By Tim Lambert
The first bricks were made about 7,000 BC when people in the Middle East mixed clay and straw. They used wooden moulds to mould the bricks. Simple, sun-dried bricks were not very durable, but in about 4,000 BC, people began drying bricks in kilns.
The Romans made vast numbers of bricks for their buildings. However, after the fall of Rome, brick making died out in Northern Europe, but it survived in Italy. In the Middle Ages, brick-making spread to Northern Europe again. Bricks were first made in Germany in the 12th century.
In England in the 13th century, brick buildings were made for the first time since the Romans left. By the time of Henry VIII, brick-making was a flourishing art. Famous brick buildings of that time include Hampton Court.
In the Middle Ages, ordinary people’s homes were usually made of wood. However, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, many were built or rebuilt in stone or brick. By the late 17th century, even poor people usually lived in houses made of brick or stone. In the 18th century, the use of bricks for building became even more common.
In the late 18th century, people began to make bricks with frogs. A raised block called a kicker made indentations called frogs in bricks. It’s believed that the kicker became confused with the Dutch word for frog, ‘kikker’, so the indentations became known as frogs.
In 1696, a tax on windows was introduced in Britain. Some people bricked up some of their windows. The tax was repealed in 1851.
With the Industrial Revolution, there was a surge in the demand for bricks, including specially shaped and coloured bricks. In the previous eras, bricks were usually made near where they were used, since they were very heavy and difficult to transport. The coming of railways meant they could be transported long distances.
New technology meant bricks could be mass-produced. In 1855, Henry Clayton patented a machine that could make 25,000 bricks a day.
Today, about 2.5 billion bricks are used in Britain each year.
A guide to brick bonding patterns
