Another brick in the wall

Peter Hoare takes a closer look at some examples of the bricks and other products of the Barnham brickyard.

Architecture begins when you place two bricks carefully together (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe)

Edward Wortley displays the Estate's collection of
Barnham bricks and tiles.
Photo: Jordan Mansfield/Barnham Palaeolithic Project

The connection between Palaeolithic archaeology and clay digging and brickmaking in Barnham is well established. Many of the varied products from the Barnham brickyard are shown in the first photograph (together with Edward Wortley, the Estate’s archivist, who looks after this archive). They consist largely of red, white and black-glazed bricks, tiles and coping stones made from the two types of brickearth dug from East Farm. The carbonate-rich sediment exposed in archaeological Area III would have been tempered with non-calcareous brickearth to allow it to be fired. Details of sales from the brickyard are recorded in the single surviving ledger covering the period 1895–1912 held by the Euston Estate. It was during this time that two wings of Euston Hall were rebuilt following a fire in April 1902.

The watermill on the Euston Estate.
Photo: Jordan Mansfield/Barnham Palaeolithic Project 

The Barnham brickyard material, together with a small collection from other local kilns, are stored in the former mill on the River Blackbourne seen in the second photograph. The first watermill on this site was constructed in the 1670s; it pumped water to ornamental fountains and provided a domestic supply to Euston Hall. The mill in the photograph, an impressive brick-built structure, was designed by William Kent in 1731; it was converted to grind corn in the middle of the nineteenth century. The mill and its waterwheel were restored by the 11th Duke of Grafton as a Millennium project.

(With thanks to the Euston Estate, and to Edward Wortley in particular.)