Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
During the same period respected traditional brickmakers Bulmer Brick
and Tile Company Limited, based near Sudbury (Suffolk), began exploring
the potential of reviving production of rubbers. The owner Mr Peter Minter
subsequently provided trial rubbing bricks for use at Bedford College in an
arrangement that benefited both parties. The apprentices learned how to cut,
rub and set enrichments (see figures 164 and 165) and Bulmer Brick and Tile
Company Limited gained vital and on-going feedback on various test rubbers
regarding hardness, inclusions, workability, and suitability of purpose.
The only other traditional brickyard making rubbers at that time was the
Aldeburgh Brickworks of W.C. Reades (Suffolk), mixing their Chillisford clay
with their own loam sand prior to over-wintering, for both standard bricks as
well as rubbing bricks.
By the end of the 1980s there were only 205 brickyards, employing less than
12,000 people (Brick Development Association, 2003). A growing emphasis on
environmental issues, with vastly decreased fuel consumption and waste emis-
sions, was met with computer-controlled gas and oil-fired kilns and re-cycling
of combustion products within the firing. The Brick Development Association
(BDA), through its advisory centre and well-researched publications, sup-
ported these developments and promoted better use of well-detailed imagina-
tive brickwork and more aesthetically pleasing ranges of facing bricks and asso-
ciated green-moulded specials were introduced. By 2002, brickyard numbers
had declined further to 116, owned by only 45 companies employing 6,692
people (Brick Development Association, 2003).
The revival of interest in English gauged brickwork in the 1990s offered a
glimmer of hope to the traditional brickyards, unable to compete with the
financial and marketing resources of the larger brick companies. Those with
the correct raw materials could concentrate on providing their unique type/s
of rubbing bricks for the growing and relatively lucrative market in the
repair and restoration of traditionally constructed buildings. In addition,
the numerous extensions and new-building erected in conservation areas
required complementary designs, materials, and practices that reflected their
original surrounding properties. This proved moderately successful, though
the on-going problem of sufficient skilled and knowledgeable bricklayers to
do justice to the bricks produced was, and remains, a serious and constant
concern.
Modern Rubbing Brick Production
Rubbing bricks for use in cut and rubbed and gauged work must have spe-
cific physical characteristics to suit that purpose. Their properties and quali-
ties in general should also conform to the requirements of BS EN 771-1:2003
Specification for Masonry Units: Clay Masonry Units
, the European harmonised
