I recently stumbled across some B.C. history on the beach at Matsqui. Red bricks like these are found in some of B.C.’s most famous landmarks: the Sun Tower, St Paul’s Hospital, the Marine Building and Empress Hotel. These Clayburn Brick fragments were clustered on the shore where we pulled our kayaks out of the water, likely eroded from the nearby dike where they were once used as fill. They’re also found in local driveways, walls and gardens.
Drive east through tiny Clayburn village to see homes, a church & school, built 100 years ago from Clayburn Bricks, fashioned from Sumas Mountain clay. (There’s also a fine British sweets & tea shop that’s worth a detour.) Charles Maclure built the company, his brother Sam became a famous BC architect (Hatley Castle/Royal Roads) and their older sister Sara was B.C.’s first female newspaper publisher at Vancouver’s Daily World. – Mark Forsythe