A few recent jobs have me looking at some very modern bricks ( well 19th century.) The stamps alone are hinting at a very interesting story about the development of brick makers in the 19th century - there are lots of small businesses, shome over the course of time are often partnered by their offspring, along with other brick makers. Some brick-makers have fingers in other peoples pies. There are also fluctuations of ownership of the clay fields and brick works. The quite staggering range of different brick makers commissioned to supply bricks for a single building is quite striking. Then at the turn of the 19th / 20th century there appears to be a major consolidation into a few
The whole setup to my mind makes a nice parallel with how commercial archaeology currently runs, with lots of ultra small companies competing and undercutting each other.Perhaps we can expect the emergence of a few dominant providers in the next few years?
There are a number of useful resources I will peg here in case I get the time to follow this through.in addition to product catalogues
Some Brick stamps
Information about the coal mines of Durham
and some archives
The whole setup to my mind makes a nice parallel with how commercial archaeology currently runs, with lots of ultra small companies competing and undercutting each other.Perhaps we can expect the emergence of a few dominant providers in the next few years?
There are a number of useful resources I will peg here in case I get the time to follow this through.in addition to product catalogues
Some Brick stamps
Information about the coal mines of Durham
and some archives