Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Frost and Boughton (1954, 60) record that 'Beart's Patent Bricks' are:
Made from a selected gault clay, They are hand moulded and kiln burnt, and of
similar colour and texture to white Suffolks. They are generally known as white
rubbers and used for similar purposes. They are made in two or three grades; the
first or best quality for high-grade work. In actual construction a lime putty joint
is suitable to the first grade of this brick….
Beaulieu Whites
These bricks were of a light straw colour, made from clay dug from the River
Beaulieu near Southampton. The bricks for gauged work were more like cut-
ters, being slightly harder than a rubber. According to Cox (2003):
In about the 1840s, the Beaulieu brickworks at Baileys Hard, graded its bricks
according to quality as best, seconds and thirds, while 'specials' were offered
including splayed bricks, plinth bricks and 'saddle-back' copings. Rubbed bricks
could also be supplied.
Chalfont Red Rubbers
Two types of rubbers, one dark and the other bright red were referred to by
George Gilbert Scott in
The Builder
of 5th July 1856 (1856, 364):
A great deal might easily be done, not only with moulded but with cut bricks, of
which some beautiful specimens might be found in the sixteenth century build-
ings about London. Bricks fit for this purpose could be obtained not far from the
Metropolis, at Hedgerley and Chalfont.
In spite of research by the author, it has not proved possible to locate the
exact brick yard or yards where the Chalfont rubbers were produced. It has
therefore been impossible to verify whether this production was at Chalfont
St Peter or Chalfont St Giles, although the latter area, only a few miles from the
village of Hedgerley, appears the most likely. Gilbert Scott in the above quote
of 1856 mentions both Hedgerley and Chalfont rubbers in the past tense. Yet
Messrs John and William Eastwood advertised 'Chalfont Dark and Bright Red
Rubbers' for sale amongst their list of buildings materials in 1858 (Fig. 120).
Certainly bricks capable of rubbing had been made in Hedgerley, near
Windsor, for many years and are referred to as such by Nicholson (1823, 344).
There is no reason to doubt that other suitable and exploitable sources of
brickearth/clay were not also available in other parts of Buckinghamshire with
prime access to the London market.
By 1881, trading as Eastwood and Company Limited, 'Lime, Cement and Brick
Manufacturers and Merchants', are still advertising, 'Chalfont Red Rubbers' for
