Bulmer Brick & Tile factory

A week before the event the weather was looking decidedly iffy – and so it turned out. Heavy rain overnight and into the early morning, followed by a forecast of a return of rain for the afternoon was sufficient to deter even the hardiest of airborne attendees, and so a potential field of 24 was whittled down to 14 who came by car – the furthest driving for over three hours to support the event, which was enormously appreciated by the organisers.



Coffee, tea and biscuits were consumed whilst all the troops gathered and then 4 cars were used to drive people the princely distance of just a mile and a half to the factory.



The factory is a most unassuming area deep in the Essex countryside rather reminiscent of Steptoe & Son’s yard. Tidy it certainly isn’t. The business is run by Peter Minter and his two sons, Tony and Tiger (David) and has been in the family since before the war, making bespoke bricks for anyone who needs to match any existing brickwork – or indeed any new design needed. Their core business is supplying bricks for restoration projects, such as St Pancras Station, Hampton Court, Layer Marney Towers and Litcham Hall in Norfolk to name but a few. A recent contract has been secured from Winchester Cathedral to replace some of the worn out flagstones – a contract that not one of the big brick makers in the country were prepared to take on.

The clay comes from their own land and is unique to the area and is known as London Beds clay. Sufficient clay is dug once a year in the summer period to keep the process going for the full 12 months. Apart from an initial mixing process to deliver the moist clay onto the platforms where it is to be used, everything is done by hand; scooping handfuls of clay into the bespoke hand-crafted moulds, turning the moulds out onto a handcart which might have been created in biblical times, off-loading the carts into long rows of ‘wet’ bricks, and moving the bricks to just a few feet away. A couple of days later when the initial drying has taken place, and the sun and wind has done its job (anything from 2 – 6 weeks depending on the weather and the time of year), picking them up again onto the same biblical carts and taking them into the kilns where they are hand-loaded in a specific way for the firing process which takes a few days until, when cool enough, are hand-loaded onto the carts and taken to the storage area and off-loaded, again by hand.

An incredibly labour intensive operation and one has to wonder how they manage to find the labour, and keep them. There are 20-30 guys and girls working there and they all seem a pretty happy lot, despite the repetitive nature of the job. Various attempts at mechanising the different areas of the process have been attempted, but nothing satisfactory has yet been achieved.

Finally, a visit to the cutting shop where specialist lintels are made up – usually by cutting and gluing bricks into a pre-formed stainless steel ‘hidden’ framework giving strength and stability, that can be lifted ‘as one’ into position wherever needed.

A fascinating visit that cannot help but make one wonder what the outcome would be when the clay seam runs out (with possibly only 15-20 years supply left), or the labour is simply no longer available. The maintenance of our country heritage buildings which need products matching those created and used many centuries ago will be in great jeopardy.

Returning to Stones Farm, a minor panic (actually, a major panic!) had been taking place as the hog roast had not turned up until just 10 minutes before we arrived back – fortunately pre-cooked. Luckily, Annette in her inimitably serene way, handled it all without giving a hint of her inner turmoil, and all was served up with a limited delay, and with few guests being aware of anything untoward!

Soon after 3pm, the guests departed for home, no doubt reflecting and marvelling as to how a business in the modern, sophisticated, and technological world that we now operate in, could possibly survive against all the odds – but survive and flourish it does.

A few copies of Peter Minter’s book, “A Brickmakers Tale”, which chronicles in a very readable style the history of the farm on which the site is set, and the even older and more primitive ways of the past employees and practices, were sold to those interested. Peter is also, in his 10th decade(!), trying to put together a small museum showing the history of his whole business so that it does not get lost forever in the passage of time.

Those who took the trouble to drive the furthest, were vindicated in their decision to drive as the weather on the way home deteriorated again towards ‘unflyable’.