Make Do And Mend

I mentioned last week that I hoped to blip a wall but more interesting things turned up and it was left for another time. Today we went back to Portobello.

I noticed this wall several weeks ago and it fascinated me how the old stonework had been repaired in such a haphazard way on the street side with little regard for the aesthetic quality while the other side of the wall in a childrens' playground appears to be original stone (can't look too closely for obvious reasons). I was amused by the way some bricks had been arranged, with the frog (or indentation) facing outwards to show the name of the company that manufactured them (I hope you can see in large). Miss Flum saw the photo I took at the time and pointed out that, actually, it was historically interesting. She has a friend who is quite knowledgable about bricks.

The point of note is that Niddrie bricks, and others, such as Prestongrange, Whitehill, NCB, Roslin, were made locally The Niddrie brickworks, near Edinburgh, was a large common-brick works built to supply bricks for housebuilding by the Niddrie & Benhar Coal Co. It had three large Hoffman continuous kilns, and latterly, a modern shuttle kiln. The works closed in 1991, and was demolished. The site is now a shopping centre. Information taken from the scran database. (The shopping centre is the Edinburgh Fort)

Once you start looking it surprising how often the different makes appear in all manner of settings, and even when cast aside as rubble they provide an insight into their usage. Thanks to Miss Flum and her friend we are now collecting brick photos all over the place.