An Early Brick Barn: Hales Hall Great Barn,
built in 1474 for Sir James Hobart,
Attorney General to Henry VII
Brick came into England in the fourteenth century. It was first imported as ballast in ships involved in the Wool Trade so it appeared initially in East Anglia and the South-East.
It was quite expensive and to start with was used in high status buildings, which sometimes included barns such as the ones at Hales Hall in Norfolk and Basing House in Hampshire.
It was not until brick yards and later brick-making factories were developed in England that it was used more generally. Some farms even had their own clay pits and brick kilns.
With the coming of canals and railways during the Industrial Revolution the use of brick gradually became more widespread.
