Meet the People Keeping Brickmaking Alive

Handmade brickmaking is listed as endangered on the Heritage Crafts Red List. The skills have always been passed down through doing, from one pair of hands to the next, and every year there are fewer of those hands. The Bulmer Brick and Tile Foundation exists to change that, and it would be nothing without the team who show up, day after day, to make it happen.

Rooted in a family business

The Bulmer Brick and Tile Company is a family-run brickyard and farm on the Essex-Suffolk border, and the Minter family have spent decades making bricks by hand. They have also spent decades sharing the craft through tours and talks, long before it was fashionable to worry about disappearing skills. That generosity is why the Foundation exists. The people in this team have inherited a way of working in which knowledge is meant to be passed on, not guarded.

The People Behind Every Brick

Meet the team keeping a rare craft alive at Bulmer

A handmade brick holds a lot of human effort: clay prepared, moulded, dried, stacked and fired, with someone checking it at each stage. At the Bulmer Brick and Tile Company, that effort belongs to a team of people who have given years, and in some cases a lifetime, to a craft listed as endangered on the Heritage Crafts Red List.

As the Bulmer Brick and Tile Foundation begins its work of sharing and safeguarding these skills, we'd like to introduce them.

Where it all began: Peter
Peter Minter took the yard over from his father in the 1970s and grew it into what it is today. Earlier this year, he celebrated his 93rd birthday, and he still works part-time. Few things say more about dedication than that. Peter is an inspiration to everyone at the yard, and his example runs through all that follows.

Carrying it forward: Tony, Tiger and Bart

Peter's family now carries the yard forward. Tony, the managing director, is passionate about conservation and restoration and has a deep knowledge of every aspect of historic buildings. He works hard to ensure the skills of the past are not lost, and that brickmaking passes to future generations.

Tony's brother David, known across the yard as Tiger, ran the family farm for more than thirty years and loves farming and nature. Today he organises stock, fires the kiln, packs and checks orders and manages the second-hand business, Minters, among many other jobs. Ask where anything is in the yard, and Tiger will know.

Bart, Tony's eldest son, has grown up at the yard and has worked there for over fifteen years. He has tried his hand at almost every job, from farm work and clay preparation to firing the kiln and working in the office. Recently, he has been collaborating with artists and makers on bespoke clay pieces, and he is working to protect the vast collection of materials the yard holds. For Bart, the traditions and history of the place matter deeply.

The hands that make

At the heart of the yard is Stu, the senior brick maker, with more than 35 years of experience. His knowledge and commitment are a big part of what keeps hand brickmaking alive.

Kenny has held various roles at the yard and has now returned to mould making, following his father, who taught him the skill and worked at the yard for over thirty years. Craft handed from parent to child is exactly what the Foundation hopes to protect.

Simon, known as Si, has worked at the yard for 18 years. He manages the special making shed, where he usually makes the larger pieces such as copings, and he also works the night burn shift at the kiln.

Dan has had many roles over the years and can now usually be found making specials or rubbers. When he covers the tempering, he wets down and mills the clay, then uses a cuttle to load it onto the conveyor, so the brick makers always have a constant supply of clay.

Through the night: the kiln team

Some of the most demanding work happens when most of us are asleep. Charlie and Max are responsible for loading and unloading the kiln and overseeing the night burn. The kiln holds roughly 10,000 bricks, and every one is stacked by hand. Si joins Charlie on the night shift, and the patience, trust, and teamwork it takes to get a firing right are hard to overstate.