In his book, Pevsner notes on page 17 that “for English brick, Suffolk is exceptionally important”.  In the book Brick Building in England, author Jane Wight notes in the introduction that “overwhelmingly the most important counties for old brick are Norfolk and Essex, followed by Suffolk”.  This is because of the wealth in East Anglia in late mediaeval and Tudor times and the lack of local stone for building (flint is also well known as a substitute) - as well as the interests of an early duke of Suffolk.

It is generally accepted that the English lost the art of brick making after the Romans left and the Dark and Middle ages were characterised by other materials as well as some re-use of Roman brick.  Brickmaking continued on the continent and with the proximity of East Anglia to

the continent it is always possible that bricks were imported, notably from Flanders.

Pevsner says (p17) that “In the standard literature there is in fact no reference to home-made bricks earlier than those at Little Coggeshall Abbey in Essex of c1225.  But Suffolk possesses at Polstead a church with Norman brick arches inside which are not Roman, and can in all probability be considered of English make.... These bricks are followed by those at Little Wenham Hall of c1270...and at Herringfleet Priory of c1300 - still extremely early dates as far as England is concerned”.  The footnote about Oxford Castle need not concern us here and in any case it is dismissed by Wight in 1972.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Suffolk and Norfolk were the most prosperous industrial counties in Britain.  Wealth poured into Suffolk, first  from wool and then from cloth.  Suffolk has no building stone but until Tudor times was rich in oak forests.  Thus the need for bricks was driven by a lack of other materials and the wealth to afford them.

Pevsner also notes (p17) that “Suffolk is one of the best counties in which to enjoy Tudor brickwork” and (p18) that as well as red bricks some parts of Suffolk produced white bricks.

Some can be seen at Little Wenham Hall and many more from 1525 - 1538 at Hengrave Hall“.   “But the heyday of white bricks was the C19, when an important centre of production was Woolpit; a great many can be seen in the Ipswich neighbourhood”.

On page 224 of Wight is a list of surviving buildings with brickwork of before 1450.  It is headed by 1160, Polstead, Suffolk: Parish Church (arches), two entries for Little Coggeshall, Essex followed by 1270 - 1280 Little Wenham, Suffolk: Little Wenham Hall and then C13 Ashby, Suffolk: Parish Church.  Other entries for Suffolk are: Herringfleet: St Olave’s Priory; Cowlinge: Parish Church; 1320 Butley: Butley Priory Gatehouse; mid C14 Wingfield: Parsh Church; C14 Little Waldingfield: ‘Priory’ Undercroft; 1369 Beccles: Parish Church (charnel); late C14 Leiston-cum-Sizewell: Leiston Abbey; late C14 Levington: Parish Church - 10 out of 40 entries on that page which are the earliest known  (9 for Norfolk and 7 for Essex).  After Wight (and pevsner) was published this was later swung in favour of Norfolk when the county boundaries were re-aligned so that Herringfleet and St Olaves went into Norfolk.

There is an interesting connection between bricks and the Dukes of Suffolk found in Jane Wight’s book Brick Building in England.  From p52... “The concentration of brick in Hull made it the one brick-built town of the Middle Ages in England.... Holy Trinity Church, sole survivor of Hull’s early brickwork, was the focus of attention in the mediaeval town.... The leading

merchants concerned in building the church and in the whole development of Hull were the de la Poles (earlier called Rotenherring), whose money came from sheep and trade and who had their own brickworks.  At first Holy Trinity was to provide its Lady Chapel (later rededicated) as their family chapel and burial place but they later transferred to the (lost) Charterhouse”.

On p57 (really more relevant to the Dukes than to bricks and repeated there):  Ravenser (which disappeared through erosion) was declining and “Edward I persuaded its most influential merchant William de la Pole to come to the new town of Kingston”.  (Hull being Kingston-upon-Hull is known in various forms)... The Manor of Myton was granted to William de la Pole.  ...by the end of the Thirteenth century there were several periods of growth...based first on fishing, then on ship-building and the wool trade (the de la Poles acting as distributors of Cistercian wool).  In the mid-fourteenth century the de la Poles engaged in money-lending to the Crown.  Edward III reneged on his debts  in 1350, which affected the family’s prosperity, but by this period their interests were shifting southwards to London and then East Anglia, centred on Wingfield in Suffolk.”...

... and then continuing back to bricks and the building of Hull: de la Pole himself ‘builded a goodly house of brick again (i.e. against) the west end of S Maries Chirch, lyke a palace, with goodly orchard and gardein at large, enclosed with brike (i.e. brick)’.  Michael became earl of Suffolk in 1385, and his Hull Street courtyard-plan mansion came to be known as ‘Suffolk Palace’.  The site is that of the Head Post Office.  The de la Poles had their own brick kiln, north of the town at Trippett, from the fourteenth century.”

The family knowledge of bricks must have continued into Suffolk as Pevsner notes on p492 about Wingfield Castle that “licence to crenellate was given in 1385” and “Brick battlements’.

END (For the moment.  There was a paper published in the Suffolk Local History Society newsletter on Suffolk Brickmaking by Robert Malster.  This is in bound volume 5 at the Suffolk Record Office but neither the main copy nor the back-up copy upstairs could be found in late 2009!)

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