Brick making - any evidence at The Pludds. (General)
by Barbara Lloyd 
, Saturday, December 19, 2009, 21:11 (5528 days ago)
whilst watching Victorian Farm on Television recently, the programme
showed how hand made bricks were made and fired. The mixing of the clay
was shown and referred to as Plud mixing. William Henry Vaughan and family lived at the Pludds, as did so many other relatives of the Forum, was there are connection to Brick making in this area. My relatives were Yeoman Farmers.
Barbara Lloyd
Brick making -
by slowhands , proud of his ancient Dean Forest roots, Sunday, December 20, 2009, 07:27 (5527 days ago) @ Barbara Lloyd
I'm aware of a brickworks nr Coleford reputed to have developed after clay was extracted from the nearby mines.
Lybrook has Lime kilns rather than Brick kilns. However there may have been small scale Brick firing in the Pludds/Reddings area.
I think the term is "Pugging" or "Pug mixing" in Clay brick making -
In the spring, the clay was then able to be worked by hand. It was necessary to either grind the clay into a powder and screen it to remove stones or the clay was was placed into a soaking pit where it was mixed with water to obtain the right consistency for moulding. It was kneaded with the hands and feet to mix all the elements of the clay together. This step was called tempering or pugging and was the hardest work of all. In the mid-1800's horse driven pug mills were invented.
The clay was removed from the soaking pit or pug mill by a temperer who delivered it to the moulding table.
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Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster & Hereford Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>
Brick making -
by Barbara Lloyd , Sunday, December 20, 2009, 09:05 (5527 days ago) @ slowhands
thank you Slowhands, that makes sense, doesn't it show that you can
miss hear and put a different interpretation on the words. Pludds - Plugs over the years words can easily become corrupt if not corrected.
Seasons Greetings to you all
Barbara
Brick making -
by maurice , Thursday, December 24, 2009, 13:58 (5523 days ago) @ Barbara Lloyd
The Coleford Brick and Tile Co.made facing bricks using similar methods back in the 1950s.The facing effect was by using different coloured sands.The main colours at the time were Golden Grey and Bedford Grey and many thousands were shipped to build the East Yelland Power station.
The brickworks still exists but I don't know if they still use the same methods.It is situated between Steam Mills and Hawkwell behind the old Northern United Colliery.The clay holes are now fishing lakes.
Best wishes and a Happy Christmas to all.
Maurice
Brick making -
by May , Sunday, December 27, 2009, 03:47 (5520 days ago) @ maurice
The lakes referred to here are the product of the opencast coal mining in 1969-1971. The clay was also extracted and stockpiled for future use by the Coleford Brick & Tile Co nearby.
The drivers of the huge dumper trucks (mainly from South Wales) lodged with us at Ruardean during this time and always left their work-boots with the grey clay on them, on old newspapers in the back porch overnight.
For anyone interested in the social history of that time a 5½ day working week was still the norm for many trades.
Brick making -
by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Saturday, January 30, 2016, 14:44 (3295 days ago) @ maurice
Hi Maurice, nothing new to you I'm sure, but I thought I should add a link to another post I've just made which hopefully adds some more to the Cinderford Brick making story specifically wrt Hawkwell.
see http://www.forest-of-dean.net/fodmembers/index.php?mode=entry&id=46757
also http://www.forest-of-dean.net/fodmembers/index.php?id=24323