THE REPAIR OF RURAL COTTAGES — III
By Edwin Gunn, A. R. I. B. A.
Stone Cottages. — A great deal of the advice relating to brick cottages applies equally to masonry — so far as the exclusion of damp arising from the ground is concerned. The removal of surface earth externally and waterproof plastering inside will often effect vital improvement.
Stonework in cottages is almost invariably rubble, and usually local rubble used in the local manner. The joints may be clay or cob, mortar composed of loam and sand with a varying proportion of lime, lime and stone dust, or it is quite possible that the outer face may be intentionally without jointing material, as in the slatestone districts of Westmoreland and parts of Wales, or the very different carstone of the north-west Norfolk coast. Never rush to conclusions in cases where something unfamiliar is encountered; look at other examples and discover common local peculiarities, for which very good reason usually existed. Remember also that a rubble wall 18 in. or 24 in. thick is more resistant to penetration or overturning than modern thin walls. In most respects this is a good point, but in one particular direction it has led to many cases of serious damage from prolonged neglect. The most obvious instance
arises from leaky gutters and rain-pipes. It sounds obvious to say that stone cottages are usually built in a district where stone is easily come by, but the point is that stone was commonly used for many purposes strange to less favoured areas. Such cottages, whether thatched or stone-slated, did not commonly have eaves guttering originally; more usually they had dripping eaves and a stone drain round the base of the walls to receive the roof water — either an open channel of rubble set in mortar or a trough formed of rough slabs covered by a layer of similar loose slabs as a series of lids. When eaves guttering became usual these drains were often neglected or removed. The thick walls caused the leakages which inevitably arise sooner or later in gutters and downpipes, from damage or blocking, to be overlooked quite often until a large mass of wall had been repeatedly soaked by defective rain-water pipes or the lower courses damaged by overflowing gutters. I have seen more rubble walling with evidence of damage from the concentrated leakage of faulty conductors than by the uncollected drippings from an unguttered eaves.
Stone slating is often condemned from a superficial examination because it has a ragged look — particularly by people to whom the ideal of perfection is a machine-made tile like an ½-in. boiler plate painted pink. But stone slates as used on cottages and farms were commonly even less fully squared than on manorhouses or ecclesiastical buildings, and a ragged appearance does not always betoken final dilapidation. The worst trouble with this form of roofing is moss,
which in some localities overspreads the slating in such a carpet that moisture is held so that the slabs weather away much more rapidly than they should. It is unfortunately necessary to go over badly affected roofs at intervals of a few years to remove the growth, and during this process slates are commonly broken and weak laths discovered; bad patching is clone; defects increase and eventually the roofs are stripped. Where this necessarily occurs small second-quality grey Cornish slates are much more harmonious as a
substitute than Bridgewater or Broseley (or indeed any) clay tiles. If the latter must be used, dun-coloured tiles are most to be preferred.
Oak Frame Cottages. — An oak frame building is so kindly in permitting ventilation without collapse that this quality has been stretched to the utmost in many remaining examples. These run on distinct local fashions, and reference to some less badly mutilated neighbour will often give the clue to points of structural design hidden or altered beyond recognition. On the Middlesex-Bucks border, with which I am most closely familiar, the bay or unit of length seems to be about 12 feet and the span about 18 feet, while the skeleton is commonly on the lines of the sketch (Fig. 5) when the roof is a post and collar or queenpost type. It should be noted that an excellent tradition of the oak frame carpenter was to avoid jointing which involved the meeting of more than two timbers at the same point. The greatest ingenuity is displayed in achieving this end. Once the constructive skeleton has been disintegrated it should be the aim of repair to see first that the whole mechanism exists or that any members which have been ignorantly cut away are satisfactorily replaced. This ensured, the lesser studs, rafters and fillings generally can be treated with less respect — it is of little material effect on a frame structure whether the panels are of brick, plaster, or glass — with a reservation that many mutilated frames now stand less by the fulfilment of the original function of the framing than by the wall effect of their brick fillings.
Brick filling or nogging, with inclined or herringbone beds, can be made to fit tighter than when laid in level courses, since there is the wedge action of sliding on each inclined joint to ensure tight packing against the vertical studs.
The base or “pinning” below the ground cill is
generally of flint or brick, and should be freed from accumulated earth so as to raise the cill at least 18 inches above surface level. It should not be forgotten that the need for a specific dampcourse is much less in an oak frame structure than in a brick or stone wall, and that a base wall of flints set in tempered mortar is (relatively to brickwork in lime mortar) practically non-absorbent.
Pig. 5.
By Edwin Gunn, A. R. I. B. A.
Stone Cottages. — A great deal of the advice relating to brick cottages applies equally to masonry — so far as the exclusion of damp arising from the ground is concerned. The removal of surface earth externally and waterproof plastering inside will often effect vital improvement.
Stonework in cottages is almost invariably rubble, and usually local rubble used in the local manner. The joints may be clay or cob, mortar composed of loam and sand with a varying proportion of lime, lime and stone dust, or it is quite possible that the outer face may be intentionally without jointing material, as in the slatestone districts of Westmoreland and parts of Wales, or the very different carstone of the north-west Norfolk coast. Never rush to conclusions in cases where something unfamiliar is encountered; look at other examples and discover common local peculiarities, for which very good reason usually existed. Remember also that a rubble wall 18 in. or 24 in. thick is more resistant to penetration or overturning than modern thin walls. In most respects this is a good point, but in one particular direction it has led to many cases of serious damage from prolonged neglect. The most obvious instance
arises from leaky gutters and rain-pipes. It sounds obvious to say that stone cottages are usually built in a district where stone is easily come by, but the point is that stone was commonly used for many purposes strange to less favoured areas. Such cottages, whether thatched or stone-slated, did not commonly have eaves guttering originally; more usually they had dripping eaves and a stone drain round the base of the walls to receive the roof water — either an open channel of rubble set in mortar or a trough formed of rough slabs covered by a layer of similar loose slabs as a series of lids. When eaves guttering became usual these drains were often neglected or removed. The thick walls caused the leakages which inevitably arise sooner or later in gutters and downpipes, from damage or blocking, to be overlooked quite often until a large mass of wall had been repeatedly soaked by defective rain-water pipes or the lower courses damaged by overflowing gutters. I have seen more rubble walling with evidence of damage from the concentrated leakage of faulty conductors than by the uncollected drippings from an unguttered eaves.
Stone slating is often condemned from a superficial examination because it has a ragged look — particularly by people to whom the ideal of perfection is a machine-made tile like an ½-in. boiler plate painted pink. But stone slates as used on cottages and farms were commonly even less fully squared than on manorhouses or ecclesiastical buildings, and a ragged appearance does not always betoken final dilapidation. The worst trouble with this form of roofing is moss,
which in some localities overspreads the slating in such a carpet that moisture is held so that the slabs weather away much more rapidly than they should. It is unfortunately necessary to go over badly affected roofs at intervals of a few years to remove the growth, and during this process slates are commonly broken and weak laths discovered; bad patching is clone; defects increase and eventually the roofs are stripped. Where this necessarily occurs small second-quality grey Cornish slates are much more harmonious as a
substitute than Bridgewater or Broseley (or indeed any) clay tiles. If the latter must be used, dun-coloured tiles are most to be preferred.
Oak Frame Cottages. — An oak frame building is so kindly in permitting ventilation without collapse that this quality has been stretched to the utmost in many remaining examples. These run on distinct local fashions, and reference to some less badly mutilated neighbour will often give the clue to points of structural design hidden or altered beyond recognition. On the Middlesex-Bucks border, with which I am most closely familiar, the bay or unit of length seems to be about 12 feet and the span about 18 feet, while the skeleton is commonly on the lines of the sketch (Fig. 5) when the roof is a post and collar or queenpost type. It should be noted that an excellent tradition of the oak frame carpenter was to avoid jointing which involved the meeting of more than two timbers at the same point. The greatest ingenuity is displayed in achieving this end. Once the constructive skeleton has been disintegrated it should be the aim of repair to see first that the whole mechanism exists or that any members which have been ignorantly cut away are satisfactorily replaced. This ensured, the lesser studs, rafters and fillings generally can be treated with less respect — it is of little material effect on a frame structure whether the panels are of brick, plaster, or glass — with a reservation that many mutilated frames now stand less by the fulfilment of the original function of the framing than by the wall effect of their brick fillings.
Brick filling or nogging, with inclined or herringbone beds, can be made to fit tighter than when laid in level courses, since there is the wedge action of sliding on each inclined joint to ensure tight packing against the vertical studs.
The base or “pinning” below the ground cill is
generally of flint or brick, and should be freed from accumulated earth so as to raise the cill at least 18 inches above surface level. It should not be forgotten that the need for a specific dampcourse is much less in an oak frame structure than in a brick or stone wall, and that a base wall of flints set in tempered mortar is (relatively to brickwork in lime mortar) practically non-absorbent.
Pig. 5.