Foxearth & District History Society visit to Bulmer Brick & Tile - June 2024

Visit to Bulmer Brick & Tile - June 2024

Over 20 Foxearth History Society members went to Bulmer Brick & Tile Company for their June event, to hear Peter Minter and his family team explain the changes that have been made there over recent years.  Many visitors were ‘first-time’ members, and we were amazed by the scale of the operation, and the range of products now produced.

100 years ago, this was one of many brickmakers around the Stour Valley, mining the excellent London Clay found here.  But competition from mass production techniques, and the problems of World War II, led to the closure of most.  Bulmer Brickworks only survived WWII by making land drains for airfield construction,  with a skilled but elderly non-conscripted workforce.  They realised that their means of survival post-war was to focus on specialist restoration work, and their success now stems from that decision.  Standard housing bricks are no longer produced.

By now, Bulmer are the UK’s major (often the only) supplier of specialist bricks and tiles to the conservation and restoration industry, making materials for huge projects such as Hampton Court Palace (ongoing), and the St Pancras Station Hotel. In fact, a new kiln was built to accommodate that order alone.  They have 1000’s of pattern moulds in store, to simplify re-orders and supply new similar ones.  And they now make bespoke prefabricated brick arches & lintels, ready to drop in place.

Our visit started with Peter Minter showing us round how the clay is selected and filtered  to make high quality ‘Rubbing Bricks’, that can be cut, shaped and tapered for bespoke arches. The machine for preparing and processing the clay was an old monster, and the whole process at times seemed rather ‘Heath Robinson’ – but it has all obviously worked smoothly for generations, and produced millions of bricks of a standard that no other business can match.  It is very impressive to see tens of thousands of bricks in neat rows drying, indoors and out, to the precise level required to fire them in the home built kilns.  The kilns are lit about once a fortnight – the process of loading, heating, firing cooling and unloading takes about 7 days overall.

Bulmer Brick made for a fascinating visit – a genuine ‘working museum’ and unusually one that produces top-class products in high demand.  In fact, they have just been awarded £93,500 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, aimed at preserving the historic craft of brick-making for future generations and opening a better public Museum on site.  It is already well worth a visit, and could be even better in future.

Here are some websites that tell much more, with photos:-

https://bulmerbrickandtile.co.uk/

https://gestingthorpehg.co.uk/blog/f/the-bulmer-brick-tile-company-ltd

and 

https://drojkent.wordpress.com/2015/11/28/a-visit-to-the-bulmer-brickworks-sudbury-essex/

Mark Mathieson

Report may 2024 - The life of Flora Sandes. "You'll make a Lovely Sergeant"

You'll make a Lovely Sergeant

This was the engaging title of the May FDLHS presentation by Janette Robinson, formerly an archivist at Wickham Market. The quoted headline refers to the only western woman to have served on the front line during WW1.  Janette’s presentation was exceptionally well prepared and delivered with great clarity, demonstrating her passion for the subject.

That subject was FLORA SANDES, a nurse who became a household name, commemorated on  postage stamps, featured in the film ‘Where the Lemon Blossoms Bloom’ and even had a pub named after her. But her claim to fame was her recruitment into the Serbian Army, and her rise through the ranks, serving in both world wars along the way.

Flora was born in 1876 in Yorkshire to an Irish family. Her father, a vicar, had left Ireland with his wife and seven children. Flora was the eighth! The family lived in Marlesford until 1893 when they moved to Thornton Heath.

Flora and her sisters were sent to finishing school in Switzerland where she became fluent in French but she wanted to do all the things her brothers did.  She became adept at fencing and, when she moved to Thornton Heath, purchased a racing car. In 1908 she obtained a Mechanical Proficiency Certificate and took part in car rallies, races and hill climbs. She even won an RAC competition but, because she was a woman, she was not awarded ‘winner’ status.

At this time secretarial work was undertaken by men. Flora was not going to sit back and let them have all the fun - she enrolled on a secretarial course determined to ‘type around the world’. She travelled from London to Egypt and then on to America, where she moved from city to city as a typist. She was tracked down by Pinkertons Detective Agency on behalf of her bereaved brother to look after his 5 year old son.

On her return to the UK she enrolled with the St John’s Ambulance Brigade and the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) specialising in war injuries. All members had to be able to ride (she was an accomplished horsewoman) and have their own horses. Eventually she became an ambulance driver.

At the outbreak of WW1 Flora approached the British Red Cross but was rebuffed through lack of practical experience. Undeterred, Flora and 7 other nurses travelled to Serbia on a 3 month contract at a Serbian Military Hospital. Conditions at the hospital were grim. Lack of equipment, medical supplies and staff meant that each nurse had 140 patients to care for. At the end of the contract, Flora and an American nurse named Eleanor Simmons returned to England and embarked on a fund raising campaign. At the end of 5 weeks, the couple had raised over £2000 which purchased 120 tonnes of medical supplies.

On their return to Serbia, Flora was assigned to Vallejo hospital where she encountered an epidemic of typhus, malnutrition, insanitary conditions and lack of doctors. She found herself carrying out amputations (without anaesthetic), contracted typhus and almost died. Yet again she wanted to be more involved and contrived to enlist for the Serbian military, for which she needed the permission of the General of the army. The circumstances of her enlistment for the frontline is, we were told, taught at Sandhurst today.

One of her first duties was to take part in a retreat over mountains to safety. Flora was involved in the combat that followed and the survivors were evacuated to Corfu. Promoted to Corporal, Flora returned to field duty. During a battle ‘to the last man’ Flora was hit by a grenade suffering 24 wounds which necessitated 19 separate surgical operations. As a result of her heroic actions on the battlefield she was awarded the Order of Karadorde’s Star (equivalent of the Victoria Cross).

But this was not the end of the story of this brave lady. Flora embarked on lecture tours, published two biographies and, not settling to civilian life,  donned her uniform and rejoined the Serbian army (at the age of 65) when Serbia again became involved in military conflict. As WW2 progressed, she was arrested by the gestapo and imprisoned but later released.

There is much more to this incredibly brave life lived to the full.  By the time she was 69 years old she returned to Suffolk, where she died at Ipswich in 1956.

And the pub - a Wetherspoon pub in Thornton Heath - named ‘The Flora Sandes’ which sadly closed in 2008.

Kelvin Hastings-Smith