Front Cover of book
by RW Brunskill
Published by
Faber & Faber in 2000
ISBN 0 571 19503 2
Extract from page 48-49
SHAPE: Brickwork shows some variation in size and proportion when used in vernacular buildings. Early and inferior bricks were irregular in shape and size. Even after length and breadth had become standardized (see a) height varied to reach a maximum during the Brick Tax period and again in the Midlands and North during the 19C. (see b)
BONDING: Early and inferior brickwork showed no recognizable bond (see c). Then English Bond (see d) included variations in which one course of headers matched three or five courses of stretchers (see g). The later and more decorative Flemish Bond (see e) was modified to three or five stretchers to each header (see h). Occasionally header bond (see f), with each brick exposing its head, was used for display.
JOINTING: As in masonry the more irregular the material the thicker the joint. Thus, early, roughly shaped bricks required wide joints whereas the precise, machine made bricks of the 19C. showed very thin joints (see j). As a decoration, tuck pointing gave the illusion of fine joints to coarse brickwork (see k).
PATTERN: Different brick earths and different degrees of firing produced decorative effects. Among the most popular was the use of headers, virtrified by special firing to a metallic purple colour to form chequerboard, geometrical, diaper, or lettered pattern (see l and m).
MOULDED AND GAUGED W0RK: Bricks were moulded to crude classical forms (see n) but the skilful bricklayer preferred rubbed and gauged work (see o).
Bricks had been used in the Eastern Counties as a walling material for superior buildings during the Middle Ages, but came into use for vernacular buildings during the periods of Great Rebuilding in the 16C. and 17C.
The use of brick spread throughout the areas formerly dominated by timber frame construction and, in spite of the Brick Taxes which were applied with varying degrees of severity from 1784 until 1850, brick had become the universal building material in England and Wales by the second half of the 19C.
As well as encouraging new construction in brickwork, fashion led to the use of bricks as false fronts or in total encasement of timber framed buildings. The disastrous fires in towns and villages, culminating in the Great Fire of London, gave a further impetus to the use of this fire-resistant material.
A further advantage of brickwork over other forms of wall construction was the way in which decorative effects could be obtained comparatively cheaply. These included surface patterns, from the use of differently coloured bricks, and surface modelling, as in the imitation of classical details and string courses in brickwork.
Moulded bricks and terra-cotta came into use during the 18C. while skilled craftsmen cut, carved, and rubbed bricks to produce delicately modelled forms.
Where stone traditions were strong, bricks were used only for general walling, the dressings to quoins, windows and doors being of masonry.
During the first half of the 19C. when exposed brickwork had become less fashionable, the use of stucco in general imitation of stone meant that the decorative qualities of bricks were temporarily neglected.
SHAPE: Brickwork shows some variation in size and proportion when used in vernacular buildings. Early and inferior bricks were irregular in shape and size. Even after length and breadth had become standardized (see a) height varied to reach a maximum during the Brick Tax period and again in the Midlands and North during the 19C. (see b)
BONDING: Early and inferior brickwork showed no recognizable bond (see c). Then English Bond (see d) included variations in which one course of headers matched three or five courses of stretchers (see g). The later and more decorative Flemish Bond (see e) was modified to three or five stretchers to each header (see h). Occasionally header bond (see f), with each brick exposing its head, was used for display.
JOINTING: As in masonry the more irregular the material the thicker the joint. Thus, early, roughly shaped bricks required wide joints whereas the precise, machine made bricks of the 19C. showed very thin joints (see j). As a decoration, tuck pointing gave the illusion of fine joints to coarse brickwork (see k).
PATTERN: Different brick earths and different degrees of firing produced decorative effects. Among the most popular was the use of headers, virtrified by special firing to a metallic purple colour to form chequerboard, geometrical, diaper, or lettered pattern (see l and m).
MOULDED AND GAUGED W0RK: Bricks were moulded to crude classical forms (see n) but the skilful bricklayer preferred rubbed and gauged work (see o).
Bricks had been used in the Eastern Counties as a walling material for superior buildings during the Middle Ages, but came into use for vernacular buildings during the periods of Great Rebuilding in the 16C. and 17C.
The use of brick spread throughout the areas formerly dominated by timber frame construction and, in spite of the Brick Taxes which were applied with varying degrees of severity from 1784 until 1850, brick had become the universal building material in England and Wales by the second half of the 19C.
As well as encouraging new construction in brickwork, fashion led to the use of bricks as false fronts or in total encasement of timber framed buildings. The disastrous fires in towns and villages, culminating in the Great Fire of London, gave a further impetus to the use of this fire-resistant material.
A further advantage of brickwork over other forms of wall construction was the way in which decorative effects could be obtained comparatively cheaply. These included surface patterns, from the use of differently coloured bricks, and surface modelling, as in the imitation of classical details and string courses in brickwork.
Moulded bricks and terra-cotta came into use during the 18C. while skilled craftsmen cut, carved, and rubbed bricks to produce delicately modelled forms.
Where stone traditions were strong, bricks were used only for general walling, the dressings to quoins, windows and doors being of masonry.
During the first half of the 19C. when exposed brickwork had become less fashionable, the use of stucco in general imitation of stone meant that the decorative qualities of bricks were temporarily neglected.
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