Brick Bonds: A Life in Britain’s Building Trade, 1902-1987

This title is printed to order. This book may have been self-published. If so, we cannot guarantee the quality of the content. In the main most books will have gone through the editing process however some may not. We therefore suggest that you be aware of this before ordering this book. If in doubt check either the author or publisher’s details as we are unable to accept any returns unless they are faulty. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Despite recent academic interest in oral history and working-class writing, few other autobiographies reveal daily life for early twentieth-century itinerant gasworks bricklayers, or 'retort-setters'. Charles Hansford recounts constructing his own home single-handedly aged twenty-one, describes economic privations and poor weather conditions. 'Brick Bonds' documents his relationships with fellow workers and specific building techniques they used (a bond is a brick-laying pattern). His personal memories of enemy action in wartime, working-class social and leisure pursuits in London, the 1924 National Building Strike, and notable ships like Titanic and Bismarck are set into historical context. Hansford reveals an evolving class awareness and trade union activism; a declared Socialist, he readily left building sites in protest, even into the 1970s. His career encompassed Fawley Refinery, Royal Netley War Hospital, British Overseas Airways Company flying-boat bases, and Harrods store in London.