Religious Support

[MdB]

Can any of the brick experts here tell me when bricks first started to be made with holes in them? I ask as I'm currently rebuilding part of one of our fireplaces and a previous repair has been done with parts of this sort of brick. This in itself doesn't surprise me too much, it is just that it is being held into position with lime mortar so this suggests that it has been there some while. Other work in the house has been done in cement so this patch of lime is out of place.

(The brick is the standard red - it is just a bit lime stained)

 

[Moo]

I'm ever so sorry, but I just don't understand that photograph. To me it looks like a lump of chalk sitting on a pamment.
Where's the hole?

 

[MdB]

It is a bit of a red brick stuck on a shovel - I had all sorts of trouble taking a good picture of it and didn't succeed very well sorry.

You are looking at the top of a small section of the brick and there are the remains of three holes visible though only a bit of each.

I've been trying to find a good picture online of a similar type but this is the best I've found:

My brick is something like the two bricks with lots of little holes in them.