Brickfield

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An open area of land where clay is shaped and fired to produce bricks for building
2. A piece of ground used for manufacturing bricks, often with kilns and stacks of finished blocks
3. Land set aside for the production of clay bricks, typically dug out and worked for its raw material

Etymology: A brickfield is exactly what the name promises: a stretch of open ground where bricks were made. The word is a plain compound of "brick" and "field," with no hidden twist in its making. The "brick" half comes from the Old English and Middle English world of clay and kilns, and the "field" half is the ordinary word for an open tract of land, so the whole term describes a place rather than a thing. Because the word is so transparent, its history lies mostly in what the places themselves were. Brickfields were typically rough, open patches close to a clay source, where clay was dug, moulded, dried and fired, often beside a growing town that needed buildings. The word keeps the memory of that industrial landscape in its two halves, and that combination of working ground and literal wording is the whole story.

Synonyms: brickyard, brickworks, kiln