Brickearths, Pottery & Brickmaking in Gloucestershire
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N.S.,Vol.I.(4) BRICKMAKING IN GLo's'ri:-:Rsz~im1_=;. 22 BRICKEARTHS, POTTERY & BRICKMAKING Iurnonucnou. The subject of this paper may not appear, on IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE first consideration, either very interesting or very important, but most people should have some 1- av idea of how a brick is made and pottery is produced; and it is hoped that in addition to supplying this information, this paper will L. RICHARDSON, F.R.S,E., F.L.S-, F.G-5., not prove inacceptable to those to whom the selection of brickearths and brickmaking are Asia R. _i. Wliliii matters of more immediate concern. As regards land-relief, Gloucestershire may be divided into three parts—an upland, vale- land, and hill-valley district. The first bears the name of Cotteswold Hills, and is mainly capped with limestone; the second comprises the Vales of Bourton, Moreton, Evesham, Gloucester, and Berkeley, which are mainly floored with Lias clay ; while the third embraces from the northern part of the Bristol Coalfield and the Forest of Dean, -wherein both limestone and clay prevail. Hence, as might be expected, stone is the chief building-material in the first, Proceedings of the Cheltenham brick in the second, and stone and brick in the third. PART I. Natural Science Society In order that the reader may have a correct idea of where the deposits that have been utilised for brickmaking in Gloucestershire occur in the earth's crust, the following table is Part 1: Volume 1 (4) pp 223-232 (1909-10) presented (Table 1.). The Systems and Series Part 2: Volume 1 (5) PP 315-319 (1911) in italic are those represented in part or whole in Gloucestershire. In addition to this table, however, it is necessary to give a second (Table II.), to show the yet further sub-divisions of certain Series, and of these, those in italic have been tried for brickmaking, but have failed to withstand the test; while those in italic," and with ‘an asterisk as well, are being worked at the present Coa|ey.net time. In brief, the geological names of the deposits that are at the present time being worked in Gloucestershire for brickmaking are : (I) The Alluvium of the Severn-side, (2) The basal Upper-Lias deposits, (3) The basal Middle and topmost Lower Lias, (4) The red Upper-Keuper Maris, and (5) Certain of the clay-scams of the Coal- L. Measures. Pnoc. CHELT. NAT. SCI. Soc. Vol. I. (4) Platel G. S. Railton, P/wfa. PUG MILL AT LOWER LODE BRICKWORKS, near Tewkesbury. ._¢' .v~ 2 ' .'i-i£*:‘i\*r.f." 3'}/' 1 I‘ I’. _" ' \ 1'5 '~ --~ :'..\ 4' . v-s; “K -. .._ ‘ \ CRANHAM POTTERY 224. PROCEEDINGS CHELTENHAM _N-AT. - SCI. SOC.---I910.‘ N _S_,_Vo]_ L Bl{lCKMAKlNG Ix GLQ'5TE|{SH|RE_ 02 TABLE 11. ROCK cnoups PRESENT IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE. Ii f Holocene AZIuvz'um." _ Neogemh Pleistocene Certain sand and gravel deposlts. [Pal3eQge1'1e and Cretacic Abserlijtuigloucestersh1re.] BIII Portlandian Upper éiimiperidgian ora nan _ Oxfordian Malvern distrct. '-Q...-.|&._--g. Cornbrash l Iufaggig Q brddl EOFBSI C£vI?:l£bI€ 1 .1 e rea o 1 e GloucestershBreceiare.”in “bythe‘RepresentedI-Iaflield fl tiff» ' _ Fuller-s’ Earth. 07!- Inferior Oolite GinSandstoneoueestershiree wia Han doc Bedsa- ch ERIE-3 1' 1' OldRepresentedtherRedby r locks’ deilo 18 ll em‘ D{J_per* S Lower - M1ddIe"‘ and 0camsleaacme I10 1 Z0H 'oceneM Oligocene Lower UtflerMriddleLawn £1.RhaetKsuperMuse-hell-talk Bun!er UppeLowe UpperLowerUppeMiddl Lowe Ladle Wm I/aim Bale Llan Aren' Trema Ling1Man Harle Lower Lias* \||;'-5-pun:-up-I-I"\i|nY-i’ i'stP 1'Pcene iEocene Upperi ‘§ i ll l l u Rhaetic I - - { Triassic Iienper . Ur-wr Kwe-=1" 1"w'Is* , u U [M-qsehelkaik. Absent from Gloucestershire] J-Ha fl III Permian ' Bum“ I U1°P"* Fl ' Coal-M'¢'asures* Pennant-Grit is '1: fl fl H-6 I ogene - ac uric Qarbom'1erous iupper Millstone-Grit ‘Lawn’ Svs-rams. mass: rboni/erous rdovician ll Upper Limestone "Shales Ncage Palae Cretic T Pcrmm Ca Devonian Lower flvlountain Limestone .§i'i0-we-nail-IZ—|j"" \l\-_n-kt-iv-1-" ‘Si! - (Cambrian ]urass-. JO lLower Limestone Shales Devonian Old Red Sandstong and; ilférlsa S dsmne own on- as e an C CRUST.EARTH’STHEOFFORMATION IIII fLudlowian Shales zoic I Aymestry Limestone * Shales mi Hf! Silurian -{ Wenlock Limestone Iiozo Mesozoic Deuterozoie Proto Torridon(orLongmiandicmUricomhnforMalt-ernz‘an.Pebidian).(orLev.-is'an 'Wenloekian i Wenlock Shales mi "-_,._..-__‘_..-__.€_--/' . | - Woolhope Limestone Lvatentian (May Hill Sandstone) Ordovician T[Abseint from GIOh1iCti3SC8l‘SI1éIl‘f.I - d rema oc a vern a es an Archaean Cambrian gingulq-Beds }Hollybush Sandstone Neozoic Palaeozoic enevian s Harleeh Malvern Quartzite THEINPARTTAKINGOFCLASSIFICATIONI,-GENERALTABLETHEROCKS 926 PROCEEDINGS CHELTJINHA-M NAT. Sci. fioc.--i9io. N.S., Vol. I. (4) iBiiici<Miii<i1~ic IN Gi.o’s'rERsnii-in. 22 HISTORICAL Rnrnospacr. and required then, as it does to-day, chopped straw to make it at all adherent. In those Brickmaking has been engaged from very early days, as is still the case, most of the early times, and it is not" surprising to find bricks were sun-dried, and the few burnt ones that in the opinion of early man the practice that were made were employed in the river-walls had its origin with the gods. _ _The early and hydraulic works. Egyptian, meditating upon the origin of man, It is thought that brickmaking was a Royal concluded that his figure was moulded by the monopoly in Egypt."‘ Thothmes III. is believed god Num out of the black mud of the Nile, to have been on the Throne at the time of the and that into the nostrils of this image was exodus of the Hebrews. A sun-dried brick of breathed the breath of life. _ ' his reign, measuring 12” by 9”’ by 6%’, is pre- Many early peoples, desirous of accounting served in the British Museum, and has impressed for their origin, eventually evolved and developed upon _it his cartouche-—an oval with the hiero- this view; and early writers have it that the. glyph. signifying his name stamped on it. descendants of the sons of Noahgessayed, on Sun-dried bricks never became hard enough the plains of Shinar, the prodigious task of reaching heaven by means of a tower con- to withstand the action of water. This fact was made use of by Agesipolis, King of Sparta, structed of burnt bricks. who conducted the water of the Ophis along the Burnt bricks were made out of the clay that base of the walls of Mantinea, and effected their was excavated from the trench which sur- collapse; but for ordinary outside ware, a rounded ancient Babylon, and were used in stucco, believed to have been composed of burnt the construction of the city walls. _ chalk and plaster, was used to form a protective In Nebuchadnezzar's reign it was his_ custom coating. _ 1, to have his name stamped on_every brick, and Bricks, burnt and unburrit, were employed Sir Henry Rawlinson, the Oriental scholar, in in the construction of the great wall of China, examining the bricks in the walls of the modern which was completed in 211 B.C. This wall city of Bagdad, discovered on each bnck clear totalled about 1,250 miles in length, and averaged traces of the fac-.ci'mz'le of the Royal signature. 22 feet in height, and was wide enough at the Sun-dried bricks were extensively used in top for six horsemen to ride abreast. ancient times, especially in Egypt. WhBI'<_-"I. The earliest method of constructing shelters under Rameses II. (or Pharaoh'.- 3-5 11? 15 with the aid of mud or clay was that known as perhaps more commonly called),_ the Israelites “ wattle and daub.” This, probably, is the laboured in their gmanufacturex One can s_till reason why so few remains of pre-Roman see on the tombs of Thebes pictures showing habitations are now to be found. The Romans, the process of thebnck-making : some labourers who made both burnt and unburnt bricks in carrying the water Wherewith to temper the clay. profusion, introduced bi-ickmaking into this others Carrying clay -._to the m0i1l_dBl'5. Others. country, employing large flat bricks or wall- again, bearing Ofi.bl’1CI(S and laying them on tiles to bond their rubble constructions. Such the ground to dry ; and Y8t_O'lIIlBl'_S_C€-Il.l‘1“ylIlg oft wall-tiles continued to be used in England the sun-dried bricks __on_ shoulder-yokes to the until the rubble work was succeeded by regular builders. _The iiiii sigiiificance oi .ihe Biblwal masonry in Norman times. Even then the use statement _ that _“ Ye _ j.shall_ _n_o _m0re give the people straw to make bricks. a-‘5 hfifet-°i°"’-=1 of tiles did not go altogether out, for Canon let them go and gather straw for- themselves; *It may be of interest to add that Kaiser Wilhelm and the tale of the brick which theyndid make II. has a po"tt_ery and majolica-ware factory of his heretofore ye shall lay. before them, becomes own in Kadinen_ In order that the products of this more evident when it is-remembered that the factory may become more known the Kaiser has mud of the Nile then. as now. was the salt! opened a shop in the Leipsigerstrasse in Berlin to material in Egypt suitable for brick-making. exhibit his Kadinen ware. 228 Psoc. CHELTENHAM NATURAL SCIENCE Soc. 190940. N_S_,V01_ 1_ (4) BRICKMAKING IN GLo»STERSHIRE_ 22 Bazeley informs us (in litt.) that “ The Normans certainly used tiles made of brick-earth.