublime skill. Using soft bricks, known by practitioners of this art as ‘rubbers’, gauged brickwork can be constructed using extremely fine joints which are as narrow as 1.5mm. At the Dutch House, it has been used to construct the Ionic and Corinthian capitals either side of the front door. In some cases, gauged work during this period could appear more clunky and less refined than in the eighteenth century, but it was none the less used to great effect. Colour washing continued to be used to unify the brickwork of premier building façades.

Front view of Kew Palace, in Kew Gardens, London. Formerly called the Dutch House, it was a residence of King George III and Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The Dutch House demonstrates a first in the skills of the brickwork craft during this period. It is the earliest building in England where pure Flemish bond was used, in which alternate headers and stretchers are used on the same course. (Albertistvan CC BY SA 2.5)

Colour washing on late seventeenth-century brickwork, Montgomery, Wales.

Pointing and Jointing

Double struck joints were still used on Jacobean brickwork to divide joints (to provide shadow) which were still relatively wide due to the nature of the bricks. Another method was to strike the centre of the joint with a line produced by running a tool with a thin bladed profile over a straight edge. The effect of this was to divide the wide joint and to avert the eye away from the rougher edges of the rustic brick.

Brickwork in the Eighteenth Century

Background

For most of the eighteenth century, the Georgian Dynasty reigned, and their architecture was centred on those of the Classical Roman and Greek eras whose civilizations were revered for their grandeur, power, sobriety and order. Well-connected English travellers were inspired by the ruins of these civilizations and brought back ideas to England where they were quickly absorbed into building practice. The architectural basis of the ideal building was considered to be the Roman temple, but the philosophy of construction of this long era, encompassed three key principles of refinement, good taste and craftsmanship.

Ruled jointing on a form of Flemish bond brickwork, sixteenth-century, Cockshutt, Shropshire. The mortar used here is lime rich and was doughy and fatty in consistency to enable a neat and relatively deep profile like this.

A profile of a modern yet appropriate double struck joint in Canterbury, Kent, with a more rounded, rather than pointed, centre profile. The joint is achieved by running a trowel along the top and bottom arrises.

By adopting an approach like this, buildings of all types and sizes during this era achieved a greater degree of standardization than perhaps at any other point in history. Whilst on the one hand, a sublime quality of brickwork was achieved on the finest buildings, even the humblest of houses could show evidence of the bricklayer’s skill even if only a nod to the classical features. Although many grand country houses were constructed by the wealthy, the English townhouse was, and still is, perhaps the most ubiquitous landmark of this philosophy and can be found in many towns and villages of England. This century is notable, too, for the deceptions employed to make building materials look more refined (and thus more expensive). In brickwork, a notable example of this approach was tuck pointing which gave the impression that the building was constructed in gauged brickwork.

Sometimes corners were cut in the construction of brickwork to save time and money, and this was manifested in the use of bonding timbers inserted into the inner walls. These were intended to help to tie the brickwork together, to bring brickwork to level or simply to save on bricks used. Then, as now, there were bricklayers of different levels of skill and aptitude, some working continually on more mundane works, others on high craft enrichments.

Garden Wall Bonds

Garden wall bonds, such as English and Flemish, generally consist of three to five courses of stretchers to one course of the core bond (headers or alternate headers and stretchers respectively). Often used for the rear and sides of buildings, garden wall bonds required fewer headers and enabled poorer quality, though no less durable, bricks to be used. It is a feature of this era that the fronts of buildings were often constructed by bricklayers using a finer brick than the sides and rear.

The radical building planning laws and fire prevention, which were initiated in the seventeenth century, continued into the eighteenth century. It was found that a new system of rating buildings by floor space and value could help reduce costs by adopting a largely symmetrical and less flamboyant style of brickwork façade, which often consisted of a flat slab of brick masonry with vertical linear window openings and central decorative doorways, arches over the windows and culminated with a brick parapet at the top to conceal the roof. Generally, the eighteenth century saw the introduction of some pivotal technological improvements to the finished brick (seeTraditional Brick Manufacture from the Twelfth to the Eighteenth Century) and hence to the appearance of finished brickwork.

Town house c.1700, Church Stretton, Shropshire. Still drawing on fashions from the previous century, it has stone quoins and enrichments and gauged brickwork arches. This building would have been extremely fashionable in a rural county at this point in history.

Bonding timbers inserted into internal walls and could be prone to decay in damp conditions.

Bradbourne House, East Malling, Kent. Modernized in the Adam style in 1774, this exquisite building epitomizes the Georgian building philosophy in symmetry, order and craftsmanship and encompasses numerous brickwork features beloved by them. (Photo by kind permission of East Malling Trust)

Garden wall bonds consist of three to five courses of stretchers to one course of the core bond. Here, English garden wall bond with four courses of stretchers to one of headers.

Flemish garden wall bond here with stretchers to one course of Flemish bond.

Monk bond is similar to Flemish bond but has two stretchers to each header on every course.

The epitome of Georgian town house design displayed on houses at Bedford Square, London. Note the symmetrical layout, gauged arches above the windows and brick and Coadstone around the entrances.

Quality and Size of Bricks