Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ploughshare vaulting and handrails, etc, were of 'roubed [rubbed] bryck'.
Some is from misunderstanding contemporary terminology, such as Jane
Wight's interpretation (1972, 100) of the words, 'of roubed bryck all the
shank of the chymnies', regarding the finishing of the chimneys shafts within
a
d
.1525 contract with John Eastawe, the chief mason and master bricklayer,
at Hengrave Hall (Suffolk). This phrase is incorrectly taken to mean that the
shafts of these chimneys were first built from purpose-moulded bricks and that
extra shaping and finishing was achieved by rubbing. Even today older crafts-
men still refer to elements of gauged work as a 'rubbed arch', or 'rubbed cor-
nice' etc, despite the fact that these would have been both cut and rubbed to
their desired profiles. Later Wight (1972, 102) argues that from
'…envisaged practicality and from the appearance of surviving Early Tudor chim-
neys that their ornament was usually, or mainly, moulded and not carved'.
Like many other non-practitioners, Wight shows difficulty in fully understand-
ing the nature and working characteristics of rubbing bricks, and the reasons
behind Tudor hewers cutting and rubbing them to various mouldings for their
decorative chimney stacks, and incorrectly summarises that (1972, 102):
The casual phrase 'cut and moulded brick chimneys' is, thus, misleading in its
suggestion of parity. I would argue from envisaged practicality and from the
appearance of surviving Early Tudor chimneys that their ornament was usually, or
mainly, moulded and not carved.
As Smith (1999, 3) correctly points out, one must be careful not to cause con-
fusion with the use of the term moulding in relation to describing a shaped
brick. It can be misleading as it is used to describe an architectural moulding
in a shaped stone or brick or, as is not the case with stone, being formed by
casting in a mould. He quite correctly suggests using a possible alternative
neutral term
shaped brick
, unless moulding or cutting is intended. An alterna-
tive way of avoiding this confusion is to state that a brick cut, or hewn, to a
profile has been cut-moulded; which is to be preferred. Because a moulding
is repeated in a building element was not necessarily a reason for casting the
shape in the green clay. Tudor hewers were highly skilled and the relatively
straightforward geometry of the fashionable shapes meant they could produce
precise post-fired cut-moulded shapes at a reasonable speed and without the
worry of those shapes shrinking and deforming during firing. As Moore (1991,
227) states:
An important part of a skilled bricklayer's work was the preparation of moulded
bricks; 15th- and 16th-century buildings often use them generously. The brick as
