Archaeology

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 The excavated brickworks comprised three brick buildings. The three structures are associated with brick manufacture and most likely connected with the initial drying process of the bricks and subsequent firing of bricks and perhaps the mixing of clays. Two were of similar construction and dimensions (east/west orientated, 7.4m by 4.7m centre structure and 7.6m by 4.7m east structure), whilst the other is significantly different. All were partially demolished and the central and east structure stood to a height of about 0.5m whilst the western structure had walls up to 1m high. No structural elements related to the design of any roofing were found and there was no indication of the means (boiler house, engines, pipes etc) of supplying the intense heat required to fire the bricks or of any related machinery.

 

The easternmost building appeared to be a type of ‘scotch kiln’ comprising a rectangular shaped building with walls constructed of coursed brick with 1m wide central entrances (wickets) in the eastern and western faces and six opposing 0.2m wide flue openings equally spaced on each of the northern and southern elevations. The structure is built in two unconnected halves with the north elevation a near mirror image of the south elevation based on a centre-line drawn between the wickets. These twelve flues provided the openings to supply the heat to the interior of the kilns once the doorways (wickets) were blocked. The brick-lined flue channels were partially blocked with vitrified ash and cinder and the heat intense enough to affect the brick itself. Internally in-line with the flues, channels distributed the heated air between the brick product. Each of these channels was blocked along the centreline of the building for about four brick courses in height; this blocking was known as the centre bolt or ‘deadman’ (Hammond M D P, Brick Kilns an Illustrated Survey, Industrial Archaeology Review, Volume 1, No.2, Spring 1977, 171-179). The purpose of these bricks was to better distribute the heat evenly to the overlying product and also probably not to cause possible conflict between opposing heat sources arising from the flues in the north and south elevations. There was no solid floor to the structure but the base flooring comprised rows of bricks up to 0.8m wide with the gap between them used as the heated air channels. A quantity of what appeared to be fuel (charcoal and ash) was found at lower levels between the floors infilling the air gap. It is suggested that this fuel may have been for an initial firing/drying before the later application of intense heating. This kiln had a large quantity (up to five or six brick courses depth) of the last product firing remaining in situ which covered about a third of the available interior space. It is unknown why they were abandoned but they appeared to be of fairly poor quality. 

 

The centre building although of similar size and shape to the easternmost structure with twelve flues and two wickets was of a slightly different construction to it but could also have been a type of scotch kiln. The major differences were that firstly the walls had a single brick facing with a stone core and secondly that the structure had two solid brick floors, one lying directly above the other. The upper brick floor had cone-shaped patterns of intense heating opposite each flue opening. Vitrified materials were again present in all twelve flues with heating intense enough to effect a colour change to the immediate core stone. Oddly, although distinctly two separate buildings the eastern and centre structures were built with their southwest and northeast corners respectively butting, with mortar filling the 15mm wide gap. This proximity may indicate an operational procedure and means whereby the waste heat from one process is used to preheat the next product in the adjacent building. This structure was not as well preserved as the easternmost building and essentially was almost destroyed or taken apart down to its floor level.

 

The western building is quite different to the other two structures. Only about half of the structure was excavated (6.5m distance east/west) the remainder being preserved outside the operations area. It was a partially walled rectangular structure orientated on an east/west axis. The north and south walls constructed of undressed stone were only 3m in length and surprisingly the southern alignment was continued as a clay bund but not to the depth of the wall itself; the northern side continued probably as an entranceway built directly onto the natural ground level. The east elevation (of castellated shape in plan view) built with a single skin of brick with a stone and natural clay core to the piers, was 9m long and comprised six brick-lined ash-pits equally spaced between seven piers; the ash-pits (1m long by 0.3m wide by 0.5m deep) were set below the floor level of the structure. The piers, aligned east/west as were the ash-pits, were brick built and tapered inward to the centre of the pier over two to three courses of brick before flattening out to a level which corresponded to floor level. In plan the north, east and south sides of the piers are at right angles to each other whilst the west tapers over 0.7m into a point which corresponds to the distance the piers extended internally beyond the back wall of the ash-pits, making them about 1.6m long overall. Internally, aligned east/west and extending across the clay floor were the remains of laid rows (about 0.12m apart) of on-edge and on-bed bricks. Particularly noticeable between the piers, closest to where the heat source entered the structure, was intense vitrification which had ‘bonded’ many of the bricks together. The floor and core of the piers were formed using the natural clay which had been dug away to form the castellated pattern; the intense heat passing through or heating over a long period also caused the natural clay floor to become solidified to a depth of 0.3m over the whole floor area. The purpose of this building in the manufacture of brick is not yet determined.