wrote in message
ups.com...
well it is fairly light and grey, with little bits of grit in it. Its
an old victorian house in portsmouth if that helps?

It sounds like you might be drilling into a soft clinker brick. They used
to build these into brick walls in strategic places to give the carpenters
something to nail into - they're fine for nailing but they don't drill well
because they are very soft and very coarse in texture.

You might be unlucky and find they used these bricks for the whole wall, but
they're usually laid spaced apart in a particular horizontal brick course
for fixing picture rails or dado rails etc. You might well find harder
bricks if you try drilling about 9" above or below your previous holes.

Peter