COPYRIGHT© ROMSEY RECLAMATION LTD 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: HOSTED BY AH MARKETING
Bricks Reclaimed:
Machinemade bricks are harder and heavier than handmades, and the surface is
often smooth and shiny, although this is not alway the case. The machinemade
bricks are most commonly also known as `Wire-cuts` because a lot of them have
fine, close lines scored along both wide faces which are from where they were
made:
A wire much like a cheese wire was used to cut the clay from the top and bottom of
a brick mould, see below for a few machinemades. Note: not all machinemade
bricks have this it is only one, albeit common, method that was used.
Open 8am till 5pm Monday - Friday
8.15am till 12.30pm Saturdays
Closed Sundays
Reclaimed bricks are usually
divided simply into two kinds,
Handmade and Machinemade.
They are also available in many
colours; you can buy red,
yellow, orange, blue, purple,
brown, white, and black bricks
in both hand and machine
made, although by far the most
common are Reds and Oranges,
and every imaginable shade in
between the two.
The handmade bricks are
more expensive and are
typically older and with
much more character to
them, they have a rough-
textured surface and are
lighter and softer than
machinemade bricks.
There are myriad
descriptions of a
handmade brick, the
common ones are Soft
reds/Soft oranges (the
common colours of
course), crease faced
bricks, red rubbers (so
called because the
softness of the surface
allows a pattern to be
`rubbed` in using a hand
file or special tool,
popular in the Victorian
era but now almost
obsolete)
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The biggest challenge when buying or selling bricks is matching them up to
existing work, if you are building extensions or adjoining walls of any kind, or if
you just want to keep the new building in keeping with the appearance and
atmosphere of structures already in place what you must do, if possible, is get a
sample or 2 from the existing brickwork and bring it in to our yard and match it
up to our stock.
CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEW
Another speciality brick
that we always try to
stock is the `Tudor brick`,
these are thinner than
normal at 2" to 2.25"
thick, and are usually
used to build fireplaces.
They are not usually
quite as old as the tudor
period, but are amongst
the oldest bricks
available, usually 100-
200 years old or even
more.
CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW
There are various other brick types that are fairly
commonly known, although are used far less often
due to the area they come from or simply their cost
and speciality of application. For example, you can
get some Machinemade bricks known as 18-Hole
Bridgewaters
There are many ways to distinguish Handmades
from Machinemades, and it is a case of seeing
and knowing straight away to the expert eye, the
most common mistake that people make is that
any brick with a `frog` is a machinemade. The
frog is the indentation found in most bricks,
often in the shape of an elongated pyramid
inverted in the top of the brick, in other words
`cut-out` of the brick.
Which are very hard and have 18
holes in them much like the
common engineering brick.
The brief recent history of bricks in the
UK explains the most common
problem we face with using them:
Before industrialisation really took hold
in this country, every town in every part
of the UK would have had their own
brickworks, or brickmaker.
In the mid-victorian era when some of these
brickmakers became more strongly
established using the new machines they had
access to, some became the major supplier of
bricks and indeed tiles in their area, and many
of them continue today, or were at least
making bricks in the same style until the mid
20th Century.
The problem is now this: all these
brickmakers, successful or not, made
different bricks.
The various areas of the UK offer different
types of clay in any case, but within these
areas different methods were used, and
different people approached those methods in
their own way,
COPYRIGHT© ROMSEY RECLAMATION LTD 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: HOSTED BY AH MARKETING
CLICK ON IMAGES FOR A LARGER VIEW
CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEW
There are various other brick types that are fairly
commonly known, although are used far less often
due to the area they come from or simply their cost
and speciality of application. For example, you can
get some Machinemade bricks known as 18-Hole
Bridgewaters
There are many ways to distinguish Handmades
from Machinemades, and it is a case of seeing
and knowing straight away to the expert eye, the
most common mistake that people make is that
any brick with a `frog` is a machinemade. The
frog is the indentation found in most bricks,
often in the shape of an elongated pyramid
inverted in the top of the brick, in other words
`cut-out` of the brick.
Which are very hard and have 18
holes in them much like the
common engineering brick.
The brief recent history of bricks in the
UK explains the most common
problem we face with using them:
Before industrialisation really took hold
in this country, every town in every part
of the UK would have had their own
brickworks, or brickmaker.
In the mid-victorian era when some of these
brickmakers became more strongly
established using the new machines they had
access to, some became the major supplier of
bricks and indeed tiles in their area, and many
of them continue today, or were at least
making bricks in the same style until the mid
20th Century.
The problem is now this: all these
brickmakers, successful or not, made
different bricks.
The various areas of the UK offer different
types of clay in any case, but within these
areas different methods were used, and
different people approached those methods in
their own way,
