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

Pemberton Almshouses

St Peters, St Albans, ~1627

In the town of St Albans the oldest surviving buildings constructed of brick are the almshouses for six poor widows, which were built following a bequest in Roger Pemberton’s will of 1627. They are in Bowgate (now St Peters Street) opposite the church, and not very far from the Heath, and were most likely made of brick made nearby.

Another early brick built house is St Michael’s Manor, probably build about 1668, possibly incorporating parts of an earlier building. It was occupied by the Gape family, and it may be relevant that a John Gape, Esq., owned the Brick Mead on Bernards Heath in 1726. Perhaps the bricks for the Manor came from the Brick Mead and were bricks from this field sold and used in other buildings?

Supplementary Information

Picture from Historic St Albans, by C. R. Swift

Book The Pemberton Almshouses  published in 2005

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

Page updated December 2004