The Building Conservation Directory 2023

100 T H E B U I L D I N G C O N S E R VAT I O N D I R E C T O R Y 2 0 2 3 | C E L E B R AT I N G 3 0 Y E A R S C AT H E D R A L C O M M U N I C AT I O N S other hand – preferably set with a slight tilt across them and jointed flush, to shed water. In some areas of the country this was improved by bedding the bricks on two half-bonded courses of flat clay tiles known as ‘creasing tiles’ which were bedded with thin joints to overhang the wall face. The tops of the creasing tiles were finished with a sloped mortar fillet to shed water. COPINGS AND CAPPINGS OF SPECIAL-SHAPED BRICKS The use of certain purpose-made, special- shaped, clay bricks, of standard size or longer, for both copings and cappings has a long and very successful history. Where standard special-shaped bricks such as the double-bullnose , double-cants and half- round cappings are used, and providing they are evenly sized, laid with fully filled mortar joints that are finished flush, they can look pleasing. However, these do not shed rainwater clear of the face below. For new walls a better arrangement therefore, is to either detail these with an overhanging tile creasing or plinth bricks, or use saddle- back and half-round copings, with a throat on the underside of the overhang. Again, though historically these were not laid on a DPC this is no longer deemed best practice by the Brick Development Association and reference should be made to it and the relevant Codes of Practice for all new work. Recommended Reading RWBrunskill, Brick Building In Britain , Victor Gollancz Ltd, London, 1990 Historic England, Practical Building Conservation, Earth, Brick and Terracotta , Ashgate 2015 M Jenkins, Traditional Scottish Brickwork , Historic Environment Scotland, 2014 G Lynch, ‘Tudor Brickwork’, The Building Conservation Directory , Cathedral Communications, 2012 G Lynch, ‘Joint Finishes on Historic Brickwork’, The Building Conservation Directory , Cathedral Communications, 2016 G Lynch, ‘Hot-mixed lime mortars and traditionally constructed brickwork’, The Journal of The Building Limes Forum, 2017 G Lynch, Brickwork History, Technology and Practice , Rutledge, 1994 G Lynch, The History of Gauged Brickwork , Elsevier, 2007 N Lloyd, A History of English Brickwork , H Greville Montgomery, London, 1925 GERARD C J LYNCH MA PhD, master bricklayer and brickwork consultant, is the author of Brickwork: History, Technology and Practice and Gauged Brickwork: A Technical Handbook . He trained through the apprenticeship system and at Bedford College where he later became head of trowel trades. Now internationally recognised for his extensive specialist knowledge and skills in the conservation of traditional and historic brickwork, he offers bespoke hands-on training for craftspeople, architects, homeowners, and conservation bodies – see www.theredmason.co.uk . A particularly fine example of the use of standard bricks to make a saddleback capping (Photo: Nicholas Taylor) Copings in various materials shown in ‘Brickwork and it’s Construction’ by Walter R Jaggard (Oxford University Press, London, 1931)