European Bricks and Tiles

France and Belgium

Roofing tiles mainly from Pontypridd Lido restoration and one found in New Zealand

'Guichard Carvin Marseille St Andre France'	'Guichard Freres Seon St Henri Marseilles'	'Saint Momelin', France	'Sterreberg Courtrai Made in Belgium'
'Tuileries du Nord Monopole', France	'Tuileries du Nord Watten', France	'Tuileries Wardrecques', France

Portugal

Some bricks found in Gibraltar with a roller-type imprint from the 'Faceal', Fabrica de Ceramica do Algarve brickworks in Paderne, Portugal.

Faceal, Paderne

Faceal, Paderne

Faceal, Paderne

Gibraltar

Other than the Portuguese bricks above, these British bricks also turned up on Gibraltar

'Eastwoods 4 pressed'

'Phorpres'

Egypt

I went to Egypt just before I got interested in bricks but I did get a few photos of this old brickworks in Luxor. I seem to remember quite a few old brickworks along the banks of the Nile.

Luxor brickworks, Egypt

Luxor brickworks, Egypt

Luxor brickworks, Egypt

New Zealand

New Zealand had a thriving brick industry and there are a great many to find but information on them is not easy to come by.

Tawhiti Museum, Hawera, South Taranaki

Amongst its tableaux, this amazing museum has a small brick kiln incorporating a lot of New Zealand bricks. It was difficult to photograph which accounts for the fuzziness of some photos where they have been trimmed from some overall scenes.

'A A Quinn Hawera'	'AK Gas'	'Aldertons Aramoho'
'B'	'B & P Ltd P N'	'Brick & Tile Ch Ch'	'Buxton'
'Brunner' large imprint	'Brunner' large imprint	'Brunner' small imprint	'Brunner' small imprint
'C Jones' possibly	'C Myers', type 1	'C Myers', type 2
'Carbofrax'	'CBC'	'CH Gas Co'	'Collins Huntly'
'Emeny & Lampitt Okoia'	'Emeny & Lampitt Okoia'	'DCR', type 1	'DCR', type 2
'Detrick SP 13 Nettle'	Douglas Brickworks, Taranaki	'Drury NZ'	'Dykehead'
'Emeny and Co Douglas'	'Emeny and Co Douglas'	'G Boyd Auckland NZ'	'Glenboig A1'
'Glenboig A1 W12'	'Glenburn Avondale'	'Glenburn Avondale'	'GLR'
Goodwin of Waitaka	Goodwin of Waitaka	Goodwin of Waitaka	'Guichard Freres Seon St Henri Marseilles'
'H30'	'H & Co'	'H Graves Patea'	'Hawera'
'Home Bush N Z'
'J Granger & Sons'	'J J Craig Auckland'	'J J Craig Auckland'	'J Smith Patea'
Jon or John or could be Jones	'K'	'Kendrick Bros Aramoho'	Aramoho brickworks
'KG Hifrax'	'KG Unifrax'	'Kirk'
'Neighbours Westport' type 1	'Neighbours Westport' type 1	'Neighbours Westport' type 2	'Newbold A'
'NZ Brick Co New Lynn'	'NZI'
'Overend & Clarke Wellington'	'Redwoodtown'	'R O Horsley Ltd Ch Ch'
'Todd' type 1	'Todd', type 2	'Tonks'
'W'	'W Hunt Auckland'	'Wiatako' type 1	Wi Tako brickworks, type 2
'W Mouldey P N'	'W Mouldey P N'	'W N' in a diamond border	'W Quinn'
'Wynn'	A motif or initials	A pointed brick	A three hole brick

Japan (or Australia)

Japan doesn't seem to have had a brick industry. There's very few about and all I saw were unmarked. However I did find one Australian brick at a station near Yatsushima, Kyushu.

'Toowoomba Brick Co'

Bricks and brickworks from the Indian Sub-continent

I went to India to visit the Hill Railways but I wan't expecting to come across dozens and dozens of small brickworks, generally making bricks by hand. All but one of my photos are from Northern India, between Amritsar and Darjeeling. In Southern India I was only able to get a photo of one example though there we passed many more. Unusually they all seemed to have their imprint on the end of the brick.

Bricks, mostly found in India

The imprints on Indian bricks appear to be codes rather than names of brickworks in most cases. As I've come across other bricks from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal I've included them here for the record. Some brick imprints end in 'BF' which appears to represent a 'Building Fund' for temples or other public and community buildings.

Selling second-hand brick moulds seems to be a lucrative business and the imprints I've seen include :-
'ABCD', 'ABF', 'AU', 'AVADH', 'GBF', 'KBF', 'KHAN', 'KING', 'LOHA', 'MBF', 'MDS', 'NBF', 'NHS', 'OM', 'O#M', 'RAMA', 'RLV', 'RXB', 'SONA', 'SRS', 'UA', 'VSHV', 'ZBF'

Bricks - A to Z

'3K'	'A98K'	'AB'	'ABC'
'AKN', type 1	'AKN', type 2	'AMAR'	ANL'
'BABA'	'BMX'	'BRUN'	'BS'
'CL'	'CL25'
'DBC'	'DD36'	'DURGA'
'GANGA'	'GMK', end imprint	'GN'	'GOLD'
'GOPAL'
'HAHAN'	'HBC'	'HBF' and the bricklayers wife and child!	'HBRI'
'INDIA'
'JANTA'	'JAVA'	'JJB'	'JSR'
'KLC'
'MADAN'	'MBOO'	'M#K'
'MMB'	'MMS'	'MOHAN'	'MOTI'
'NAMO'	'NBC' type 1	'NBC' type 2	'NVD'
'O CANALE'	'O#M'
'PAZ'	'PKR'	'PUJA'
'R+V'	'RAJA' type 1	'RAJA' type 2	'RAM'
'RBF'	'#RBF'	'RP&CO'	'RP&CO'
'R#S'	'RSB1'
'SAMPOT'	'SBCK'	'SBF'	'S#I'
'SPV'	'SLN'	'SMS'	'SRP'
'SVB'			'TATA'
'VIKAS'	'VIN'	'VIP'	'VNP'
'ZAMAN'	'ZAMAN'	'ZAMAN'
'ZMAN'	'ZMAN'		'symbol'

Bricks - Hindi, Sanskrit etc

Some of these bricks appear to show the word दीदी , 'didi', which can be taken to mean 'firmness' or 'stabilty', literally 'elder sister' i.e. a respected family lady.

'Sanskrit' 01	'Sanskrit' 02	'Sanskrit' 03	'Sanskrit' 04
'Sanskrit' 05	'Sanskrit' 06	'Sanskrit' 07	'Sanskrit' 08
'Sanskrit' 09	'Sanskrit' 10

The brickworks of India

It is estimated that India has more than 100,000 brick kilns producing about 250 billion bricks annually, employing about 15 million workers and consuming about 35 million tons of coal annually. In Northern India (and probably elsewhere) there are dozens and dozens of small brickworks generally making bricks apparently by hand. I would love to have had the opportunity to stop and look closer.

Brickworks between Amritsar and Chandigarh

Between Amritsar and Chandigarh	Between Amritsar and Chandigarh	Between Amritsar and Chandigarh	Between Amritsar and Chandigarh
Between Amritsar and Chandigarh	Between Amritsar and Chandigarh	Between Amritsar and Chandigarh	Between Amritsar and Chandigarh
Between Amritsar and Chandigarh	Between Amritsar and Chandigarh

Brickworks between Agra and Delhi

Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi
Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi
Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi
Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi
Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi
Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi
Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi
Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi	Between Agra and Delhi
Between Agra and Delhi

Brickworks between Dehli and Siliguri

Between Dehli and New Jalpaiguri	Between Dehli and New Jalpaiguri	Between Dehli and New Jalpaiguri	Between Dehli and New Jalpaiguri
Between Dehli and New Jalpaiguri	Between Dehli and New Jalpaiguri	Between Dehli and New Jalpaiguri	Between Dehli and New Jalpaiguri
Between Dehli and New Jalpaiguri		Between Dehli and New Jalpaiguri	Between Dehli and New Jalpaiguri

Brickworks between Chennai and Coimbatore

Between Chennai and Coimbatore	Between Chennai and Coimbatore	Between Chennai and Coimbatore	Between Chennai and Coimbatore
Between Chennai and Coimbatore	Between Chennai and Coimbatore	Between Chennai and Coimbatore	Between Chennai and Coimbatore
Around Mettupalayam	Around Mettupalayam	Around Mettupalayam

Acknowledgments, sources and further reading.

The 'Old Bricks' website is the best source of info on bricks and brickworks in the UK :- Old Bricks - history at your feet

For very good coverage of Scottish bricks and quite a bit about other places too :- Scottishbrickhistory.co.uk

Martyn Feltwell has two very good sites here :- East Midlands Named Bricks and UK Named Bricks

There is a specialist society for brick history :- britishbricksoc.co.uk

There's also a 'Facebook' group for bricks and brickworks :- Facebook 'Bricks and Brickworks Past' group