Changes in relationship between brick making and transport

The relationship between extracting clay, brickmaking and transportation has always been a running issue throughout the history of this traditional craft.

From medieval times carting for short distances and moving by water for longer distances was the practice. Carting for longer distances involved disproportionately high costs, both for the transport itself and for mending roads damaged by laden carts.

The coming of the canals in the 18th and 19th centuries made available another means of water transport. Many bricks were made out of clay dug in canal excavations, fired and then used in canal barges offered a cheap and adequate means of transporting a heavyweight, high-bulk, low value item.

The advent of mechanical road haulage, first by steam lorry and then by motor wagon, introduced competition for the railways, but over short to medium distances rather than on the longer routes.

As long as delivery by horse and cart was involved, local brickworks could hold their own against those for distant, no matter how efficient. But once road transport became quick, cheap, efficient and universal, the proximity of brickworks to building site became less important and so we now have a regional or even a national pattern of brickworks rather than a local pattern.

(Brick Building in Britain: R.W Brunskill)

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