Oakwell Brickworks

[ColHut]

G’day All,

 

I am trying to identify how big these bricks/blocks are from Oakwell Brickworks at Ilkeston.

 

I can see that they are four times longer than they are thick, and about twice high as they are thick.

 

In the images below they are stacked in long files in parallel to form larger stacks with each file being finish with a hollow cross stack.

 

Anyway, despite counting courses, and comparing that with everything from the wagon width (about 8’) and the man pushing the barrow, (5’4”), 

 

See these three images:

 

I am trying to get their dimensions.

 

see also:

 

https://eastmidlandsnamedbricks.blogspot.com/2017/01/oakwell-brickworks-ilkeston.html

 

although the 1965 image may show a different pattern of brick.

 

regards

 

 

https://picturethepast.org.uk/image-library/image-overview/poster/dmag102501/posterid/dmag102501.html

 

 

 

Edited April 2 by ColHut
Clarity

[zarniwhoop]

Sizing of bricks in the 19th century can be a bit of a plunge down a rabbit hole. From your picture I make the following guesses:

 

1. The lengthwise bricks at the right are facing the camera (so top and bottom are out of view). For new bricks it is not possible to tell if they are facing, internal (lower quality) or specialist.

2. I think that the end-on bricks at the right are each slightly more that a quarter of the length (gaps between the face-on bricks.

3. The bricks at the left might be different, they are stacked with much more air between them.

 

I can't make out enough detail to see the main "wall" part of the bricks at the back, beyond noticing

 occasional gaps.

 

A guide to a little about imperial brick sizes in the past https://www.imperialbricks.co.uk/guidance/everything-you-need-to-know-about-imperial-brick-sizes :  note the modern (20th century) 'Imperial' bricks shown as 228mm by 108mm were variously 50 to 80mm tall.

 

For a deeper dive, try https://jaharrison.me.uk/Brickwork/Sizes.html (from the first page, heights of 42mm to 90mm).

 

A random search produced other sites suggesting special purpose bricks such as engineering bricks would be at the taller end of the variations.

 

In the absence of example bricks, all we can really say is that for the 19th century the likely length was 9 inches. So I suggest you work from that. For me, a more interesting question is what colours the bricks appear in the period you are interested in (i.e. after probably decades of weathering and smoke). Some of the bricks in the photo seem quite pale, others a deeper (red?) colour. In my own case, railway stations built in the 1860s and viewed in the 1960s tended to have very mixed colours of locally made brick - built down to a price, with added facings (pebbledash, I suppose) on the side facing the prevailing wind/rain. Better quality bricks used for facings on higher quality buildings were probably much more consistent.

 

Research the sort of building, and location, you intend to model. Then make your decisions, and when you are happy with them go for it!

[fulton]

Even modern "proper" stock bricks can vary, we were using Funton bricks, manufactured near Lower Halstow Kent, we were buying the cheaper "seconds" which were generally miss shaped and bigger, so the "gauge" thickness of each layer, had to be increased. My scene of Smeed Dean Yellow Stocks being unloaded, we still did it this way in the 1970s.

[ColHut]

I’m actually modelling a brickworks and so am having some 3d printed stacks made up.  The fineness of 3d printing is incredible.  What few photos of bricks from Oakwell indicate they are somewhat longer than twice their width.  Their is also the problem of lens distortion and lack of fine focus.

 

In the end I have decided to try a bit over 10”x 4.5” x 2.5” and see what they look like on the CADs.

 

Thankyou for the additional links.

 

regards