THE building blocks of the region's past are being commemorated in a tram shelter built with bricks from 500 North-East brick works.

A wall of Beamish Open Air Museum's new tram stop will be made with bricks bearing the names of nearly every brick works in the region from the past 150 years. The wall and the rest of the tram stop will be open to the public by Easter.

The brick works sprung up on coalfields, due to the amount of suitable clay extracted from mines. John Gall, the museum's acting director, said that the bricks were often all that remained of some coal mines.

He said: "Each one of these 500-or-so bricks represents a colliery and brick works. Most North-East brick works stamped their name on their bricks. They ended up competing with each other to see who had the best design and best quality brick.

"We now see bricks in a completely different light. Now we look on a heap of bricks with the passion of collectors.