So who can tell me why the first three feet of the arch on this canal bridge is faced with blue engineering brick?
| Click to see full-size image. |
"Class A Staffordshire Blue Engineering Bricks" are the hardest bricks available, very strong, but most impotantly, they do not absorb water easily, whereas regular bricks, particularly in damp condiions, or where the DPC is absent, are like sponges. Water causes them to crumble.
After "Class A Blue Staffs" came (or used to, in my day) Class B Reds, usually "Southwaters".
Both Class A Blue Staffs & Class B Reds are "pressed" bricks, & neither has a frog, instead they have 3 holes in them, serving the same purpose as a frog.
If you travel to London on the train, as I know you often do, look at all the original retaining walls & bridges as you near London, all of them, without exception, were built in Blue Staffs, & are as good today as the day they were laid. Remarkable things. Very heavy though. Where would we be without the common brick?
http://www.ketley-brick.co.uk/stafordshireblueoverview.htm
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