Body Shop – British Manufacturing History

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Giants of British Manufacturing

October 26, 2026 — 0 Comments

Building in brick

Brick has been used in building for millenia, dating back certainly to ancient Egypt. During the four centuries of Roman occupation of Britain it is thought that many millions of bricks were made, a technique forgotten in the Dark Ages, but rediscovered in the early Middle Ages. Colchester Castle holds the Roman memory being built […]

Building in stone

Stone was the preserve of the well to do, of churches and of castles. An exception was the northern isles where on Orkney stone was used for communal dwellings, because trees struggled to grow in the fierce winter gales. Buildings dating back 2,500 years remain standing, although uninhabited. The Broch of Mousa on Shetland (the […]

Building in wood

By the time of the Domesday Book, only about fifteen percent of England was wooded, with oak being the most common tree. Oak was a popular building material being strong and easy to work when green and incredibly hard once the sap had gone. Houses were built with green oak which would then shrink, locking […]

Roman Building

Roman architecture stands out because of the variety of materials used and structures built, but most of all because modern building from the Renaissance onward looked to Rome for both theoretical and practical ideas. There are two places to look for this inheritance: the writings of Vitruvius and the remains of Pompey. I am accompanied […]

A Story of the Building of Pre-Elizabethan England

I will explore building from the key raw materials of wood, stone and broch in forthcoming post. For now I am looking at early England. If you follow this link you will be able to see my plan of exploration. In the England of pre-history, so in the bronze and iron ages, settlements and hill […]