Brickworks

In a green oasis along the Rupel River, a concrete elevated walkway rises, seemingly leading nowhere, yet it still holds quite a story.

The clay pits of Terhagen in Belgium are part of a vast extraction area along the Rupel River, where clay was mined on an industrial scale throughout the 20th century for brickworks.

The "Céramique et briquetteries méchaniques du Littoral" brickworks flanks the Kortrijk-Bossuit canal since 1924.

At the end of the 18th century, the Belgian Rupel region counted more than hundreds of brickworks. However, the rise of concrete and mechanization heralded the end of the brick industry in the 1960s.

The Belgian Rupel region has over fifty brickmakers' tunnels running under streets and railway lines. They are the best-hidden reminder of the brick industry of yesteryear.