Step 1
Shales and Clays are produced by quarrying or mining. Almost all of Caradale's raw materials are by-products of the coal mining industry, either present or past. The ancient swamp forests that made the coal were compressed between layers of shale or clay. While others seek the coal Caradale use the clays and shales, either from operating mines or by reclaiming the spoil heaps of worked out collieries. 

Step 2
Shales and clays must be weathered for brick making. Just how long and in what conditions they must rest is as much to do with nature as it is to do
with the brick maker. It's part of the alchemy which has been passed down through generations of craftsmen making bricks on the same site.

Step 3
Part of the art is to blend the materials to achieve the balance of minerals which produce the colour and speckling particular to each brick type.
Hoppers feed the conveyors and it's the proportion taken from each which determines the look and the qualities of the final brick. The conveyors deliver the material to the crushers to be ground to a fine powder, ready to be mixed with water and moulded into shape. 

Step 4
Caradale uses two traditional processes to shape its bricks. The frogged Scotch Commons are stamped out in machines from a bygone age. Facing bricks are cut from slabs of extruded material. Traditional techniques might need more manpower than mass production but it's the man behind the
power that makes a traditional brick. And it's the tradition that wins the
beauty from the earth.

Step 5
Firing newly moulded green bricks can cause them to split, bend or react with the kiln gases. Careful stacking and drying helps to reduce wastage without eliminating the variation which sets beautiful, traditional bricks apart from the mass produced. It's the visual concert of the variation which produces such attractive buildings with traditional bricks.

Step 6
The traditional Hoffman kiln is essentially a firebrick tunnel. As one area is being fired the area ahead of it is preheated using heat from the cooling
bricks behind the firing zone. The Intermittent Kiln is computer controlled and fires batches of a single product.

Step 7
The different shadings and specklings which form a brick type's character
are produced in different areas of the kiln. It's the slight variations in temperature and chemical conditions which work the magic that forms the look. Blenders ensure that each pack has sufficient of each of the brick
type's variants to let its personality shine through. When building it's best to blend from two or three packs.

Step 8
Caradale Traditional Bricks feature in buildings throughout the UK. You can organise your own carrier to collect or we can take that burden from you. Delivery times are dependent on load size and availability. For larger contracts we can agree stocking levels and call off protocols to suit your build schedule.