Types of walls found on houses

Brick

The raw ingredients of brick are sand, clay and water. Before the 1830s these three ingredients were mixed either by hand or by animals driving a heavy roller around a mixing pit.

How to make a brick

(Photographs from our trip to Bore Place to make bricks)

Clay cut using a crook hold	Clay rolled in sand to prevent it sticking to the mould	Placed in wooden mould (a strike) and smoothed down.

Clay removed from mould	Hand made brick	Kiln

The colour of bricks depended on the type of clay used. Before the coming of the railways in Victorian times, bricks were mostly made of local clay.

Until 1800, most bricks were red from the iron in the clay used.

Other colours included:bricks

Whitish brick - Gault clay south-east of England
Brown bricks - Thames valley.
Silver-grey bricks - south Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Hampshire.
Dark brown - Yorkshire

Colour variation in old bricks also depended on the firing process and where the bricks were placed in the kiln. The bricks nearest the heat turned the darkest in colour and were selected to form patterns (diapers); those furthest from the heat were lighter in colour.

Types of Brick Bonds

Bonds are the horizontal patterns in which bricks are laid. There are five main types of bonds used in old buildings.

Old English Bond The oldest pattern. Popular during the Tudor period.

Flemish Bond This is one of the most attractive bonds and was particularly popular in Georgian buildings.

Stretcher Bond Stretcher bond is the commonest bond used today and the least interesting to look at.

Old English Bond

This is the oldest brick pattern. Bricks were laid in alternate layers of headers and stretchers. A 'stretcher' is a brick laid so that its side is showing, a 'header' is a brick laid so that only its end is showing.

Old English bond

These bricks do not look old. They have not been weathered much.
It is possible that this wall was rebuilt.

Flemish Bond

To escape religious persecution, the Flemings settled in England during late Tudor times. They introduced Flemish bond: headers and stretchers laid alternatively in each layer of bricks.

Flemish bond

Handmade bricks
Handmade bricks have creases in them

Old bricks are uneven in terms of shape and thickness. Proir to the 1830s, all bricks were made by hand.

Flemish bond

Flemish bond

Machine made bricks
Machine made bricks are smooth and all the same size

Flemish bond

Diapering

When bricks of different colours are used to make a regular pattern, it is called diapering.

Flemish bond

Flemish bond

Flemish bond

Diamond Diapering

Stetcher Bond (Modern)

Cavity walls

Stretcher bond

The bricks below look as though they have been handmade.
Can you see the 'creases'? They look like smiles.

Stretcher bond

Stretcher bond

The purple colouring is caused by the brick being placed
near the furnace in the kiln.

Stretcher bond

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