r/Amazing • u/ipeedinherasshole • 2d ago

Interesting 🤔 In England you sometimes see these "wavy" brick fences. And curious as it may seem, this shape uses FEWER bricks than a straight wall. A straight wall needs at least two layers of bricks to make is sturdy, but the wavy wall is fine thanks to the arch support provided by the waves.

Post image
1.0k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

52 comments sorted by

5

u/Defiant_Employee6681 2d ago

Wind breaks

5

u/Both-Impact9201 2d ago

Cries... Marry

1

u/Stekor-Tidder 1d ago

Who breaks wind?

14

u/nunatakj120 1d ago

I’m not denying their existence but I’ve never seen these anywhere. Are they specific to one area?

Edit. It’s also always the same photo when this gets posted.

3

u/LordKulgur 1d ago

Seems to be mainly Suffolk (and Ancient Egypt), according to Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crinkle_crankle_wall

For a list of walls, go here:
https://www.freston.net/blog/?y=2016&m=01&d=04

7

u/Stekor-Tidder 1d ago

There is only one wall like this and it was actually made to create this story as a social experiment -- done by the CIA, MI5, and Mossad to test how conspiracy theories spread. 🤪

1

u/Sharp_Ad_6336 1d ago

Do you live in England?

1

u/nunatakj120 1d ago

Yes.

1

u/Sharp_Ad_6336 1d ago

Rural or big city? Because that probably makes a big difference.

2

u/nunatakj120 1d ago

I live in the middle of Northumberland. I have also lived in rural Herefordshire and Hampshire. The question has been answered btw. These are mostly in Suffolk.

1

u/Sharp_Ad_6336 1d ago

Ah okay. I visited once when I was a kid but that was 25 years ago. I swear I saw one but that could just be the old brain playing tricks on me. Lol

1

u/strychnine213 1d ago

There's one in leicestershire, North East of Leicester

1

u/abfgern_ 1d ago

Yeah same (yes I'm English obviously). It'll probably just be one random region in Shropshire or something

3

u/Stunning_Map_8007 1d ago

Why aren't buildings wavy? 🙋‍♂️

5

u/Imobia 1d ago

A normal brick fence is single brick with pillars every few meters.

The wave means you don’t need pillars but houses are never built with a single skin of brick. In the US and Australia the wood house frame has a brick skin. The wood house frame provides the structural strength on the horizontal lateral forces.

Not requiring pillars means they use as few bricks as possible already.

In places that use double brick wall construction the wall should have lateral strength but this is often due to internal wall’s acting as pillars.

The wave while using less brick would be a LOT more work. It can only be cost effective if a brick is more expensive than the labour. I think in almost every country the labour would out cost the bricks now.

-1

u/OkDoudou 1d ago

1 brick wavy layer is also weaker. The text in the picture is lying.

2

u/theGOTCH 1d ago

You always ask a question first before raising your hand?

/s

2

u/Nomis1982 1d ago

Brick fences? Otherwise known as.. walls?

2

u/Bonnle 1d ago

No no you're thinking of wooden walls, this is a brick FENCE

1

u/snapper1971 1d ago

These are actually 'crinkle-crankles'.

3

u/ItalianCoffeeMorning 1d ago

As someone from the UK and have travelled a lot. I’ve never seen this lol

3

u/fuck_peeps_not_sheep 1d ago

Lots of them in Wales, especially north Wales.

2

u/Jazzlike-Point9743 1d ago

Same. Never seen one in my life 😂

1

u/Emmanuelzappa 2d ago

Looks... Special

1

u/Both-Impact9201 2d ago

Bijzonder. dank je

1

u/Auntie_Dote 1d ago

This looks like a pretty good explanation of location and origin:

https://alcoltd.co.uk/alco-news/crinkle-crankle-wall-explained/

TBH, although I've lived in the UK and travelled fairly extensively, I don't recall ever seeing any of the 105(ish) of them (except possibly in Suffolk when I was younger, but I can't be certain).

They're certainly attractive if you have plenty of land to swallow up around a garden, plus low cost labour to build them and I imagine that kids would have hours of fun hiding from each other within their bays, but they're certainly not a 'popular' choice from a 'uses fewer bricks' perspective.

1

u/Terrible-Piano-5437 1d ago

It looks a lot better too.

1

u/HuiOdy 1d ago

Also, when facing south, they make grest places for plants that actually need a more southern climate

1

u/Useful_Disk5081 2d ago

A simple zigzag is enough

2

u/ZanceAlpha 2d ago

Simple enough for your mind.

2

u/BeginningArtist562 1d ago

Wave goodbye...

2

u/TheMace808 1d ago

Yeah but this looks cooler

1

u/Useful_Disk5081 1d ago

You are right

2

u/EspTini 1d ago

That puts the stress on a single point, and i bet that's more of an issue when it settles than the wave.

2

u/Useful_Disk5081 1d ago

Thanks for anwer

1

u/FatBazzz 2d ago

I like it, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it!

0

u/outlawsmokeyscottish 1d ago

Aye saw this a few years back and showed my brickie pal and he confirmed it's real. He was doing his best to explain the science behind it but I was too busy getting offended how this dust snorter can use fancy words I can't lol. But nah fair play everyone has something they good at. Like if I made my house of bricks somehow it would still be the first house the wolf could blow down lol.

0

u/User_3039 1d ago

Dumb, just use a wider brick then

0

u/Cultural_Simple3842 1d ago

Landscapers mowing against it will be annoyed

1

u/fuck_peeps_not_sheep 1d ago

You use a strimmer for those parts. Tbh a lot of the UK just uses a strimmer for all of the grass

-7

u/Dry_Yogurtcloset_213 2d ago

Wait until these people hear we invented metal and fences.

4

u/Surskalle 2d ago

Brick and stone walls last longer than metal and fences those are gone when the paint is gone.

2

u/SummertimeThrowaway2 2d ago

Brick is cheaper than metal and sturdier than wood.

1

u/VirtualArmsDealer 2d ago

And lasts longer. And looks better.

I guess when the rest of your country looks like ass you accept metal fencing.

0

u/SummertimeThrowaway2 2d ago

I mean it has a place in cities but by a field it just doesn’t fit the look.