Tuck pointing on The Elms, 18th Century house in Acton

Image: © David Hawgood Taken: 17 Sep 2006

This is the south wall of The Elms, which is the administrative building of Twyford Church of England High School. Tuck pointing is a decorative white ribbon applied over hand-made irregular bricks to give a neat and uniform appearance. Dr Gerard Lynch in a long description on the Brickmaster website http://www.brickmaster.co.uk/tukcpointing.htm tells us it is: "a highly skilled and refined method of pointing brickwork whereby the overall mortar joint is coloured to match the brick and grooved while still 'green' to receive a carefully placed lime-putty : silver sand joint, which is then carefully trimmed to form a precise ribbon-like profile. Its intention, in England, was to create an illusion of gauged ashlared brickwork on walling constructed of standard, often irregular, handmade bricks."

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