More Bricks for Kaputnik « CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum

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More Bricks for Kaputnik

(22 posts)

Started 13 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
Latest reply from splitshift

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Wilmington's Cow
Member

There's a little bay beside the new eastern end of the Granton - Silverknowes - Cramond path which is just absolutely strewn with bricks. I'm hoping there's something kappers hasn't seen before, or has to do some research on....

Anyone able to read this? by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

NCB Roslin by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Whitehill by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Prestongrange by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Scott Terracotta by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Muir Armadale by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Vogrie by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Brick Beach by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Shotts by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Clechorn Cottage? by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Kilmarnock by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Southhook by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Craigend by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr

Posted 13 years ago #
kaputnik
Moderator

Anth has also hit the "brickpot".

I've only ever been at high tide. It's amazing what is just lying around on the shore.

The bricks come from all corners of the UK and probably span 150 years of time. There are structural, decorative, firebricks and plumbing bricks, ornamental and decorative and bog standard bricks. Must go back and try find something from outwith these shores.

A lot are quite well worn, I assume they come from demolition rubble around town that was dumped here to form sea defences. They aren't the sort of thing that would naturally accumulate on the sea shore for no good reason.

Posted 13 years ago #
Min
Member

Bricktacular

Posted 13 years ago #
DaveC
Member

Can anyohne tell me where the brick beach is please? I've riden most of the coast here, but never seen it.

Posted 13 years ago #
kaputnik
Moderator

Dave, it is here. You can even see the bricks from space!

Posted 13 years ago #
chdot
Admin

Plan your route -

http://www.cyclestreets.net/journey/to/55.983086,-3.239963/Brickbaytastic+%28probably%29

Posted 13 years ago #
Stepdoh
Member

Who knew I was riding past a bricky wonderland all those times. And all the other times I'd stopped fur a tattie scone and slice roll and gazed at the bridges I could have been looking the other way.

Posted 13 years ago #
alibali
Member

It's odd that the bricks Anthony has snapped are all pretty worn and yet the markings are mostly quite clear.

Maybe because they knock each other's corners off but the faces get less violent impacts? Anyway, suggests water isn't the thing doing the damage.

Any ideas kaputnik?

Posted 13 years ago #
kaputnik
Moderator

I did think about this and had three thought

One is that the bricks are compressed in moulds, to form the frog and stamp in the writing, then baked. Perhaps the edges are therefore naturally softer and more crubmly than the faces.

The next was that there would likely have been mortar filling the frogs (the recessed faces, with the stamped words in them), which has now worn off but has formed a protective coating.

Thirdly, the writing is recessed in the frog, therefore the tumbling action caused by the waves has worn down the corners and edges, but the writing has been protected in the recess.

Posted 13 years ago #
crowriver
Member

You can see light blue paint still on the side of one of the bricks, so clearly the flat sides are getting less wear than the corners and edges. Must be the rolling around when waves crash onto the shore. I suppose many ordinary pebbles were not originally round shapes!

Posted 13 years ago #
splitshift
Member

Craigend bricks. As a slight aside but still brick and cycling related.......
when we wre young,we would quite often head up to graigend brickworks, on home made mountain bikes or as we called em , scramblers ! The spoil from various pits was piled high and we would bomb about on bikes falling off gettin dirty and havin a ball !As we progressed in years we would head up to craigend of an evening to sit near the kilns and consume illicit alcohol ! PS Steins in whitecross is all but flattened now,worked there for 5 years. nearly killed me ! Horrible place ! some names spring to mind though, nettle, ndx,mullite, alro 80/85.thistle,baco etc etc.We also had special unmarked recipies for the mod ! used in old warship boilers !

Posted 13 years ago #
Cyclingmollie
Member

The back of our house is made of the Scottish Terracota bricks. They've very sharp arrises :0

Posted 13 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

not edinburgh, but bricks and modern buildings, with some interesting commentary: http://cairobserver.tumblr.com/post/9665085661/another-vernacular

Posted 13 years ago #
kaputnik
Moderator

I spotted the bricks that Anth had photographed as they had obviously been turned over and posed recently. I found some new ones of my own to add to the collection;

CLEGHORN TERRACOTTA GLASGOW

HAILES QUARRY

LBC PHORPRES 16

BELLSIDE

DARNGAVIL

HAILES

J. AGNEW CARLUKE

Sawn-off

GLENBOIG

GILMOUR & Co. KILMARKNOCK by kaputniq, on Flickr

The brick from furthest afield is the London Brick Corporation (LBC) "PHORPRES". Phorpres was a pun trademark for their bricks, as they were pressed four times (Four pressed, phorpressed, phorpres) before firing. Apart from the Kilmarknock porcelained brick, the others are all from the Central Belt, mainly West Lothian and Lanarkshire.

Posted 13 years ago #
Cyclingmollie
Member

One I found in a skip in our street.

Scottish Terracotta Company brick by Cycling Mollie, on Flickr

Posted 13 years ago #
spytefear
Member

An Armadale Brick!
Quick story off topic but then this is a thread about bricks...
My mum tells me a whole bunch of her school chums went to work at the brick works during the peak of their production. Years later one of these guys was living in London and very lonely. One of the other guys sent him a present to make him feel less lonely.
Yes, a brick. In the post.

Apparently they also sent him a Mono version of a Rolling Stones record he had asked this guy for should he ever buy the stereo version. It too went through the post, in an A5 envelope nicely broken into pieces and a pot of glue to re-assemble.

I don't think the guy in London was very popular

Posted 13 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"Quick story off topic but then this is a thread about bricks..."

QUITE!

Posted 13 years ago #
splitshift
Member

re sawn off bricks !
while working in manual wks, stiens in whitecross, we used to make "sets" these were ... sets of bricks that were for cement works and steel works .The steel works went to ravenscraig and conset, angelsey etc. These were for running hot molten steel, and had to be made to half a mill tolerances.....on a brick ! We would cut and grind bricks on huge rock saws and grinding machuines from the 1930s.Not a stimulating job at all ! Cutting corners of bricks all day !We called em bull noses, scones, end arch and side arch. We also had flues, which were almost cylindrical, had multi holes through em and were to an even smaller tolerance, apparently for flames to run through, again steel works things !I remembered also visiting Jawcraig brickworks near slamanan, that was like slavery ! God i hate bricks witha vengance !

Posted 13 years ago #
Arellcat
Moderator

One for Splitshift:

and one for Tom:

Posted 11 years ago #
Tulyar
Member

I've recovered bricks from Fireplace opening up, and building the cycle routes out to the West of Glasgow. I recall putting a stack of Kelvinside bricks up on Gumtree and a guy living in Kelvinside took them off to use for his garden.

Piles of Linwood and Elderslie bricks in the structures on the Lochwinnoch cycle route.

Posted 11 years ago #
Cyclingmollie
Member

Thanks Arellcat. My Scottish Terracotta Company brick was produced at the Lee works, Braidwood, outside Lanark, c.1895-1905 which is a mile from where my mum grew up. Cleghorn is near Forth where my dad grew up. Small world.

Posted 11 years ago #
splitshift
Member

@arellcat......
Thanks,memories of sore bleeding hands !
Slightly of topic,imagine if you can, cycling along the union canal, east to west, large square basin west of the avon aquaduct. just behind, slightly to the north, is a large spoil bing (steins ). If you ever get a chance have a clamber/ride about here,its actually piled on top of a village/hamlet. Cant remember what its called, its in the census, ill find it , you can still see remains of paths, gardens with flowers and the school wall, complete with lead and cast iron railings dissapearing into the bing.
Not much in the way of actuall bricks but lots of brickwork stuff dumped and sticking out of the ground. Its lightweight, grey sand (sillica?) and very easy to manipulate. Local kids have often created bike and motor bike tracks.
If your still looking for stones from whitecross then the car park is the only real part left, it was paved with whatever was lying about, prob old unused , out of date recipies. Dont think their is any security left at all now.
early day shift removing just fired bricks from the kiln cars were called the "burnt squad " used pieces of leather instead of gloves,almost knocked the bricks about rather than actually lifting them.I have seen bricks still red hot being put onto metal sheets in boxes to catch a ship in time. !
Ah nostalgia !

Posted 11 years ago #