BRICKLAYING & CHURCHES

 

In 1975 I did a 6 month course in Bricklaying at the government retraining Centre in Handsworth, Sheffield. I used to cycle there every day across the lower deck of the Tinsley Viaduct which carried the M1 motorway across the Don Valley with its belt of steelworks.

Mr Cox was a softly spoken man in a white coat, with a long career behind him. A patient teacher who gave us a sound grounding in the trade. The lads were varied and full of mischief. I knew a few women who were starting to venture into the building trades but they weren't from a working class background. Those societal changes were yet to come.

A sketch from my pocket notebook captures the grip that the world of bricks took on my imagination. That world of building sites and masculine banter dominated the seventies for me. It helped to toughen me up and prepare me for the move to Africa that took me by surprise at the beginning of the 80s

 

 

This is a map I am working up in Revit. Hampshire churches. Churches within reach of Basingstoke where my grandsons live. I've visited quite a few of them. Saxons churches with wooden spires/belfries and flint walling.

I like mapping things in Revit, embedding data in little generic objects. It's the process that counts and how it helps you to get your head around a set of buildings in a particular landscape. Looking up information online. Gradually adding more instances, more layers of information.

The Meonwara was a tribe of Saxons who settled in the Meon valley. Mentioned by the Venerable Bede in the 8th Century. How do you transport yourself back to that world?

My chosen approach (called "the way we build") is a blend of hands-on research techniques. Modelling in Revit, drawing and painting, collecting and organising information from books and Internet searches, wherever possible, group collaborations to tap into a broader set of ideas and approaches.

I have visited some of these churches. My grandsons live in Basingstoke. Actual visits to old buildings are a vital part of the method, always asking questions. How was that actually built? What purpose does it serve? How does it fit into a sequence of technological change and stylistic development?

 

 

Model progress on the first of the Meon churches, in Hampshire that are at the core of my current #bimpencil study.

Corhampton was the second in a group of three Saxon churches that I visited with my family in the summer of 2019. Sunny weather, all three of my children, both grandsons and one daughter in law. Fond memories for sure.

The church in the photo is Exton. Similar language and scale but different in detail. The window and door families present an interesting challenge. Just going for a simplified approximation at the moment.

 

 

Weekend draws to a close and I'm quite happy with the progress on Corhampton Church in the Meon valley of Hampshire.

I'm doing this based on a couple of dozen photos taken in 2019 plus information from the Internet. There was a framed floor plan in the church that I snapped, and of course Google earth gives a rough guide to size, but for the most part all the dimensions in my model are estimated by eye.

I love to do it that way. Forces me to think hard about the way a building is put together and to take decisions about the level of abstraction that I should use. I suppose the day will come when others will just tell "the machine"... "take this source material and convert it into a BIM model of a Saxon church."

But why? The whole point of this exercise is to stimulate my brain into thinking more deeply about what these old churches mean to me. It's the process that matters, not the end product.

Call me old fashioned 🤣🤣🤣

 

 

In 1976 I was working as a bricklayer on sites in and around Sheffield. It was a brilliant summer and we had our shirts off for weeks on end. Oh to be young again. 🤣🤣🤣

I had a little pocket notebook where I would write diary notes when the mood struck me, and sketch little doodles like these hod carriers. Fortunately I digitised those pages before coming to Dubai, so I have this amazing resource for peeking into my past in a very intimate way.

Around this time I discovered Dr Feelgood and a new faith in the blues roots of my guitar playing. Vivid memories of going to a concert at the City Hall, probably with Pete Donoghue, a local lad who was giving up on bricklaying just as I was going in to it.

Such is life.