Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The majority of these craftsmen, being 'aliens', some possibly from Germany,
but also from the Netherlands sharing the same general description of 'Doche'
(Deutsche or Dutch). The majority, however, were undoubtedly from the
region of Flanders to the south of the Netherlands, who were internationally
renowned masters in the art of post-fired working of bricks. They were much
in demand in fifteenth-century England, particularly in the years from
c.
1410
to the 1480s, as stated above. From that time Moore (1991, 216-17) states:
Brick emerged as a high-quality and decorative building material confidently
handled by English designers and bricklayers… Imported details such as diaper-
ing and the spiral chimney were assimilated and developed…By about 1520 this
impetus was largely exhausted, and the further development of brick decoration
was mainly confined to East Anglia.
In essence Flemish and later English bricklayers were viewing and utilising the
selected bricks capable of being worked in a post-fired state, as building stones.
It is, therefore, incorrect to assert (Wight, 1972, 50) that:
Brick was carved sometimes, perhaps in shallow relief…, but most shaping was
done by moulding - as in Flanders,…
Also, in comparing dressed English Tudor brickwork to its Flemish counter-
part, Wright (1972, 50) again incorrectly asserts that:
'Brick was carved sometimes, perhaps in shallow relief as at East Barsham
(Norfolk), but most shaping was done by moulding - as in Flanders,…'
In many early features of 'cut and rubbed' brickwork, such as window tracery,
the element might be given a coat of render to mimic the stone it substituted, as
at Gifford's Hall, Stoke-By-Nayland (Suffolk) of
c.
1490-1520, and Layer Marney
Gatehouse (Essex), of 1520 (Fig. 4). The use of rendered cut and rubbed and
purpose-moulded detailing was quite a common practice; and one that was to
continue in use on into the eighteenth century (Smith, 1987, 5-11).
The direct link with stone masonry at this time is very apparent. In Flanders a
brick was, and still is, termed 'baksteen', which literally translated means 'baked
stone'. In Calais at that time craftsmen termed 'maçons' (masons) worked and
laid a material that was referred to, in Latin, as '
lapides vocati brykkes' or 'stones
called bricks
' (Moore, 1991, 233; citing King's Works I, 427, n. 4).
The Flemish Influence
It is in the early fifteenth century that decorative English brickwork begins to
truly assert itself. This change is accompanied by an early flowering of the craft
