Church and timber-framing, Colwall

The church of St James at Colwall, Herefordshire is a fairly typical stone building, the product of construction down the ages. The earliest parts of the main building are C12 with additions of the C13, C17 and C19. The south-west tower is work of the C14-C15. What is unusual is the timber-framed building next to the church. The listed building information gives it the name "Church Cottage" and one can imagine it served as the house of the clergy in the late C16 and early C17 when it was newly built. However, it is also described as the church ale-house and today it is used as a store. Its shape - long and not very deep, does suggest an agricultural rather than a domestic purpose. Whatever its purpose it does make an interesting composition alongside the church.

photo 2 © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Derelict timber-framed house, Mordiford

On a recent walk near Mordiford we came upon this derelict old house. It is a classic Herefordshire, timber-framed structure, though quite a bit smaller than most such remaining buildings. It now stands in splendid isolation in a grass paddock but presumably it had adjacent outbuildings, gardens etc. What is interesting is the way it displays the elements of the structure that are usually hidden from view today. A stone plinth supports the timber framework comprising panels filled with vertical wooden staves. These were usually hazel, chestnut or oak. Interwoven horizontally are pliable withies or wands. Here unbarked hazel or ash was usual, the whole forming a basket-like structure onto which was plastered clay mixed with straw or hair. This type of infill is called wattle and daub.

The brick infill is very likely to be a later replacement of the older materials. Any other stonework is associated with a chimney which, of course, needed to be fire-proof. The slate roof will also be later and may have replaced tiles, or less likely, thatch. The brick extension at the back will also be later. When was the house built? It could be as late as the early nineteenth century but is likely to be quite a bit earlier than that. As far as I can see it has not been Listed as being of historic or architectural interest.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Thatched cottage, Deeping St James

This unusually small thatched cottage (named Clematis Cottage) stands by the road in Deeping St James, Lincolnshire. It sits uncomfortably next to a taller, later neighbour, with a narrow space between the two buildings to allow maintenance work on the walls. Like many thatched or timber-framed buildings it has a brick chimney for safety, this one relatively tall and braced with a strip of metal. The keystone/datestone shows it to have been built in 1819 using local stone featuring the area's "signature" courses of irregular width. The thatch has wire netting over it to lessen the impact of weather and birds. Access to the back of the cottage is via the gate which is probably shared with the adjacent neighbour. There appears to be a (necessary these days) extension and I wouldn't be surprised if the narrow plot stretches back quite a way.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus E510   2009

Willy Lott's cottage

If there is a more famous cottage in Britain than the one shown in this photograph I can't think of it. The building is Willy Lott's cottage at Flatford Mill near Dedham, Suffolk. Willy Lott (1761-1849) was a tenant farmer who lived there and worked thirty nine acres nearby. It is well-known because it appears in a number of paintings by John Constable (1776-1837) whose father owned Flatford Mill, the building behind me when I took this photograph. Constable's most famous work, "The Haywain" features the cottage.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10