BRICKS. Most people dont give them much thought. And when we think of them what image is conjured? A brick through a window. In words we are said to be 'bricking it', or he's as 'thick as a brick'.

But there's never a dull moment for connoisseurs of brickwork in Winchester, such is the variety.

The vast majority of modern brickwork is the regular laying of bricks lengthwise, showing the long side in the course of brickwork. Its technical term is stretcher bond.

But look closely at the way historic buildings were built will see many different styles.

The railway bridge in Barfield Close is an example of English bond where the courses alternate between stretcher and headers (the short side of the brick).

At the Discovery Centre in Jewry Street there's a variation of Flemish bond where stretchers and headers alternate within each course. Another example of Flemish bond is the Chronicle office in Upper Brook Street.

Especially in Victorian times the regularity was broken up with the use of different coloured bricks. At St John's Almshouses in the High Street the bricks were laid to create crosses. On North Walls in the building that used to be the reference library dark bricks were dotted through the work. The dark bricks may well have been made by the Blanchard company based in Bishop's Waltham. It moved to the town in Victorian times and brick-making carried on until 1957.