Commondale is built on clay.
In the surrounding villages, many of the older houses are stone built. Commondale, however, is built primarily from hard, bright red Commondale brick.
The few exceptions are the older farmsteads predating the brickworks, and the houses built for managers of the brickworks, which are built from local stone.
The Alfred Crossley Memorial Institute, inside which we are creating the clay sculptures, and in the grounds of which we are installing our piece, has stood since 1923.
It was built in honour of Alfred Crossley, who died in 1919. The Crossley family owned the brickworks for many years. It is Commondale’s village hall. And proudly evaded health and safety concerns, boasting the last real, open fire of all the local village halls.
The bricks of this building are more of an ochre shade, rather than the more commonly seen bright red. Some of the brickworkers cottages (ours included) are also built from these softer, yellower bricks. It is thought that these bricks were still likely to have been made in Commondale but that they were fired at the edge of the kiln, where temperatures were lower, or were perhaps made before the newer kilns, which had more uniform temperatures throughout, we’re installed.
Whatever the reason, there are different bricks throughout Commondale.
We decided to use terracotta clay for our project, rather than an ochre shade, as the red bricks are more distinctively ‘Commondale’.
