Kirby Muxloe Castle

The use of brick in England had disappeared with the retirement of the Roman Legions in the fifth century, but it made a return late in the thirteenth century in the clay-bearing districts in and around London and East Anglia. Bricks were not produced in any quantity until brick works were set up by Belgian and Dutch refugees who arrived in Tudor England after the Spanish occupation of the low Countries. With the possible exception of York, all the centers of English civilization were without building stone and the rapid expansion which the increased commercial activity of Tudor England required was met by the use of brick. This example of locally burned bricks is from Leicester and the patternmaking of blue headers, which arise from the firing of bricks in clamps, is typical of Tudor work.