History of the Brickyard
The brickyard history, like the location itself, is slightly lost to time.
The original Peterstone brickyard was established by Thomas Coke, who commissioned Holkham Hall and William Kent, the architect of Holkham Hall. Legend has it that they brought over brick makers from Italy saying “there haven’t been any decent bricks made in the England since the roman’s left. If we are going to build the house from brick then I want them to be the best bricks, with strength and durability so the house will still be standing in 300 years time.” It is certainly true that both men were inspired by Roman, Palladian style and that Holkham Hall is still elegantly standing almost 300 years later.
Incredibly, Thomas Coke set up 5 brickworks, in which, over 2 million bricks, were made by hand, to build Holkham Hall. Peterstone was one of those brickworks which puts the creation of the brickyard sometime prior 1734 when work on the Hall began. The brickyards were in production for 10 years before they had enough bricks to start building. The Hall was completed in 1764.
Once the Hall was completed the requirement for bricks was reduced. The Peterstone brickworks remained as a good producer of bricks, presumably due to it’s proximity to glacial clay deposits. This brickyard then produced most of the bricks the Holkham Estate needed. The Kiln was converted from wood fired to coalfired in 1865, when a siding was brought to the brickyard from the now dismantled Hunstanton to Cromer cargo railway line. Peterstone bricks were for a time, nationally renown as very high quality bricks. There was a heyday of brickmaking from 1865 until just before the first world war. Brickmaking carried on at Peterstone for a time between the wars and the last brick left the site in 1951.
Brickmaking
Clay was dug, by hand, out of the ground at Peterstone and carted by horse and cart to one of several “wash-pits”. The clay was washed in the pits to remove small stones and to grade the clay by particle size. Once settled, the washed clay had to be moved to a drying pile before it was dry enough to mould. Both the red and yellow Peterstone bricks were made from the same clay.
The resulting “working clay” was then thrown by hand, into wooden moulds and the wet brick was tipped out onto drying racks in the large drying sheds. The wet brick had to dry for a further period before it was ready to go into the kiln. There is good evidence that underground ducts from the kiln itself, could be regulated to supply heat to the drying shed so bricks could be dried in winter.
The kiln could hold roughly 25,000 bricks, it took at least 3 days to stack them in there, 2 days to get the kiln up to heat and 2 – 3 days to cool down enough to take the cooked bricks out. It is probable that there were sometimes 6 or 10 firings per year. Although stacking the kiln was done by one man with two apprentices it took another 15-20 men, to keep them supplied with bricks.
the brickyard also produced roof tiles, clay shingles, decorative bricks and chimney pots.
The kiln was fired with coal brought in on a railway siding right up to the coal store next to the kiln. Due to the length of the ovens, some 20-25 ft, the coal was “Bowled” not shovelled into the oven under the kiln. The 3 mouths of the oven are called the Bowling holes, men would literally bowl the lumps of coal right to the back of the ovens. it is said that the light from the kiln could be seen in the night sky from Burnham Market some 2 miles away.
The same railway siding that brought the coal then took wagons loaded with bricks, back to the cargo line for a connection up to Wells and Cromer. There was a weigh bridge on site so if you knew the weight of the wagon and the weight of a brick you could calculate the number of bricks in each wagon.
World War 2 Legacy
During the Second World War, many men were sent to fight and labour was in short supply. Prisoners of war were put to work all over the country to try and bridge the gap. A dozen or so German prisoners were sent to the brickyard to continue the brick making. One of these POWs was a potter and he told the foreman that he thought the clay was good enough to make pots. The foreman said “go on then, make us a pot and we’ll leave some space in the kiln to fire it.”
The German potter made several very lovely pots which caught the eye of the foreman’s two son’s who were young teenagers at the time. They asked if the POW could teach them to make pots which he did. In the 1960s Lady Elizabeth Yorke, wife of the 5th Earl, helped turn their craft into what became Holkham Pottery. This became a large company employing lots of people, selling beautiful pots and ceramics across the world. A wonderful outcome from the great conflict of 1939-45.
Camping and Glamping
Tim and Catherine who live on the campsite had their wedding reception at the brickyard. Many of their friends chose to camp in the wilderness at the brickyard rather than take some of the local accommodation. Friends seemed to enjoy the camping so much that Tim and Catherine thought it would be a good idea to open the campsite to the public. It took a lot of work to get all the relevant permissions and certificates but their vision is fast becoming a reality.