A brick is: "A small rectangular block typically made of fired or sun-dried clay, used in building."
Oxford Dictionary
Dont's you love bricks. Cemented together they create the most magnificent structures. Even when buildings decay into an unmaintained ruinous state, or disappear from the landscape completely, it is not unusual to come across a stray brick, a lost memory, a cultural artifact of what was there before. Heterogeneous but truly the most community-spirited of inanimate objects.
One of the commonest bricks in Stoke-on-Trent is the Staffordshire Blue, ironically made from Etruria marl in the Black Country, which is red but
"when fired at a high temperature in a low-oxygen reducing atmosphere takes on a deep blue colour and attains a very hard, impervious surface with high crushing strength and low water absorption." Wikipedia
The blue brick is so prosaic in Stoke that many of us pay little attention to it, we take it for granted that it's there and it will always be there, and as I look out of my office kitchen window I can see the Railway Bridge at the bottom of Stoke Road in all its Stoke blueness stretching out below. I walk under it most days, the least pleasant part of my walk to work, unloved grey tainted by toxic exhaust fumes with a contrast of pigeon icing droppings, and surviving the occasional hammering by height myopic lorry drivers.
Bricks assume an almost immortal functionality and our familial everyday transactions with our industrial built environment often means we do not appreciate their value until they have gone and may even develop an entrenched inaccurate memory of their past utilisation, so common in many heritage musings. New builds may incorporate Staffordshire blue brick as a decorative design feature in a respectful inauthentic architectural nod to the past. However, blue bricks are the worker bricks, hard wearing communicators, used in foundations, bridges, tunnels, and canals.
Bricks for me symbolise industrial and cultural heritage. By dropping the cloak of pretence and seeking out authenticity, in what some may see as the ordinary everyday, we can all release an extraordinary legacy.
And that is my blog journey to seek out the industrial heritage, we encounter in our everyday. My responsibility is to accurately depict for safekeeping as part of the collective memorised archive. My challenge is not letting sentimentality shroud honest imagery, but surely that's heritage's great challenge.
Also See Howling Pixel Staffordshire Blue
Oxford Dictionary
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| Blue Brick Gate Post North Street Stoke V McGarvey cc |
One of the commonest bricks in Stoke-on-Trent is the Staffordshire Blue, ironically made from Etruria marl in the Black Country, which is red but
"when fired at a high temperature in a low-oxygen reducing atmosphere takes on a deep blue colour and attains a very hard, impervious surface with high crushing strength and low water absorption." Wikipedia
The blue brick is so prosaic in Stoke that many of us pay little attention to it, we take it for granted that it's there and it will always be there, and as I look out of my office kitchen window I can see the Railway Bridge at the bottom of Stoke Road in all its Stoke blueness stretching out below. I walk under it most days, the least pleasant part of my walk to work, unloved grey tainted by toxic exhaust fumes with a contrast of pigeon icing droppings, and surviving the occasional hammering by height myopic lorry drivers.
 |
| Station Road Stoke V McGarvey cc |
Bricks assume an almost immortal functionality and our familial everyday transactions with our industrial built environment often means we do not appreciate their value until they have gone and may even develop an entrenched inaccurate memory of their past utilisation, so common in many heritage musings. New builds may incorporate Staffordshire blue brick as a decorative design feature in a respectful inauthentic architectural nod to the past. However, blue bricks are the worker bricks, hard wearing communicators, used in foundations, bridges, tunnels, and canals.
 |
| New Build Blue Brick Steps North Street Stoke V McGarvey cc |
Bricks for me symbolise industrial and cultural heritage. By dropping the cloak of pretence and seeking out authenticity, in what some may see as the ordinary everyday, we can all release an extraordinary legacy.
And that is my blog journey to seek out the industrial heritage, we encounter in our everyday. My responsibility is to accurately depict for safekeeping as part of the collective memorised archive. My challenge is not letting sentimentality shroud honest imagery, but surely that's heritage's great challenge.
 |
| Old Minton Factory Paving V McGarvey cc |
Also See Howling Pixel Staffordshire Blue