About 1,500 Best bricks were discovered unfired in January when Guernsey Water emptied the historic brick kiln at Brickfield House in St Andrew’s.
Of those, 1,000 were kept back for conservation and local heritage purposes and 500 were available for islanders to pick up for a donation.
‘The bricks are very fragile in their current state,’ pottery maker and owner of Moulin Huet pottery Rex Opie explained.
‘My electric kiln can hold around 60 bricks and I’m happy to fire people’s bricks if they want.’
Mr Opie’s son-in-law, Jonathan Travers, is a relative of the Best family.
His mother used to help load up the kiln and he remembers playing at the site as a child and working there too.
‘I have a couple of the unfired bricks and would like to put one in the wall of my next extension,’ said Mr Travers.
‘They cannot be used at the moment because they are so fragile – even any water might make them crumble.
‘Once they’re fired they will shrink a bit but be strong enough to use and survive.’
He added: ‘I think the bricks and the kiln are an important part of Guernsey heritage and have lots of memories at Brickfield House.’
The bricks are around 70 years old and there is a small chance they could crack or break in the kiln due to their delicate state.
If islanders would like Mr Opie to fire their bricks for them he would be happy to do so for a small donation.
Bricks can be dropped to the Moulin Huet Pottery in St Martin’s between 10am and noon this Saturday.
It will take 12 hours for the kiln to fire the bricks, reaching around 1,000 degrees Celsius, and another six to eight hours for them to cool slowly.
Mr Opie will take islanders’ names and contact numbers and the bricks would be ready for collection on Monday 11 March.
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