Brick Work in the 15th and 17th Centuries

The popularity of the material can be traced to the revival of brick making in eastern england in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. This was a direct result of lack of local stone, an increasing shortage of good timber, and the influence of Europe where brick work was used extensively. By the Tudor period the brick makers and brick layers had emerged as separate craftsmen well able to rival the masons. From unsophisticated early work, brick building entered its heyday, rivalling stone in its popularity as a structural material.

Bricks were generally made on site in wood, heather or turf fired clamps by itinerant workers. Not only were standard bricks produced but also many in extravagant and elaborate shapes, epitomised by those that formed the spiral twisted chimney stacks for which the period is renown. The Tudors further patterned their brick work by inserting headers over burnt or vitrified bricks into the walling. These dark surfaces ranging from deep purple to slate in colour, were laid carefully in quarter brick offsets in mainly English Bond or English Cross-Bond, to form a diaper or chequered pattern within the predominantly red brick work.

(Brick Work: The Historic Development by Gerard Lynch reproduced from The Building Conservation Directory, 1993)

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