Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Wight (1972, 26) concludes:
…The shapes include segmental bricks for round columns, lobed bricks for roll-
mouldings, chamfered bricks and diamonds… At the Belgian Cistercian Abbey
of Coxyde [Koksijde] are similar shaped bricks. The conclusion must be that
Cistercians from the Continent, where brick was already established…carried out
or at least supervised the brick-making here…
The Cistercian monks revived the use of brick as a principal building mater-
ial in masonry in Flanders and the Netherlands during the late twelfth cen-
tury. By the thirteenth century Flemish bricks were being exported to England.
Certainly during the Middle Ages there was a tremendous increase in social
and economic intercourse between eastern counties and ports of England
and the Continent. Brickmaking and bricklaying were experiencing a power-
ful revival in the Netherlands, particularly in Flanders, and North Germany -
areas short in stone and which were united in trade and industrial discourse
through the founding of the powerful Hanseatic League in 1241.
Through ports at Norwich, Lynn, Boston and Hull, the east of England forged
trade links with the league, which were to have a profound and lasting effect on
English brickmaking and bricklaying crafts and promote a major 'Netherlandish'
influence on much of its architecture. The term 'Netherlandish' (Percival, 1989,
15), rather than Dutch, is considered a more appropriate word to include
not just present-day Holland, but all 17 provinces of the original (pre-1579)
Netherlands or low countries. Considerable quantities of Flemish bricks were
shipped into England for important works, such as 202,500 bricks from Ypres
(Ipers) in 1278 for the Tower of London (Wight, 1972, 26). As native brickmak-
ing techniques and production capacity proved capable, this trade declined. The
town of Kingston-Upon-Hull for example established a corporation brickyard in
1303 (Brooks, 1939, 156).
Bricklayers and the Craft Guilds
The emergence of boroughs in the late twelfth century was associated with the
establishment of merchant and craft guilds. Towns bought exemption from
feudal exactions, and the guild secured the livelihood of member craftsmen by
regulating craft practices, training apprentices and controlling the quality of
products. A licence from the monarch could only create a guild, which every
year paid a fixed annual payment to his exchequer.
There were two basic aspects of guild activities: the 'mistery' or 'mystery',
craft knowledge and secrets, as well as the regulation and control of guild
members, and also the 'fraternity', constituting a brotherhood which, encour-
aged by the Church, also helped relieve economic distress and encouraged a
 
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