This is a blog post about half a brick: the half-brick on which we have been standing the food for Foxy in the hope that he gets it before the slugs do.
It has been in our garden all the time we have lived here: over thirty years. It has weathered a little during that time.
It is an interesting half-brick, with a rounded end, rounded corners and edges, and a round hole through the centre. Is that natural weathering, or has it been shaped like that deliberately?
One suggestion is that it might once have served as a loom weight.
What do you think?
"Frog" brick? Often used for strong engineering brick constructions like manholes.
ReplyDeleteCould me. Very weathered if it is.
DeleteIt reminds me of bricks I have picked up in Bridlington Bay - rounded by wave action.
ReplyDeleteBut we live at 750 feet up.
DeleteWe live 450 feet above sea level but I still have some rounded sea-worn bricks in our garden and indeed in our house.
DeleteAs bricks go, it is rather interesting. It certainly appears to have a purpose other than holding up other bricks.
ReplyDeleteIt is a very nice brick. Tactile.
DeleteI have no idea but it has certainly been providing yeoman service for decades!
ReplyDeleteWell, we have used it to prop up and weigh down all kinds of things.
DeleteWow. That is very cool. I would say that your guess is very possible. What does the bottom look like? Is it flat. I saw some loom weights that resembled yours. One of the things that I really love about your country is that every town seems to have some sort of museum. Could you take it there?
ReplyDeleteThe top and bottom are much the same. I am not sure that a museum would not regard me as a crank. I don't want to make that all that obvious.
DeleteWouldn't loom weights rather have been made of clay than of brick? In any case, it is an interesting half brick.
ReplyDeleteWho would have thought that a half brick could be of so much interest?
DeleteHow about a brick that held a hinge for a gate. Looks good whatever it was.
ReplyDeleteThe friction from a gate could certainly round it like that.
DeleteInteresting. I have no idea what it might be - would be nice to find out, though.
ReplyDeleteIt was a neighbour that suggested it might be a loom weight.
DeleteDoubt if it is a loom weight, they were used in the early prehistoric age the drop down holed loom weights. Didn't the early bricks come over as ballast on Dutch ships?
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine it would be ballast. Bricks were made just about everywhere weren't they? There is a lot of clay round here.
DeleteLooks like it was made to hold some kind of stake steady. A common kind of brick or stone use on the farm. Not unusual.
ReplyDeleteCould have been. The location of our house was once a farm, and a footpath (now diverted) ran through the plot, so there could well have been a fence.
DeleteIn my expert opinion that is a stone with a hole in it.
ReplyDeleteNo. It is a hole with a stone around it.
DeleteNo idea. It does appear however to have have more than one hole when complete.
ReplyDeleteThere are pictures of frog bricks (see 1st comment) with three holes along them, but if that is what it is, it is very weathered.
DeleteAs it is a brick it can't be a one of those stones I found in Brighton and at the Baltic Sea with a whole in it. A brick is a brick is a brick. (almost a Gertrude Stein - and "Stein" means stone). Very mystical!
ReplyDeletePerhaps we should use it in some kind of ritual.
DeleteOr for soap bubbles :-)
DeleteInteresting! It does look like it served a purpose other than being just a brick.
ReplyDeleteIf bricks and stones could speak and tell their tale,
DeleteStrong hands that held them, purposes they knew,
Of houses, stables, barns, and sturdy walls,
We'd be as swallows, shadows passing through.
I wish I knew how much it weighed, now and then double, as it appears to be only half a brick. If it's heavy, it weighted serious, rope like warp. Was there a local rope winding mill?
ReplyDeleteIt is not particularly heavy. The village and the whole area was known for wool and textiles. I don't believe there was any rope making. You don't seem to be ruling out the loom possibility, and you are the expert. I guess we'll never know for certain.
Delete