Brick Business
BRICK BUSINESS This interest group looks at Bricks, Brick Architecture, old and new. If it’s made of Brick we discuss it! And just look around you – we live in Emsworth, Hampshire, a brick county. For very obvious reasons, houses and public buildings are constructed in the material that lies beneath the topsoil. In the Cotswolds it is stone, here we ‘harvest’ the clay and make it into bricks. That’s how it started. Now, our local brickworks (Lumley, Rowlands Castle, Hayling Island, Burrfields Road, Cowplain) have all closed and like many things, production is centred at larger works. These are concentrated in Surrey, Sussex and Kent, the Midlands and the North, in fact anywhere where there is suitable clay.
In the summer we go walkabouts, and we have already had very interesting looks at Fareham, Emsworth, Havant and Westbourne. Many of our members typically did not know one end of a brick from the other, but they now tell me that their lives have been changed…… Now when they go on holiday, they are not looking up to see if the sun is shining, or how far to the beach, the next coffee shop/ pub / ice cream parlour – no, they are engrossed in the next building – is it a clamp, pressed or wirecut – is that a dental course – look at the corbelling holding up that roof!
We meet currently in Mountford Three in the ECA at at 2:00pm on the fourth TUESDAY in the month. DO NOT THINK THAT THIS IS A MALE-DOMINATED GROUP! We have as many Lady members as Men! If you wish to join us, please email: Alan Borrow at brickbusiness@emsvalleyu3a.org. Any new member joining will be most welcome – there is no level that we have reached, you will slot in well!