She was a bit of a celebrity in the small East Coast town where I found myself working just at the end of last week. This status was fully justified with a couple of published books on folklore and local characters including, this being previously unknown to me, a visit to the town by the Bronte's in the 1850's and with the later discovery in an attic of a large treasure trove of that family's documents and archives.
As for the "treacle bricks", well they are specific to that locality being a reminder of the days of clay pits and firing kilns which contributed to the rapid expansion of its urban area through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
It was of course not unusual for there to be a local trade in the excavation and manufacture of bricks in every population centre being well before the era of production on an industrial scale. I do know of a family in the area who still make their own building blocks using timber forms and their own clay which has enabled them to extend their home at very little expense if you discounted their physical labour input.
This particular town is arranged across a series of low hillocks which originated from the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age, around 11000 years ago.
Although predominantly in boulder clays this Pleistoscene Era depositry is also known for quite a mixture of soils, minerals and miscellaneous debris which was unceremoniously and laboriously ploughed along under the glacial mass to be left high and dry when temperate climatic conditions returned.
There is quite a problem of building subsidence amongst the housing stock in the town because of the instability of the subsoils with the incidence of damage tending to be on a cyclical basis with periods of drought or excessive rainfall saturation.
On the plus side the abundance of clay, and it is a very good quality clay, saw the founding and thriving of a large pottery business and although this ceased in 2000 the designs are very collectable and still change hands regularly today.
Just take a walk on the beach and you come across deposits of clay which are seemingly ready to just take away and create beautiful things with.
The "treacle bricks" were in fact a bit of a by-product and many regard their aerated slag appearance as being quite ugly and not worth a second look but when used to embellish buildings they are very distinctive and striking.
The house I was visiting was a traditional cottage from about 1850 and the glossy black firings had been encorporated into the render on the front elevation.
The photo above shows a hooded arrangement around the fanlight of the front door. The bricks are by their very nature very irregular again hinting at their flawed or "seconds" origins.
In closer detail you can easily make out the black treacle consistency which is also quite lava-like.
The same detail is used above the front ground floor window.
There are actually very few local buildings still retaining this unusual material but well worthy of preservation.
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