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Experience the Life
: Trades
: Brickmaker at Colonial Williamsburg
Bricks are loaded into the drying shed.
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The bricks will remain in the drying shed for six weeks. |
Click images to enlarge |
Visit our podcast page to listen to Behind the Scenes Interviews:
The Brick Kiln and
Firing the brick kiln. |
- Bricks used in new construction and repair throughout Williamsburg
- Unskilled laborers made bricks
- Landowners assigned slaves to brickmaking
- October brickfiring tradition widely anticipated today
Unskilled men, women, and children made bricks
In 18th-century Virginia, slaves, poor unskilled free laborers,
and sometimes indentured or convict servants practiced the brickmaking
trade. In large yards owned and overseen by a master and in family-owned
businesses, men, women, and children participated in the trade.
Wealthy landowners assigned slaves to brickmaking
Wealthy landowners building a plantation home may have assigned
a number of their slaves to make bricks for the new structure. Thomas
Jefferson's slaves made the bricks for Monticello. His journal noted
a crew of three laborers assisting one molder could mold 2,000 bricks
in a day. Carter Burwell charged his slaves with making bricks for
his mansion house at Carter's Grove, employing brickmaker David
Minitree to oversee the work in 1751. The art of firing the kiln
was left to Minitree; apparently Burwell was pleased with the outcome
as he gave this brickmaker a gift of 25 pounds – a large sum
of money at the time!
Brickmaking important in Williamsburg history
In Williamsburg, Samuel Spurr was commissioned to build the wall
around the Bruton Parish Church in 1752. Builder Benjamin Powell,
working on the Public Hospital, subcontracted the brickwork to Spurr
in 1771. Spurr advertised for bricklayers and plasterers in the
Virginia Gazette in 1773. By 1779, as the pace of new construction
had slowed in Williamsburg, bricklayer and plasterer Humphrey Harwood
– noted in the Virginia Gazette as the "chief
workman in the city of Williamsburg" – oversaw repair
work to many of the public and private structures in town. Harwood
burned bricks, turned oyster shells to lime, and made his own mortar.
At his death, he had become quite prosperous, owning several slaves,
a plantation and a house on the north side of Duke of Gloucester
Street.
Colonial Williamsburg Brickyard
Today, Colonial Williamsburg's brickyard is located between the
Peyton Randolph House and the Cabinetmaker's shop. Just as Humphrey
Harwood and Samuel Spurr expanded their business in colonial times,
the brickyard has grown. Visitors to the brickyard can watch bricks
being made during the warm months and see the dramatic firing of
the brick kiln in October. The brickmakers often ask visitors to
help with their chores. Children particularly enjoy stomping water
into the clay with their bare feet.
Bricks made on site at the brickyard have recently been used in
building the Peyton Randolph smokehouse, dairy, and lumberhouse
foundations, and the foundation and center chimney of the Randolph
kitchen. The brickmakers are currently experimenting with 18th-century
lime burning, mortar making, bricklaying, and plastering techniques.
With all the foundations, chimneys, and walkways made of brick in
Colonial Williamsburg, the brickmakers should remain busy for years
to come!
| How the bricks
are made -
Bricks are made from
native Virginia clay during the warm months of the year. First,
clay is shoveled into a treading pit.
Working in the pit,
brickmakers use their feet to stomp water into the clay. As
soon as it is a smooth consistency, the clay is pulled from
the pit and piled upon a molding table. |
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Before being shaped
in a wooden mold, the form and a "brick-sized" loaf
of clay are dusted with sand to keep the clay from sticking.
Before molding begins, roots, leaves, sticks, and other debris
are cleaned from the clay. The molder throws each loaf of
clay into the mold. |
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The excess clay is removed by drawing
a straight, wooden stick across the top of the form. |
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The filled mold is "off-beared"
or carried to raised beds of sand for drying. Once there,
the soft bricks are dropped out of the mold and left to dry..
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After a week or so, the somewhat-dry
bricks are placed in a drying shed. Protected from the weather,
the bricks are stored and will continue drying for six more
weeks. |
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Stacking and firing the kiln is
part of the "art" of brickmaking. First, bricks
are used to set four walls with arched fire tunnels. Approximately
20,000 bricks are stacked in the oven, always a finger's width
apart to allow the fire to draft upward. |
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After the structure is sealed with
clay, wood is placed in the tunnels, and the fires are lit. |
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The fires burn for about six days
– day and night. The brickmakers remain on site during
the entire burn period, getting little sleep and keeping the
fires burning and the wood stacked and ready to add to the
fire. Near the end of the burn, the kiln reaches a temperature
of 1,850 degrees Fahrenheit. |
| The bricks inside the kiln glow
yellow, and flames travel from the fire tunnels up out the
top of the oven and sometimes, the edges of the bricks facing
into the fire tunnels receive a glaze. After approximately
seven days of burning, the brickmakers let the fires bank,
close the fire tunnels and reseal the kiln with clay. The
fired bricks must cool for at least a week before the kiln
maybe unstacked. Each kiln firing yields several qualities
of bricks. About half of the kiln contains well-baked bricks.
The remaining bricks are either under fired salmon-colored,
best saved for interior walls, or over-fired, purple and blue
"clinkers." |
For further reading:
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Historic Triangle