My brick collection 

Over the years I have accumulated bricks found in diverse places – over 120 by 2023 – and they come in many shapes, sizes and colours (click to see larger image). The pictures below are all at the same scale, and taken against a 1" grid, to reflect the actual differences in their sizes. I try to find out what I can about them all but if you think I've got something wrong, or you can provide more information then please contact me .

Some bricks have pictures of more than one face (see final column).

To see the pictures click on the thumb nails . If you just want to look through the pictures without coming back to the table, use the arrows at the bottom of each page to see the next or previous brick

The pictures are in several groups:
 

Wall bricks with makers mark

Brick makers often stamped the bricks with a distinctive mark, usually in the frog (depression on the top), but occasionally on the side. I have identified many makers from the marks, but a few are either illegible, or I can't find any reference to a maker using such a mark.

Click on the images to get a bigger picture (or pictures - see right hand column).

No	Maker	Inscription	Found	Notes	Approx size (mm)	Click image to enlarge	Pics
55	Accrington Brick & Tile Co, Huncote Accrington	ACRINGTON NORI	Wallsend, Northumberland	NORIs are iron hard engineering bricks. (NORI is iron spelt backwards)	66x101x214		1
74	Allan & Mann, Glasgow	.........ANN .....OW	Inveraray	Half brick	85x105x?		1
60	Ibstock Brick, Ashdown Brickworks, Bexhill, E Sussex	ASHDOWN	Wokingham, Berks	New build 2012	60x100x215		1
107	H J Baldwin Brickworks, Bunny, Notts	BALDWIN METRIC	Earley, Berks		65x110x213		1
100	Bovingdon Brickworks, Hemel Hempsted, Herts	BB	Wokingham, Berks		63x100x215		1
41	Binfield Brick & Tile Company, Binfield Berks	BB • TC	Wokingham, Berks		70x110x230		1
37	Cadder Brick Company Limited, Glasgow	CADDER	Glasgow	Burn marks, coloration	86x108x230		2
108	The Clock House Brick Company (Capel Surrey)	CAPEL	Wokingham, Berks	Cracks on reverse	63x100x210		2
72	CHH?	CHH	Bexley, Kent	Decorative edge	68x100x210		3
85	Darby Brick Co. Samuel Darby,Victoria Brickworks, Beccles, Suffolk	DBC	Donated by Keith Thompson (South Ascot, Berks)		63x110x225		2
12	Eastwoods, Peterborough	EASTWOODS FLETTONS			63x105x217		1
47	JC Edwards of Ruabon	J . C . E	Nant Clwyd estate, Wales	Bull nose	77x105x225		1
1	Eldon brickworks, Bishop Auckland, Co Durham	ELDON	Old works near Collier Law, Co Durham	Black mortar	70x110x225		1
50	Freshfield Lane Brickworks, Danehill Sussex	FLB	Nuffield, Oxon	In timber building frame (French)	66x140x215		1
44	Furness Brick and Tile Co., Barrow-in-Furness	FURNESS BRICK CO LD BARROW	Copper mines valley, Coniston	Mould marks	78x111x233		2
121	Benjamin Holmes, Kirkby in Ashfield, Notts	HOLMES KIRKBY	CWS Hosiery factory, North Street, Huthwaite (Donated by Martyn Fretwell)	Plinth stretcher	80x110x238		3
93	Hudsons, West Hoathly Factory, Sharpthorne, E Grinstead, W Sussex (now owned by Ibstock)	HWH	Donated by Keith Thompson (South Ascot, Berks)		65x100x215		1
7	Ibstock Brick, Ltd, Ibstock, Leics	IBSTOCK	Wokingham, Berks	1976 (~ Desford)	64x100x215		3
40	Ibstock Brick, Ltd, Ibstock, Leics	IBSTOCK	Wokingham, Berks,1985	Note holes not in 1975 brick	60x92 x214		3
2	Jones Bros. Pelaw, Co Durham	JONES BROS PELLAW			75x110x230		1
119	Ketley Brickworks, Brierly Hill	TLEY 06	Ketley Brickworks (reject)	Inscription sideways on side face	68x102x215		3
66	Keymer Brick & Tile Works, Burgess Hill, W Sussex	KEYMER	Pinkneys Green, Berks	Ridges on reverse	65x101x222		2
61	(?Possibly Kier & Cawder?)	K&C	Inveraray	On beach	75x107x223		1
104	Unknown	L	Wokingham, Berks	Under floor of All Saints Church	65x108x223		1
105	Unknown	L	Wokingham, Berks	Under floor of All Saints Church	65x108x225		1
86	Leeds Fireclay Co Ltd	LEEDS | FIRE CLAY CO | LTD = ENGLAND =	Donated by Keith Thompson (South Ascot, Berks)		70x110x230		3
14	London Brick Company	LBC PHORPRES		Key grooves, plaster	65x115x217		1
15	London Brick Company	LB-01-90		Sand faced Fletton	60x100x210		2
16	London Brick Company	LONDON BRICK		Sand faced Fletton	62x100x210		2
75	London Brick Company	LONDON BRICK		Common brick with kiss marks on side	60x100x225		2
101	London Brick Company, Marston Vale	MARSTON	Wokingham (Caroline Drive)	Sand faced Fletton	65x105x225		3
103	Henry George Matthews, Bellingdon Bucks	• HGM •	Wokingham, under floor of All Saints Church		65x100x?		1
114	Henry George Matthews, Bellingdon Bucks	• HGM 8  :	Wokingham, used in repair of All Saints Church		66x107x224		1
73	Middleton Colliery, Leeds	(a) ME&Co-LEEDS-LTD-ENGLAND (b) MIDDL-ETON-LEEDS	Wokingham (Garrick Wood in rubble)	Stamp on top & bottom. Part glazed	70x110x225		3
5	NCB Desford, Leics	NCB DESFORD	Wokingham, Berks	1955 note colour	63x103x220		3
6	NCB Desford, Leics	(NCB DESFORD)	Wokingham, Berks	1955 note colour	63x103x?		2
91	Pinewood Estate Brick & Tile Co. (Little Hungerford or Hermitage, Berks)	PINEWOOD	Donated by Keith Thompson (South Ascot, Berks)		65x100x220		1
106	??	R	Wokingham, Berks	Under floor of All Saints Church	67x108x225		1
3	??	ROBSON	Old works near Collier Law, Co Durham		60x110x225		1
87	Snedshill Brickworks, Lilleshall Company, ShropshireSB	SB	Donated by Keith Thompson (South Ascot, Berks)	Green glazed face	70x110x230		2
122	Stonehouse Brick & Tile Co.Ltd, Stonehouse Glos	STONEHOUSE BRICK & TILE CO LD	Donated by Andy		68x110x230		2
92	Southwater Brick, Tile, Terra Cotta, Pipe & Clay Co. Ltd, Horsham, Sussex	SOUTHWATER	Donated by Keith Thompson (South Ascot, Berks)		63x100x212		1
90	??	ST	Donated by Keith Thompson (South Ascot, Berks)		70x110x225		1
94	Straker & Love, Newcastle on Tyne	S&LBCo	Donated by Keith Thompson (South Ascot, Berks)		65x105x225		1
56	Warnham Brickworks, Horsham,Sussex	WARNHAM  SBC	Wokingham, Berks		67x105x220		2
8	Thomas Lawrence, Bracknell, Berks	TLB	Broadmoor, Berks (found with 9)	Different shape/size	70x113x202		1
9	Thomas Lawrence, Bracknell, Berks	TLB	Broadmoor, Berks (found with 8)	Different shape/size	64x102x218		1
95	Thomas Lawrence, Bracknell, Berks	TLB 29	Donated by Keith Thompson (South Ascot, Berks)	Shaped corner	70x115x230		1
96	Thomas Lawrence, Bracknell, Berks	TLB 7	Donated by Keith Thompson (South Ascot, Berks)	Chamfered corner	70x115x230		1
102	Thomas Lawrence, Bracknell, Berks	TLB 17	Wokingham, Berks	Rubble under 1920s floor of All Saints church	65x112x?		2
113	Thomas Lawrence, Bracknell, Berks	(a) TLB (b) PATENT	Wokingham, Berks	Sharp lettering	70x110x225		2
82	Thomas Lawrence, Bracknell, Berks (probably)	.... 20	Wokingham, Berks	Rubble under 1920s floor of All Saints church	?x?x?		1
22	Thomas Lawrence, Bracknell, Berks (probably)	TLB ?	Wokingham, Berks	Demolished site of AC Barnes, Oxford Road	66x103x215		1
21	Thomas Lawrence, Wokingham, Berks	* WK *	Wokingham, Berks	Machine made, Asymmetric frog on obverse	67x107x222		1
109	Thomas Lawrence, Wokingham, Berks	... WK *	Wokingham, Berks	Rubble under 1920s floor of All Saints church	68x100x?		2
110	Thomas Lawrence, Wokingham, Berks	* ...	Wokingham, Berks	Rubble under 1920s floor of All Saints church	70x?x?		3
111	Thomas Lawrence, Wokingham, Berks	* ...	Wokingham, Berks	Rubble under 1920s floor of All Saints church	70x?x?		3
11	Wealden factory, Horsham, West Sussex	WEALDEN		Burns & distortion	60x100x220		1
13	Ockley Brick Co Ltd, Smokejacks Brickworks,Wallis Wood, Nr. Dorking	<>-<>		Blisters, burning, kiss marks Known as 'Double Diamond' brick	62x95 x213		1
26	??	MWH			62x98 x212		1
53	Wealden factory, Horsham, West Sussex	WEALDEN	?	Distortion, heating	65x100x215		1
83	Star Brick & Tile Co	STAR NEWPORT	Shirenewton	Keyed inner face	65x105x220		2

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  Wall bricks with no maker's stamp

Click on the images to get a bigger picture (or pictures - see right hand column).

No	Found	Notes	Dimensions	Click image to enlarge	Pics
10	Winnersh, Berks	Cracks & distortion	65x110x220		1
17	Cambridge	London 'white'	65x105x?		1
18	Send, Surrey	Pale, cement?	67x102x217		1
19	Old works, Lough Corrib, Ireland	Uneven, light	50x80 x200		1
25	Keele, Staffs	L shaped brick, 'blue'?	68x113x266		1
27	New Malden, Surrey	Shiny	62x100x212		2
32		Facing	64x100x215		2
35		Broken	65x110x230		1
39	Wokingham, Berks	Shaped brick	65x105x225		2
45	Cheshire	?Dark cheshire brick? Inclusions	75x112x225		1
49	Blea Moor, Yorks	Probably made at Batty Green	180x105x234		1
62	Bramcote, Notts		75x95x?		2
76	Little London, Hants	Excavation of Roman brickworks	48x?x?		4
77	Blea Moor, Yorks	With spoil above tunnel	75x110x225		1
84	Silchester Roman town, Hants	Roman brick from excavation	60x?x?		1
97	Wokingham	Garden wall	90x92x190		2
98	Willingham, Cambridgeshire (Donated by Mandy Manning)	Shed chimney. Serrated shiner	87x105x215		2
99	Wokingham	Protruding nose with drip. Keying holes.	73x103x222		4
115	Wokingham	In wall of All Saints church	65x105x215		3
116	Wokingham	In wall of All Saints church	67x110x225		3
117	Wokingham	In wall of All Saints church	62x102x?		2
118	Wokingham	In wall of All Saints church	61x110x?		2
120	Ketley Brickworks, Brierly Hill	Brick slip (reject)	65x18x215		2

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Perforated wall bricks

  Modern bricks are often perforated. It reduces the weight and also reduces the energy needed to heat through the brick when firing it.

  Click on the images to get a bigger picture (or pictures - see right hand column).

No	Inscription	Maker	Found	Notes	Dimensions	Click image to enlarge	Pics
4			Old works near Collier Law, Co Durham	Sand faced	63x98 x215		1
28		??	Wokingham, Berks, Berks	Smudged edges	62x100x213		1
29		??		Pattern on rear	63x100x215		2
30		??	Wokingham, Berks	Chamfered corner	62x100x215		2
31		??	Arborfield, Berks	Slotted holes	62x100x215		2
58		?		Distortion caused by partial melting	65x100x225		1

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Paving bricks

  Paving bricks differ from wall bricks in several ways. They are normally much thinner and made of a harder material, to resist damage from damp. They have a hard wearing top surface, which is often patterned to help drainage and provide a better grip.

  You can click on the images to get a bigger picture (or pictures - see right hand column).

No	Maker	Inscription	Found	Notes	Dimensions	Click image to enlarge	Pics
89	Barnett & Beddows, Atlas Brick, Pipe & Tile Works, Stubbers Green, Aldridge, Walsall.	ATLAS	Donated by Keith Thompson (South Ascot, Berks)	Paving brick	67x110x230		2
48	Springfield Brick & Tile Works, Rowley Regis, Staffs	DOULTON	Wokingham, Berks	Diamond tessellated paving brick	50x120x244		2
52	Springfield Brick & Tile Works, Rowley Regis, Staffs	DOULTON	Near Frensham, Surrey	Plain paving brick	50x125x?		2
88	??	EDWARD VII CORONATION 1902	Donated by Keith Thompson (South Ascot, Berks)	Commemorative pavingbrick	67x110x230		2
36	Hamblet's Blue Brick Co, Atlas brickworks, Walsall	HAMBLET	Grizedale Hall, Cumbria	Paving brick	72x105x220		1
20	North Staffordshire Brick & Tile Co. Chesterton, Newcastle-under-Lyme	VITROS	Keele, Staffs	Engineering 'blue'	40x115x230		2
46	Sussex and Dorking United Brick Co, Southwater, Sussex	SOUTHWATER EPSO	Godalming, Surrey	Text on side, smooth, hard	48x105x217		1
24	??		Wokingham, Berks	Concrete paving brick, spacing ridges	60x95 x195		1
78	??		Wokingham Market Place	Surface replaced in 2018	65x95x200		3

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Odds and ends

Pictures of all of these are shown below.

 Gauge work – Most brickwork uses a generous thickness of mortar to absorb any irregularity in te size of individual bricks. With the advent of bricks that could be made to close tolerances, it became possible to lay them with much thinner layers of mortar. This 'gauge work' became a status symbol, because it showed the owner could afford accurately made bricks. The joints were often pointed in white to emphasise the narrow joints. The example I have came from a demolished house that served as the offices for a local motor business. I suspect the line on it is where something, eg a post, was attached to the wall, because the white pointing does not go behind it.

Internal colour – The colour of the finished brick develops during firing, and is normally different from the colour of the un-burnt clay. In most bricks, the whole body reaches more or less the same colour, but not always. I have some broken pieces of a modern brick that is red near the surface but grey in the middle, where the temperature was not so high for so long during firing.

Miniature bricks – I found a very small brick (53x73 x145) next to a demolished wall that had been built with them. Miniature bricks of this size were sometimes made as fireplace brickettes by several stock brick makers. This was confirmed when I was offered two more (55x75x145) from a demolished fire place in a house also in Wokingham, built in 1952

Brick souvenir – I bought this tiny brick (28x40x80) at Avoncroft Museum . This one was obviously made to be sold as a souvenir, but very small bricks were also sometimes used by salesmen as samples. If you think about it, carrying round a box of full size bricks as samples would be hard work. I know from experience of taking my collection to show people after giving a talk on brickwork . I found a picture of an even smaller brick sample here.

Brick laid frog-down – Frogged bricks should be laid frog-up, so the frog fills with mortar and provides a good bond. Laying frog-down is easier and uses less mortar, but the resultant voids in the frog provide a poor bond. I found this brick with the mortar still attached, and gaps showing the void.

Distortion caused during firing – Poor control of conditions in the kiln, or poorly mixed material, can cause the bricks to bulge during firing. For normal brickwork they would be rejects, but after the war, when materials were scarce, they were often used for garden walls. I passed such a wall in Oxford Road, Wokingham many times and happened to do so when it had been knocked down, and before the material had been cleared away. One brick has swelled about 40% in the middle, and the other has bulged about an inch at the end, with the protruding material partly vitrified.

Capping bricks – A freestanding wall two bricks thick normally has bricks set on edge across its width as the top course. Using shaped bricks with sloping or curved faces helps to shed rain water and reduce possible by water soaking into the wall. These can come in various sizes

Vitrified lump – Overheating bricks while firing them can lead to burnt patches, which sometimes become vitrified (turned glassy). The picture below shows an extreme example where about half a brick has become completely vitrified.

Cast of a frog – I was asked to help identify a 'very worn brick' found in a garden in Pinkneys Greem. It turned out not to be a brick but a lump of mortar that had teken the imprint of the frog og the brick below it. This included a mirror image of the maker's mark. Quite a bit of the red surface of what was presumably a soft brick had stuck to the mortar, giving the impression that it might be a brick (covered in mortar).

Click on the images to enlarge.

Gauge work found: Wokingham - Berks	Internal colour variation found: Wokingham - Berks	Miniature brick found: Wokingham - Berks (Rectory Road)	Miniature brick: Wokingham - Berks (fireplce 1953 Molly Millar's Lane)
Miniature brick: Wokingham - Berks (fireplce 1953 Molly Millar's Lane)	Brick souvenir: Avoncroft Museum - Bromsgrove - Worcs	Brick with mortar laid frog-down found: Theale - Berks	Brick distorted in firing found: Wokingham - Berks
Brick distorted in firing found: Wokingham - Berks	Capping brick found: Pinkneys Green	Capping brick found: Pinkneys Green	Capping brick found: Pinkneys Green
Vitrified lump approx half brick found: Pinkneys Green	Mortar cast of frog (CAPEL backwards) found: Pinkneys Green