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.

Tour Report: Brick Factory A.

In mid-April 2020, the coronavirus pandemic had Germany firmly in its grip. The first nationwide lockdown had been in place for around four weeks, and it was expected to last a good two weeks before the first slight easing.

It was spring - a very sunny spring with correspondingly high temperatures; Easter a week earlier had even brought a few summer days with it.

In the three weeks since our last tour, we had hardly left our yard, so we were anxious to get out of the house again. I looked for a place to go - not too far, since due to the lockdwon, we weren't allowed to leave the state - and came across a brick factory that I had visited once in 2014. The news said that the property had been sold and was soon to be developed.

So we decided to pay a revisit to this place.

It was a short drive - after just under an hour we were there and looking for a parking space. It was quickly found. There were a few commercial buildings at the eastern end of the brickworks site, and as it was Sunday, the parking lots were empty and available to us. To get onto the site, we just had to climb over a small embankment - and we were standing right in front of the brickworks' materials warehouse.

We explored the entire place with the exception of the manufacturer's villa, which was unfortunately completely locked and secured.

Due to the beautiful weather, we took our time and explored the whole site at our leisure.

I particularly liked two motifs on this trip: the materials store with the little “houses” and the room with the water basin where the clay for the bricks was prepared. The water in the basin shimmered in the sunlight in all sorts of bright colors - probably due to algae, perhaps also due to pollution or contaminated soil.

Towards the end, we met two other people who had used the beautiful day to escape the confines of the lockdown - other than that we were completely alone the entire time. It was a nice short trip and a good opportunity to get out of the house again.

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

Derelict Brick Factory

I haven't seen many photos of this building on the internet, but the ones I have seen made this location interesting enough for a little visit.

From what I can see from the information I managed to gather, the brickyard was built in 1882 and was closed down in 1928.
In 1968, three days before the official comissioning of the nearby town's first fire engine, the brick factory was devastated by a big fire.
Now, only a ruin remains of the beautiful red brick gothic building. It is really dangerous to enter and even if possible, there isn't much to see as most of the area has been reclaimed by nature.
It was nice walk across some muddy acres to find that hole in the fence that got us in...