Like many Victorian country
towns, Daylesford has countless buildings made from 19th Century
bricks. Also, like many Victorian
Country towns, their brick makers have become lost in time. This is sad because these buildings are a
lasting legacy to the art and skill of the brick maker. One such maker in Daylesford was George
Clayfield. Records are sketchy at best
as there are no family records in existence.
The recollections of grandson Horace George Clayfield at age 91 provide the only
living linc to the family and he was 91 when he wrote down his recollections in
1979. He died in 1981
There were George (senior) and
George (junior). It is likely that
George (senior) arrived in Australia at Adelaide as early as 1849. Shipping records do not record his arrival. He is reported to have walked overland to
Melbourne, where, on the way, one of their party, John Clayfield decided to
stop off. There are still descendants of
his living in Adelaide. The third member
of the party that set off from Adelaide was a Mr Tripp for whom H.G. worked
briefly. It is from this period that he
recalled some of the family story.
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| George Clayfield |
Thanks to the Daylesford Historical Society for this photograph
The Clayfield family migrated from Cornwall, possibly around Falmouth, although Many Clayfields came from Gloucestershire. After walking to Melbourne from Adelaide, George decided to go off to the diggings at Daylesford some time before 1860. George was a builder of great ability and he soon found ample work in the area. One of his most significant is the Maryborough Town Hall.
Photograph of Maryborough Town Hall, courtesy of "Trip Advisor"
In 1865, there were a number of
brick makers in Daylesford listed in the Commercial Directories;
David Smirl, Vincent Street North
Thomas Millar Jamieson Street North
Thomas Blakey East Street
Robert Archer Raglan Street
J.H.Strack Victoria Street
Thomas Weatherall Victoria Street
John Hobbs West Street
J Wells Top of Doctors Gully
Pietro Muschietti Brick and Tile Makers
Jack Eade Albert Street
James Brown Kendall
Thomas Rogers Old Brickyards, Top of Doctors Gully.
It soon became clear that he
needed to be more in control of the materials needed for his building projects
and he soon built a brick works in Doctors Gully and a joinery works in Raglan
Street. This allowed him to have a more
consistent supply of both timber and bricks for the many projects that he
tendered for. It also meant that he
could afford a lower tender price, having greater control over his materials, where
others had to either import bricks from nearby Ballarat or further afield, with
consequential cost implications as transport was not cheap.
The brick works was located on
the North side of what is now West Street, west of Raglan Lane. No records exist as to the type of kiln(s)
that were used, but initially, the bricks were hand made and it is likely that he used intermittent kilns, the first of which would have been Scotch Kilns.
Intermittent
Intermittent
As the name
implies, these are used to make individual batches one at a time. Usually these kilns are either clamps or
rectangular downdraught kilns that are sealed or “scoved” and the internal
temperature increased according to a specific process or timetable. After the
firing process is complete, both the kiln and bricks are cooled. The kiln is
left to cool sufficiently before the bricks can be removed. Due to the relative ease and cost of
construction these are the kilns types were primarily used in one-man
operations with low volume output.
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| Hand making bricks using a wooden mould |
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| Workers loading a Scotch Kiln |
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| George Thompson and his son outside a Scotch Kiln |
After the dried
bricks are loaded into the kiln, the ends or wickets are built up, and
plastered over with clay. At first the fires are kept low, simply to drive off
the moisture. After about three days the
steam ceases to rise and the fires are allowed to burn up briskly. The draught is regulated by partially
stopping the fire-holes with clay, and by covering the top of the kiln with old
bricks, boards, or earth, so as to keep in the heat.
It takes
between 48 to 60 hours for the bricks to be sufficiently fired, and they will
have shrunk to the appropriate size. The
fire-holes are then completely sealed with clay and all air excluded. The kiln is then allowed to cool gradually.
Fuel
About a half-ton of soft
coal is required for burning 1000 bricks. The exact quantity depends upon the
type of clay, quality of fuel, and the skill in setting the kiln.
Size Of Kiln
A convenient size for a
Scotch kiln is about 60 feet by 11 feet internal dimensions, and 12 feet high.
This will contain about 80,000 bricks. The fire-holes are 3 feet apart. These
kilns are often made 12 feet wide, but 11 feet is enough to burn through
properly.
Time Of Burning And Produce
A kiln
takes on an average a week to burn, and, including the time required for
crowding and emptying, it may be burnt about once every three weeks, or ten
times in an average season. This will produce about 800,000 bricks, that is
about as many as would be turned out by two moulders in full work. The bricks in the centre of the kiln are
generally well burnt. Those at the bottom are likely to be very hard, some
clinkered. Those at the top are often badly burnt, soft, and unfit for exterior
work.
Bricks
Clay bricks came in two basic types;
These are very costly to produce, as they are quite
labour intensive. It is only a specialist or boutique company that could
or would make them today. They are made by throwing a lump of clay into a
mould and then cutting off any excess. Sometimes machine-made bricks are
treated to give them a rough or irregular appearance to imitate a hand-made
brick. These bricks are made from clay that has been mixed (pugged) with
water. This process is known as
“tempering” to make the clay workable.
Too much or too little water changes the quality of the bricks.
These bricks may have
been produced later by George, we just don’t know. They also came in two types;
Semi-dry plastic. The clay is mixed with up
to 12% water depending on the clay. The mix has to be sufficiently dry to
fall into a mould using its own weight. The clay is then formed under
pressure into a frogged brick. These bricks have smooth faces and sharp
edges. Dry pressed bricks have a cork-like appearance.
Stiff plastic. The clay for these bricks has
slightly higher water content (up to 17%). The clay is forced under
pressure from an auger into a mould. The rough brick is then put into a
second mould for a final pressing. The texture of these bricks is rougher
than a semi-plastic brick. Wet-pressed
bricks are very strong bricks, with a smoother, denser surface.
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| Bradley and Craven Brick Press |
Facing bricks are (firsts) bricks that are intended
to be visible and are thus designed with some aesthetic aims in mind so that
they are visually interesting or appealing. Many brick
makers produce facing bricks, using a variety of techniques. As
the name implies, facing bricks are specifically designed to be used as facing,
for example on the exterior of a wall, where the bricks will be seen.
These bricks may lack the tensile strength of
engineering bricks, which are used for structural brickwork, although facing
bricks can be used for structural applications in some cases. Face
Bricks are also wire cut, but are of higher quality, with an
added surface effect on one side that’s visible when laid. They
are specifically hard-burned for use in exposed wall surfaces and are able to
withstand all kinds of weather and environmental conditions.
These bricks are designed to have a neat, even
appearance. They also tend to be made from materials which are
attractive, since they will comprise the actual face of a building and will be
the first thing people encounter when approaching. While facing bricks
can come in classic red, it's also possible to find them in other colors.
Some bricks may have inclusions that add visual texture and facing bricks can
also be stamped with motifs or designs to make them more attractive.
Facing bricks can be extruded or moulded and in some cases may be made by hand,
although handmade bricks are quite expensive. In some larger brickworks,
special Draggers were employed to only handle face bricks.
Commons
These bricks are lower quality bricks, without
special finishes, making them cheaper, and are used where they’re not
visible. They are also called hard bricks or building bricks. They
are mainly used for internal brickwork and have low compressive strength. Commons
are used in general work with no special attractive appearances. When these
bricks are used in walls, they may require plastering or rendering. The
color and surface texture of common bricks might vary greatly since no
attention is paid to these aspects when they are fired. Early brick
makers and brick layers would be horrified to think that these bricks are now
considered to be a feature in a lot of modern renovated buildings.
There is no evidence of George making tiles,
although it is possible that he did.
Tiles require a different type of kiln to fire them. The existence of Piero Muschietti’s works is
evidence of this, although how long this operated is also unknown.
Brick Colour
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| Circular Kiln of the type used to make tiles |
A rectangular downdraught kiln at Gulson’s brickworks, in Goulburn around the same period, note the curved roof and chimney to draw the heat through the kiln.
Rectangular downdraught kilns, made from around
150,000 bricks, fully enclosed and connected to a fire box and chimney. Hot gasses circulated through flues, through
the walls and roof and were exhausted through the chimney. This heat burned the bricks. The advantage of this type of kiln was that
the bricks were more evenly baked. It
was also more suitable for pottery because heat could be more easily
controlled. Their bricks were of a
uniform shape, colour and size. These
types of kilns were usually built in groups, to enable
consistent production through rotation. I do not know if George had them but it seems logical to me that he would.
Brick Colour
The naturally
occurring minerals that are kiln fired to burn in their colour and strength
determined the colour of clay bricks and tiles. The composition of the
raw materials as well as the firing process would cause each batch to
differ. The resultant colour variation was inherent in the process and
part of the visual appeal of the bricks. Usually those bricks contained
the following ingredients:
Silica (sand)
between 50% to 60% by weight
Alumina (clay)
between 20% to 30% by weight
Lime between 2
to 5% by weight
Iron oxide up
to 7% by weight
Magnesia – less
than 1% by weight
Colour is not
only determined by the colour of the clay and its chemical composition, but
also:
The colour of
the sand used in the moulding;
The moisture
content before firing;
The fuel used
to fire the kiln;
The volume of
air during firing; and
The temperature
in the kiln during firing.
Later in his career, George (Jnr) moved into building in reinforced concrete, a new material at the time. All was not smooth sailing however. George did not adjust to this change immediately and ran into problems with the Engineer, John Monash, a strong advocate for the material. This was the Strathallen Bridge over the Campaspe River on the Koyuga Strathallan Road. Despite these problems, the bridge, now over 100 years old is still going strong.
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