Lime is a great enemy to good bricks, as small portions escape both rollers and pug-mill, and being converted into quicklime by burning, it slacks and bursts bricks subject to rains and frosts. Compare the sound, and hard durable bricks made here with those made near London, into which Cockneys knock their nails without troubling themselves to look for a joint, and say whether, with less freights, they might not be made to supersede the rubbish passing under the name of London bricks, which are soft, damp, and perishable, and some of which, like others of inferior quality, will hold from a pint to a quart of water. Stone, as shewn by the new Houses of Parliament, will not withstand the action of the corroding acid to be found in a London atmosphere; but good hard Shropshire bricks will, and for public buildings, to say nothing of ordinary domestic structures, they are invaluable.
The Staffordshire blue bricks which of late years have come into such general use, particularly in buildings connected with railways, are made from a clay containing a large proportion of peroxide of iron, a clay which produces a red, a buff, or a blue brick according to the process of firing and the degree of heat it undergoes in the kiln; but it will in no case stand a terra-cotta heat, in consequence of the iron acting as a flux. But the great centres of the art of brick making are on the banks of the Severn. Clay and clay workers are to be found at Lilleshall, Lightmoor, Horsehay, and the Woodlands, where, as at Broseley, clays are found on the surface. Here, on the valley side the surface is honeycombed by burrowings after clay and coal. One of the most important beds of clay for making ordinary bricks and tiles is one 17 feet in thickness, worked in many places by shallow shafts, and levels driven into the hill sides, which when abandoned cause the surface to collapse, and the ground to crack, as if by an earthquake. A very pretty church, built a century since on the brow of the hill overlooking some of the brickfields, is now a complete wreck, in consequence of these burrowings after clay. The chancel is falling away from the body of the building, the walls are torn from the roof to the foundation, and the windows have fallen from their places, leaving the oak pews and handsome marble monuments a prey to the elements. Clays and coals are being pared away from around it as a mouse would pare a cheese. Of course the bishop cautions and threatens, but as long as his lordship declines to go into the mines these sappers and miners are safe; and to them must succumb not only the church, but the graveyard—
“Where the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.”
In conversation with the President of the Academy of Science at St. Petersburgh, who some years ago visited this district, and with other gentlemen distinguished in science and art, we have heard the highest admiration expressed of these clays of the Severn Valley. Indeed, the very handsome public structures—now that prejudice is giving way, and that improved and more artistic treatment of the material predominates—which we see in towns erected upon true architectural principles, and by professors of classical and constructive styles of decoration, are sufficient indications of the capability of the material in all its varieties for producing works of a very high order of merit, with a light and aerial effect not found in the old red brick, nor even in many of the stone erections, of former times.
Besides bricks and tiles, these clays have been turned to account from very early periods in other ways, as for pottery, for instance, of different kinds.
We have no reliable authority for fixing the date at which the art of potting was first practised in Shropshire, but it appears clear that the articles were of the simplest kind, being almost uniformly domestic: those in daily use, such as milk-pans, dishes, tea-pots, jugs, and mugs. The latter were substitutes for the drinking horns, which later improvements in the plastic and ceramic arts have driven out of use. We have an ancient specimen of one made at the Pitchyard, and a drawing of another made at Haybrook, well potted, and elegant in shape. The latter is the best manipulated, and probably it was from this circumstance that the latter work was called “The Mug-House.”
In evidence adduced sometime since in an Election Scrutiny at Bewdley, a public-house referred to was called the “Mughouse,” which house is situated on the Severn, at a point where the bargemen, who formerly drew the vessels up the river instead of horses, were in the habit of stopping to get mugs of ale. “Tots” were made out of the same kind of clay, but smaller, and were used when the men drank in company; hence a person who had drank too much was supposed to have been with a convivial party, and was said to have been “totty,” a word often found in old works. Tots had no handles, and some of the old drinking cups, more particularly those of glass of Anglo Saxon make, were rounded at the bottom that they should not stand upright, and that a man may empty them at a draught,—the custom continuing till later times gave rise to our modern name of tumbler. The small tots had no handles; the mug had a “stouk,” as it is called, consisting of a single piece of clay, flattened and bent over into a loop. The ware was similar to the famous “Rockingham ware” made on the estate of Earl Fitzwilliam, near Wentworth.
The discovery of a salt glaze took place in 1690, and the manufacture of that kind of ware must have commenced here soon after, as traces of works of the kind are abundant. This method consisted in throwing salt into the kiln when the ware had attained a great heat, holes being left in the clay boxes that contained it in order that the fumes may enter and vitrify the surface. Evidences of the manufacture of these old mugs and tots, together with milk-pans and washing-pans, having been made at an early period, are numerous; and the old seggars in which they were burnt often form walls of the oldest cottages in Benthall and Broseley Wood.
A considerable number of old jars, mugs, and other articles, have from time to time been found in places and under circumstances sufficient to indicate great antiquity; as in mounds overgrown with trees, and in old pits which for time immemorial have not been worked. One large earthen jar, with “George Weld,” in light clay, was found in an old drain at Willey, and is now in the possession of Lord Forester. Mr. John Thursfield, who lived at Benthall hall, was at one time proprietor of these works.
Three quarters of a century ago these works were carried on by Messrs. Bell & Lloyd; afterwards by Mr. John Lloyd, one of the best and most truly pious men we ever knew, who some time before his death transferred them to a nephew, Mr. E. Bathurst. His son succeeded him, and after a time sold them to the present proprietor, Mr. Allen, who to the ordinary red and yellow ware, which finds a ready sale in North and South Wales, has added articles of use and ornament in other ways, including forcing pots, garden vases, and various terra cotta articles.