Tour Report: Brick Factory T.

The story of how we stumbled across this abandoned brickworks almost exactly five years ago is quite funny. A few years earlier, we had bought a small tree for our garden at a farmers' market - a "Speierling" (Cormus domestica, or sorb tree).

You have to know that our “garden” is a garage yard with lots of individual pots, and we planted the tree, which was not even half a meter high at the time, in one of these pots.

The little tree thrived magnificently and grew bigger and bigger over time. At first we planted it in a larger pot, but this eventually became too small for the tree.

We didn't have a larger pot - and as the sorb tree is one of the rarest trees in Germany (in Austria and Switzerland it is even on the list of endangered species), we wanted to place it where it would have a good and long life.

At a barbecue evening, a good friend said that there was plenty of space in her parents' garden and that they would be happy to take the tree.

So a few weeks later, we loaded the tree into our car (which was an adventure in itself) and drove towards the North Sea coast. Our friend's parents were waiting for us with a lavishly laid coffee table and even tried to fill us up with schnapps, which we gratefully declined. In any case, it was a great afternoon with lots of good conversation, and when we got talking about our hobby, our friend's father casually mentioned that there was a dilapidated brickworks just across the road.

Shortly afterwards, we set off with him (he accompanied us because he knew all the neighbors and could therefore make sure that no one called the police on us).

The brickworks was only about 5 minutes away and was really dilapidated. The chimney had either been demolished in the past or had collapsed; in any case, only a small stump was left. The ring kiln was still in good condition and had not collapsed; only some garbage had been dumped there in the past.

All that was left of the other buildings of the brickworks were a few ruined remains. Apparently the site had also been used by people at some point, who stored scrap metal and a few old agricultural machines there. In order not to try our hosts' patience too much, we only took a few photos and then headed back.

In any case, this was a nice surprice location and exploration - and our tree has since found a great new home - we still get a photo of it from time to time!

To find out a bit more about the history of the place and to check out more photos, click the button below.