Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
In other areas, the desire to copy this fashion for 'grey' bricks could be met
with such bricks as gaults (variously spelt galt, galte, and golt) from the bur-
geoning brickfields of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk; as well as
Kent and Hampshire (Fig. 96). Gaults are made from a stratum of calcareous
clay that lies between the Upper and Lower Greensand formation. There is,
however, 'widespread and indiscriminate use of the term ''Gault'' as a descriptor
for pale-coloured bricks, irrespective of their origin or physical characteristics'
(Firman, 1998, 10-11). Other calcareous white and yellow burning mudstones,
brickearths and clays exploited across these regions produced bricks that were
not gaults. The 'Suffolk Whites' are one such brick - 'the brickyards were 30 to
40 miles east of the nearest outcrops of Gault and Greensand'.
Figure 96
A gauged semi-circular
arch constructed of
gault rubbing bricks
to the Bowling Green
House, said to be 1735,
at Wrest Park, Silsoe
(Bedfordshire).
The best 'Suffolk Whites' were prepared and used as rubbers (though harder) for
gauged work. These were termed Suffolk 'cutters' or 'clippers'; many of these were
'imported' into the city for rubbed and gauged arches, such was their regard.
Of major significance to the use of brick in this period were the changes in
transportation with the advent of the canals from the 1750s. Barges, capable
of carrying up to 25 tons over 3,000 miles of national canal network, meant
that bricks were delivered much further afield, beyond their traditional area of
manufacture and use.
Brick prices varied enormously over this period and with rubbing or cut-
ting bricks continuing to demand a premium. On September 14th, 1733 Earl
Fitzwalter paid Methums, brickmaker at Blackmore [about 5 miles southwest
of Chelmsford] his bill of £6. 2. 9d for rubbing bricks; priced at £1. 5. 00d per
