Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
in beauty for the regularity of the disposition and fineness of the joints, and has a
very pleasing effect.
The fine Red Brick is used in arches ruled and set in putty in the same manner;
and, as it is much more beautiful, is somewhat more costly. This kind is also the
most beautiful of all in cornices, ruled in the same manner, and set in putty.
By 'Gray' [grey] stock, Nicholson is referring to the 'London Stock' brick, gen-
erally clamp-fired, varying in colour from brown through plumb red to purple,
and where mixed with lime it would burn to the more familiar buff to yellow
tones. The latter suited the fashion of the period, as orange and red-coloured
bricks became less regarded; '…the colour is itself fiery and disagreeable to
the eye' (Ware, 1756, 61). The aspiring middle classes wanted their homes to
resemble the stone-coloured Palladian manor houses of the wealthy.
Lloyd emphasises the type of 'London Stock' employed for the gauged
enrichments:
The tendency to build with grey, cream and yellow stocks which became general
in London and its vicinity was not unconnected with the development of Kentish
and other brickfields where the available earths produced these colours, and
here mention should be made of those bright yellow bricks, called Malms, a good
example of the use of which is the elevation of Bath House, Piccadilly, and which
are still used for gauged arches, etc (Lloyd, 1925, 58)
'London Stocks' were in 12 grades, according to Dobson's writing of 1850
(Searle, 1936, 80), the premier grade being:
'Malms'. These are the best building bricks, and are only used in the best descrip-
tions of brickwork; their colour is yellow.
Alan Cox (Hobhouse and Saunders, 1989, 4) explains precisely the term
Malm:
In its pure state it was referred to as 'malm' and 'malms' or malm bricks and
considered the best type of London stock brick. The brickearth is high in silica
(about 65-75%), low in alumina (8-11%), and with a higher than usual lime
content of between 7-9%. Normally the iron oxide in a clay will tend to produce
red brick but lime will nullify this and produce a characteristic yellow- or white-
coloured brick (this is true of any yellowish or whitish brick whether it be a
London stock, a Suffolk white, or a yellow gault)…
In the London Stock range of bricks it was the malm cutters that were used as
rubbing bricks (Fig. 95).
