The beauty of bricks

• Brick-making was formerly a seasonal and drawn-out process. The unsettled political climate of Britain after the Roman departure may account for the lapse in use during the Saxon period

• Some of the most striking early examples in the late-medieval period were the private castles of grandees who had fought in the royal wars on the Continent and studied the homes of their French counterparts—take Caister Castle, Norfolk, and Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire

• Serious fires in towns and cities spurred the wider use of brick in the 17th century for its fire-resistant qualities

• The Brickworks Museum’s steampowered machinery and vast kiln chambers reflect the 19th-century move away from seasonality and the production of bricks on a massive scale for an expanding urban population