Our business was founded by Henry George Matthews in 1923 and today is still run by his descendants.

Henry George Matthews was a great conservationist, believing that maintaining and restoring the landscape was essential.

Today, we uphold those values vigorously and continue to develop production methods that minimise environmental pollution and energy use.

We also promote the use of lime mortar which uses less energy to produce than cement and allows the bricks to be re-used at the end of the building's life.

Between April and October all bricks are dried naturally outside and in the winter months we dry the bricks using wood chip saving the equivillent of 300,000 litres of diesel a year.

Rainwater is used in the clay mixing process and our claypits, once exhausted, are restored and planted with broad leaved woodland or turned into ponds to encourage the indigenous wildlife. To date over 25 acres of oak, beech, ash and cherry have been planted.