Tudor Brick

A complete example of a red, handmade, unfrogged brick (8 x 3 ¾ x 2 inch) of the type used in the construction of Shakespeare’s New Place. The filling-in of timber framing with brick, with the panels usually forming simple patterns, was in use by the mid-fifteenth century, however at this time, very few buildings were constructed using this material due to the prohibitive cost. 

More images available in the gallery above.

This brick infill method increased throughout the Tudor period and into the seventeenth century, however when New Place was built, the use of bricks was still mostly associated with the high-status buildings of the elite. It would have been a particularly unusual and splendid sight within Stratford. 

Shakespeare’s renovations of New Place made more extensive use of brick, alongside stone and timber as construction materials.