Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
clamp, would be graded by skilled and knowledgeable brickmakers; who might
also be bricklayers. Grading would be based upon degree of hardness, colour,
and dimensional accuracy, with the selected bricks being set aside for specific
uses within a proposed structure. Sound, well-burnt and dimensionally stable
bricks were reserved for facework. Over-burnt 'wasters', depending on distor-
tion, could be used as hardcore or in the foundations. 'Flared' headers, pro-
duced adjacent to the fire channels, were frequently reserved for laying as
headers to bond, producing decorative patterns in the face brickwork on the
principal elevations of a building. It is thought that this surface reaction was
the combination of the high temperature (in excess of 900ºC or 1652ºF) and
release of potash from the wood fuel in that particular area of the clamp or
kiln. This caused vitrification and discoloration of the brick face (Barksdale
Maynard, 1999, 33).
Great judgement had to be exercised by the brickmaker or bricklayer to
ensure the bricks set aside for cut and rubbed work were well baked and not
underfired, as the use of the latter would result in them failing in the weather.
Under-burnt bricks were termed 'semel', 'semeled', or 'samel', a combination
of the Latin 'semi' meaning half, and Old English 'aelden' meaning to burn,
hence 'half-burnt', as explained by Smith (1983, 5). Too soft and uneven of
texture and colour, they would not be used for features where durability was
required as with repeated wetting and the action of frost the 'semels' would
eventually 'moulder', breaking down structurally and gradually falling to pow-
der. Final brick colour was rarely an issue as colour washing, or 'ockering', of
the brickwork (discussed on pages 40-42) was a relatively common practice on
premier elevations, especially with high-status properties.
Hewen Bricks and Brickhewers
Bricks sufficiently fired to be sound, yet soft enough to be easily cut, carved
and abraded to suit particular angles, shapes and enrichments were then either
termed 'hewentile' (Wight, 1972, 66), or 'hewen bryke' (Thompson, 1960, 88).
The term 'hewen' is derived from the word 'hew', meaning 'to cut' or 'cleave'. At
Tattershall Castle (Lincolnshire) in 1438, 2,200 'de tegulis operatis vocatis hewen-
tile' or 'worked bricks called hewentile' were supplied for the chimneys and win-
dows of the (now lost) great stable (Smith, 1999, 3; citing Simpson, 1925, 26). At
Fox's Tower, Farnham Castle (Surrey), 3,000 'hewen bryke' were supplied in 1473
as the multiple concave and convex mouldings surmounted by trefoil corbelling
for the fake machicolations (Thompson, 1960, 88; Moore, 1991, 227).
Some commentators on English brickwork find it difficult to accept that the
majority of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century moulded brick enrichments, such
as jambs, mullions, arches, cusped bricks, corbel-tables, chimneys, newels on
