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a unit cast in a mould might seem ideally suited to the continuous repetition of
a simple detail as a trefoil corbelling and window mouldings. Much of this was
however hand-carved, as is apparent both from building-accounts and from the
bricks themselves, the worked parts often revealing a core quite different from
the fired face.
Firman (2003) takes the latter part of this passage as an indication that the
medieval and Tudor bricks that were 'roubed and hewn' are unlike the rub-
bing bricks, of uniform texture and colour throughout, used for the more
refined gauged work of the seventeenth century onwards. Although it is pos-
sible to show some examples to support this view, especially where a 'roubed'
feature was to be stuccoed and appearance of the brick was of no importance,
the majority of 'roubed and hewn' enrichments show consistent and uniform
texture throughout. One need only study the cut and rubbed enrichments of
England's fine medieval and Tudor brick buildings to see this quite clearly. It
is unnecessarily difficult to cut and rub ornate mouldings on chimney stacks,
tracery, labels, and voussoirs, with bricks that reveal dark cores to the face, as
such harder bricks (practical experience has conclusively demonstrated) do
not respond favourably to cutting and rubbing.
This point was discussed with the late Nicholas Moore, who emphasised that
the majority of mouldings from these centuries were not cast from the 'green'
clay, but 'cut and roubed' to shape (Moore, 1991, 4). The words '…the worked
parts often revealing a core quite different from the fired face' simply indicate
that one can visually determine that the face of the brick has been removed
in the process of working, exposing to varying depths, textures and inclusions
in its inner body. The photograph of a 'Finely finished' crocket at Wallington
Hall (Norfolk) ( c. 1525), which Moore shows in his chapter, Brick , in English
Medieval Industries (1991, 219), serves to illustrate that point (Fig. 2).
Figure 2
Finely finished
crocketed finial brick,
Wallington Hall
(Norfolk) c .1525.
(Courtesy of N.J.
Moore)
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