Sterling autumn weather greeted 28 participants in a guided walk at Johannis Farm Wildlife Preserve on October 16, 2022. The Farm is a 32-acre property preserved and managed by the Barrington Land Conservation Trust. The Barrington Preservation Society led a discussion of Barrington’s first brick-making operation, the remnants of which exist on the site. Click here for a one-minute video of the pond and discarded bricks that remain in the stream.

(Above, left) Land Trust steward of the Johannis Farm Wildlife Preserve, Bill Kirkpatrick, begins the walk with a description of the property after Sowams Heritage Area Coordinator Dave Weed (in the blue hat) provided a history of the Pokanoket People who inhabited the land for 10,000 years.

(Above, left) Barrington Preservation Society Trustee Maria Bruce describes the brickmaking operation that began at the site in 1673 with the work of William Cahoon who was slain nearby during the first days of King Philip’s War in 1675. (Above, right) Preservation Society President Stephen Venuti looks at the stream that was used to transport the bricks to the Palmer River.

(Above, left) The pond from which the clay was removed to make the bricks that were fired in kilns and transported down stream can still be seen today, but only during guided walks to the property that is closed to the public.