“Built a good brick house” - 300 years of change and development in the Belfast brick Industry
Channel: The Ulster Archaeological Society
Date: 2022-10-25

An examination of brickmaking in Belfast over the past 300 years and how technological change and alteration of raw material sources has impacted on its development

Stephen Gilmore graduated with a BSc. in Archaeology from Queens University, Belfast in 1990. Since then he has worked as a field archaeologist at all levels of responsibility to Project Manager and on all types of site from the Neolithic to the Twentieth Century. From 1990 to 1995, he worked as an archaeologist for the EHS. In the mid 1990s Stephen was a founder member of Archcor, and in 1998 was a co-founder of Northern Archaeological Consultancy Ltd which he continues to run. Stephen is the director responsible for Health and Safety (Safetycert) and environmental good practice (Nvirocert) with NAC Ltd and one of NAC’s Project Managers which involves developer liaison, and scheduling, organising and overseeing all fieldwork carried out by the company. His areas of interest include Bronze Age burial practice and brick making technology, especially the development of continuous kilns and is currently undertaking an MPhil examining the development of the Belfast brickmaking industry at Queens University Belfast. He holds an IOSH Managing Safely in Construction certificate, and is a member of CIfA.