A little-known Gloucestershire firm is manufacturing the biggest ever order of handmade UK bricks to rebuild an iconic Thames-side building.

Nortcot Brick Ltd is busy handmaking the 1.3 million of the total 1.7 million individual blocks for the restoration of Battersea Power Station.

Should your budget stretch to it flats at the power station are still available - starting from £2.75 million and due for completion in 2020.

Everyone of the bricks made for the high-profile job are being thrown by hand by Cotswold company, founded by Captain EG Spencer Churchill in 1925 and based near the fittingly names village of Blockley.

Clay is dug out of the ground at the firm's own quarry behind the brickworks before being cleaned ready for use in the mill, cut into chunks and pressed into bespoke moulds - one at a time.

"You can turn an order around in a month, but the process cannot be hurried," managing director Michael Brown told The Sunday Times newspaper.

Bricks then go through a six-day drying process before spending time in the kiln and, depending on the type of brick, some then go through a weathering process.

The initial 800,000 needed to work such as window opening and repairs too almost a year to make.

The company also produces machine-made bricks, but it is its involvement in this particular job which has been seized upon by the Federation of Master Builders to stress some of the issues afoot in the industry.

Firstly, there is a shortage of supply, something affecting the smaller construction firms.

Andrew Dixon, head of policy at the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), told The Sunday Times: "We had to ask manufacturers to increase supply and keep some bricks back for SMEs."

The FMB has said 45 per cent of SME builders believe bricks are in short supply with waiting times of four to eight weeks.

Apparently an estimated 85 per cent of clay and cement used by UK brick manufacturers comes from the EU. Another one to watch post-Brexit.

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