The widely known Crinkle Crankle Wall, also known as Crinkum Crankum wall , Serpentine wall, Ribbon or Wavy Wall, is a unique brick garden wall shaped like a waving snake, commonly found in the United Kingdom.

Walking along the streets of small towns in Great Britain, you can see unusual brick fences that are built from standard wall bricks, but at the same time they are not straight, as usual, but wavy. It would seem that aesthetics is aesthetics, but why use building materials so irrationally? As it turned out, this way the owners of large areas ... save bricks. It is difficult to believe in an ordinary man in the street, but professionals know what the secret is and we decided to reveal it - suddenly someone will come in handy.

Crinkle Crankle Wall

Serpentine Garden walls In United Kingdom

For most people, far from building codes, subtleties and tricks, a direct brick fence seems to be the most economical and practical. But it was not so! Since the XVIII century. the British create original wavy fences, better known as crinkle crankle walls, or serpentine walls.

Such a wall construction for the uninformed seems an aesthetic excess, but for residents of most of England it is a more practical and economical fencing of personal plots. [first photo source]

Serpentine Wall Bricks

According to the authors of Chingum.com, more than two centuries ago, they wanted to use fewer bricks, reducing the wall's value. A straight wall is made parallel to the two bricks, In comparison, a curved wall could be formed into single brick on top of one by one, Curve wall increasing their strength with curves, on the contrary the straight wall would be weaker.

Garden walls and uses of bricks

Significant savings in the base material have been proven both by practice and by accurate mathematical calculations, which confirm that the amount of material used in the wall is proportional to the product of its length and thickness. In other words, the number of bricks is reduced only due to the fact that the curved shape of the wall / fence provides good stability and stability, thereby allowing them to be laid with a thickness of only half a brick. At the same time, in order for rectilinear objects to withstand such a load and have good stability, they are made 1-2 bricks thick, otherwise you will have to install supports (buttresses), which also require additional material and time.

Curved Bricks Wall

Interesting fact: When creating wavy walls, remember that the larger the bending amplitude, the longer the curve will turn out. This means that material consumption increases. If, for example, you start the construction of a fence with a small amplitude, then when fencing identical sections using serpentine masonry (relatively linear), the length of the wall will increase by 22%, but the number of bricks decreases by 50%

Looking at these numbers, you really understand that the mathematical calculation in this case clearly shows excellent cost savings when improving the appearance of the fence. So having your own house or summer cottage, you should think carefully before starting construction. Maybe it's better to add an original wave after all, saving yourself from unnecessary costs? Moreover, not only residential buildings are fenced in this way.

The most famous example of crinkle crankle walls is the University of Virginia, whose campus was designed by Thomas Jefferson himself (the third President of the United States, a famous American statesman and architect). It is there that you can see the winding brick fence, which was built in 1819 and is still perfectly preserved.