This week we were very fortunate to have a site visit from David Cufley, an expert on brick production in the south-east. He has confirmed that the site is probably Victorian in date. This ties in nicely with a Victorian clay pipe bowl with a Masonic design found earlier.
He explained the method of production from the digging of the clay to it’s weathering for a year or more followed by ‘pugging’ (mixing the clay with water to allow the pebbles and other heavier inclusions to sink) in a ‘washback’ (a small pond clay or brick lined) after which the clay was removed and put into formers (moulds) then stacked in ‘hacks’ to air dry before finally being put into a kiln or clamp for firing.
As this operation could take a year or more so you certainly needed to plan ahead!
One of the attached photos is of the pipe bowl, the other three are of trench 2 which at this stage we believe is a ‘washback’. The search now begins for the locations of the ‘hack’ and kiln/clamp.
A big thank you to David for giving us his time.
