1688 J. Harrison Let. 9 Sept. in R. Boyle Corr. (2001) VI. 268 This Hostile Glebe is distinguished commonly by Mechanicall men into two sorts, to wit Tile clay, and that whereof they make Brick. Brick clay is often called Loome by those that work on it.

1747 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 44 558 They [sc. ancient Moulds] are made of a smooth Pot, or rather Brick-Clay.

1790 T. Wedgwood Let. 26 Nov. in F. Doherty 18th-cent. Intellect. Friendship (1986) 265 As to the clay, the common brick clay will certainly answer every purpose of a finer sort—provided it be free from putrid vegetable or animal matter.

1837 Penny Cycl. VII. 245/2 Brick clay..lies in abundance upon the London clay.

1866 B. J. Lossing Hudson xi. 206 Its banks yield some of the finest brick-clay in the country.

1944 W. Morgan in R. Greenhalgh Pract. Builder ix. 309/2 All bricks, with a few exceptions,..are manufactured from brick clays, or shales, which consist essentially of silica and alumina and contain impurities such as oxides of iron, and chalk (or limestone).

2011 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) A. 369 1065 Quarrying, first for building stone, then later for brick clay, aggregate and cement manufacture, has left large-scale areas of worked ground.