For our July session we returned to the Somerset Brick and Tile Museum in Bridgwater.\u00a0 We were last there five years ago so nearly all our members had not been there before.\u00a0 The session was run for us by Marie from the South West Heritage Trust.<\/p>\n
After an introductory talk, Marie took us on a short walk to look at different types of brickwork in some of the houses near the museum.\u00a0 We also saw the remains of the Bridgwater glass kiln which must had looked amazing when it used to tower over the surrounding buildings.<\/p>\n
When we got back to the museum we split up into three different groups for different activities.\u00a0 One group made miniature bricks with Marie using old fashioned wooden brick moulds.\u00a0 We carved our names or patterns onto our bricks so we\u2019d know which was which.\u00a0 These will be dried and fired by Marie and then returned to us at a later date.<\/p>\n
The second group replicated the different types of brick bonds that we had seen in the buildings on our walk outside \u2013 using Lego!\u00a0 Great fun!\u00a0 The third group built structures out of large foam bricks and then shook the table they were on to see how they would withstand an earthquake.\u00a0 We threaded broom handles down through the holes in the brick walls to reinforce them.<\/p>\n
This was a fun session with a great variety of activities and by the end of it we knew a great deal more about the humble brick!\u00a0 A big thank you to Marie for running this session for us.<\/p>\n\n\t\t