One Thousand and Twenty Degrees

I went on a jaunt to the Lambs brickworks at Pitsham in Midhurst today to collect some special bricks for an upcoming project. By 'special' bricks, I mean bricks that differ from standard brick shapes - in my case I wanted plinth bricks, which have a chamfer to allow rainwater to flow off in a part of a wall where the thickness changes.

A handmade plinth brick from Lambs

I had originally tried to source some reclaimed examples, but they're as rare as hens' teeth. Not many are made in the first place and those that have survived years of assault from the elements and been reclaimed are often not in the best condition. I suspect those doing the demolishing are not sensitive souls when it comes to preserving bricks like these.

Off I trundled to Midhurst, in the hands of Googlemaps, where I eventually found myself driving along a narrow, unpaved track. I fully expected Google to bark 'make a u-turn', but silence meant I carried on until I arrived at a collection of farm houses and there, nestled in the overgrown hedge, was the sign - Lambs Pitsham Brickworks.

It's the first time I've visited the site and in my mind's eye I half expected to see large corrugated warehouses, beeping forklifts and a general hustle and bustle. But it was silent, except for one chap doing his chores amongst the piles of bricks and another sitting in the prefab office. I stepped into the office and spoke to a very friendly chap called Mark, telling him what I was after. "Yes, of course! Follow me" and we were off, walking down a narrow, brick lined avenue. He explained that the site was quiet at the moment because they were not making bricks - they have enough in stock for now. Right at the top of the avenue was a collection of very impressive, highly decorative chimney bricks, stacked as they would be when laid. Apparently, these were made to order - including for Merrow Farmhouse and Hampton Court - although I wasn't sure why they would have entire chimneys to spare. They've been sitting there a while, apparently.

Special chimney bricks. The example on the right was 'left over' from refurbishing Hampton Court.

We made our way to the stack of plinth bricks and fished out what I wanted. I said that I was surprised at how low rise the buildings were given my earlier preconception, at which point Mark kindly offered to show me around and give me an overview of the process.

Brick clay arrives at the brickworks from another site (it used to be quarried locally) and goes through an initial extrusion process before being temporarily stored in a large metal bucket. When they're ready to make a batch, water is added and the clay is left to absorb it over a few days to soften up. It then goes through another extrusion process before it ends up in a very low rise, long building to be made into bricks.

Brick clay ready to be processed.

When I say low rise, I mean I had to tilt my head to one side to stand upright. Perhaps it's a job requirement that you mustn't be taller than 5'9" to work there. Mark said that they will soon be pulling it down and replacing it with something more modern (and higher, presumably).

Clay is pressed into wooden forms lined with sand and cut with wire

The extrusion process makes the clay more workable and once completed, the clay makes its way to the low rise shed to be formed into brick. All bricks at Lambs are handmade the traditional way. Mark explained that despite the pressure for homes to be built in the UK, it's tough for businesses like Lambs at the moment. Cheaper bricks are being imported from the likes of Turkey at around 80p a brick, which is considerably cheaper than the £1.90 Lambs charges. I really want them to ride the storm - for heritage repairs, bricks made the traditional way are a far superior option to modern bricks.

The clay is thrown into wooden forms, which has sand sprinkled within to stop the clay sticking to the sides, and pressed down firmly. The top is then levelled off with a wire cutter. If you go to any reclamation yard and look at some of the oldest bricks, you'll see the tell tale sign of track marks on the underside where a wire has been used to cut it.

Newly formed bricks are left to dry for 6 weeks before firing

The newly formed bricks, of all shapes and sizes, are set on trestle tables and left to dry for around 6 weeks. This allows a good proportion of the moisture to evaporate from the bricks before they go to be fired. Firing takes place in a kiln at the end of the shed and happens in stages. If the bricks are heated up too quickly, any moisture trapped within will expand rapidly and blow the bricks apart. The bricks are placed in the kiln and the temperature is slowly increased to 300°C and left there for a few days, before being increased to 1020°C for a further 8 days. At the end of the firing, the kiln's temperature is decreased in reverse. Cooling takes days after, before the bricks can be safely moved and stored.

A fleur-de-lys wooden brick form

I enjoyed my impromptu tour and thanked Mark for taking the time to show me around. He said that West Dean College, which specialises in teaching the technical and practical skills for the repair and maintenance of historic buildings, invite Lambs over to give a demonstration to the conservation students each year. As it happens, I'm already enrolled on their Building Conservation Masterclass bricks course in September and so hope to see them in action then.

I'll share what I've done with the plinth bricks I bought in a new post soon!

#listedproperty #buildingconservation #periodproperty