Bulmer Brick and Tile Company secures £93,000 grant to support preservation project

A family-run firm has secured a significant lottery grant to help take forward a special heritage project, aimed at preserving the historic craft of brick-making for future generations.

Bulmer Brick and Tile Co shared its delight after being awarded £93,500 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The funding will be used to explore potential avenues for preserving a collection of building samples, patterns and knowledge built up at the company over almost 90 years.

The collection has been developed by the Minter family since 1936, when it purchased the site at The Brickfields in Bulmer, which is thought to have been used for brick-making since the mid-15th century.

Since then, Bulmer Brick and Tile Co has specialised in hand-making bricks, tiles, copings and other architectural details using London clay, with an emphasis on maintaining the traditions of what it describes as an ‘endangered craft’.

The business is now set to work with Ingham Pinnock Associates to conduct a feasibility study into how it could protect the collection for future generations and potentially make the materials available for academic, professional or general interest.

This will include looking into ways of engaging with a wider audience, such as creating a website dedicated to the collection, and the possibility of setting up a charity to manage it in future.

Tony Minter, Bulmer Brick and Tile Co managing director, said he was ‘delighted’ with the grant.

“This will enable us to begin the long process of preserving the craft of hand brickmaking, which is so important to the continual repair and conservation of the UK’s listed brick buildings,” he said.

“It also enables us to increase the educational and teaching work we do, helping to train future generations of crafts people, surveyors and architects.”