The Brickmakers of St Albans
A Talk given to the St Albans & Hertfordshire Architectural & Archaeological Society at St Albans on 7th January 2003

Brick Chimneys, &c.

Bricks were also used in improving wooden framed buildings. Some of the earliest uses were chimneys, and we have already noted that bricks were used for the fireplaces at Kings Langley Palace. In 1481 William Est of St Albans died and his will said:

This was probably made of brick - but this is not recorded.

The Bunyan Memorial at Coleman Green, Sandridge, is in fact a chimney stack which is all that remains of the timber-framed cottages where Bunyan was said to have visited, almost certainly in the 1650s.

In other cases brick was used to front timber-buildings.

Supplementary Information

Will information from St Albans Wills, 1471-1500 by Susan Flood

Picture from A Pilgrimage in Hertfordshire by H. M. Alderman

If you can add to the information given above tell me.