A Reminder

25 years ago I first visited this site.  It was a revelation to me, watching the process of turning clay into bricks.  Not only the mass production of the famous Staffordshire Blue Brick, where the clay was extruded, cut and stacked for drying, before being placed in kilns to be fired, but also the works on 'specials' where artisans shaped bricks for use on special projects and to provide the finishing touches to walls like angle, cant, arch, plinth, bonding, coping and bullnose bricks.

All that is left of the site now is the chimney that carried the exhaust flues from the kilns high above Gospel End, to be diluted and dispersed by the winds.  They intend to leave the chimney when they develop the area around its base, a reminder of times past.

It reminds me of one of our longest serving members, Brickmaker who worked in the same industry for many years and has chronicled the closure of other brickworks in his journal.  He was the subject of an article about Blipfoto, highlighting the way in which the site gave insight into different stories of modern life.  We mustn't forget the legacy of our images and the important part our simple action of taking and posting a photograph each day has on the recording of life.