Machine Made Bricks

Crafted using our 1920's Berry machine, these bricks offer a smooth texture and the rich colours of the Chilterns. Each brick retains unique character through hand demoulding, offering quality and efficiency.

Discover Our Range of Machine Made Bricks

Light Multi

These are a blend of oranges and reds from the coolest part of the kiln, where temperatures reach between 900 and 1,000°C

Bucks Multi

The Bucks Multi, or Chesham Multi as these bricks are also known, is a blend of the full range of colours within the kiln from orange to brown.

Dark Multi

The Dark Multi is a blend of dark reds, purples and browns. These are the bricks from the hotter part of the kiln.

Grey Brown

Our Grey Brown bricks are a selected brick from the very centre of the kiln, where temperatures are highest, at around 1,200°C.

About

Heritage of Machine Made Bricks

Our brick making machine, made by Berry & Son of Westcliff on Sea in the 1920’s, is one of the last of its kind still operating and can produce up to 12,000 bricks per day. Due largely to the fact that the bricks are demoulded by hand means they have more character than mass produced machine made bricks. Our machine made bricks enjoy the same colour range as the handmade bricks and have a smoother texture.


After the Second World War, machine made brick production largely replaced handmade bricks and only the brick specials would have been made by hand. In the 1990’s there was a revival of the traditional skill of making bricks by hand.

Drying

Each brick contains a pint of water when it is made, which has to be removed through drying before the bricks can be fired. During the drying process, the brick will shrink by around ten percent. This process must be carefully controlled to avoid cracking.


The heat source for our dryers comes from wood chip burned in biomass boilers. Once dried, the bricks are set into the kiln by hand, leaving a finger width gap between each brick to allow optimum firing.

Firing and Blending

Our oil fired kilns are fired for around 24 hours, and take three days to cool. It then takes two people a whole week to empty the kiln.


In order to ensure consistent and even colour blends, all of our bricks are blended by hand after being removed from the kiln. This gives greater consistency of colour with our standard ranges and also enables extremely accurate matching to existing brickwork.

How can we help?

We’re here to help! Whether you’re looking for advice on our bricks or other materials, we’re always happy to share our expertise. Contact us with any questions you may have or to arrange a visit to the brickyard.