King's Den, The Brick field
In most places around the world, bricks have been an architectural staple for centuries, in some cases, millennia. It is probable that bricks are the world’s earliest man-made building material. In one word it can be said that, they’re basically just made of earth and they have remarkable series of properties: they’re economical, weather resistant, and fireproof.
King's den is a brick field located in southern part of West Bengal. Brick fields are places where bricks are manufactured. Soil is extracted from river delta, smoothened, mixed and shaped into bricks with the help of moulds. The clay bricks are first sun dried and then fired in the kiln, and you get shiny red-golden bricks. It is a worker intensive industry, involving various stages – right from soil extraction to loading ready bricks to be taken away. Workers migrating from different states along with their family members quest for seasonal employment. The adult couples are officially engaged in the brick field while their children play around. Being around with the family and working along with them brings peace to their mind and helps them in earning more.
What you get to see here is not just an industry or a business, but a way of life. The people who work here have been doing this for generations, and are very skilled at their jobs. Right from the lad who mixes soil to the artisan who makes the moulds to the men who mould the clay and lay neat rows after rows of wet bricks in the sun to dry, to the women clad in colorful sarees carrying 6, 8 or even 10 clay dried or baked bricks on their heads with aplomb, to the gutsy men standing on the hot kiln, checking the bricks being baked in the hot chamber. A huge workforce, divided over a huge working area, busy in their own processes, and still working in tandem to create what helps create our homes – BRICKS.
King's den is a brick field located in southern part of West Bengal. Brick fields are places where bricks are manufactured. Soil is extracted from river delta, smoothened, mixed and shaped into bricks with the help of moulds. The clay bricks are first sun dried and then fired in the kiln, and you get shiny red-golden bricks. It is a worker intensive industry, involving various stages – right from soil extraction to loading ready bricks to be taken away. Workers migrating from different states along with their family members quest for seasonal employment. The adult couples are officially engaged in the brick field while their children play around. Being around with the family and working along with them brings peace to their mind and helps them in earning more.
What you get to see here is not just an industry or a business, but a way of life. The people who work here have been doing this for generations, and are very skilled at their jobs. Right from the lad who mixes soil to the artisan who makes the moulds to the men who mould the clay and lay neat rows after rows of wet bricks in the sun to dry, to the women clad in colorful sarees carrying 6, 8 or even 10 clay dried or baked bricks on their heads with aplomb, to the gutsy men standing on the hot kiln, checking the bricks being baked in the hot chamber. A huge workforce, divided over a huge working area, busy in their own processes, and still working in tandem to create what helps create our homes – BRICKS.