Posted by: Blog Administrator
on Aug 17, 2010
Tagged in:
wood house ,
wine ,
Wiltshire Buildings Record ,
Wiltshire ,
West Lavington ,
team ,
south wall ,
shelters ,
sheep ,
self-sufficient ,
sashes ,
reception rooms ,
pump house ,
Pococks ,
plastered ceilings ,
parish ,
owned ,
mullioned windows ,
member ,
manor house ,
lord ,
Littleton Pannell ,
Littleton House ,
land ,
kitchens ,
identified ,
house ,
hives Farleigh Wick ,
generations ,
Feature ,
farmed ,
dairy ,
coal ,
cellars ,
butler’s pantry ,
brew house ,
Bradford-on-Avon ,
beer ,
bee-keeping ,
bee-houses ,
bee skeps ,
bee bole ,
arched niches ,
arable ,
Aldbourne ,
19th century ,
18th century ,
17th century
Can you guess what it is? If a previous member of Wiltshire Buildings Record hadn’t identified this feature I doubt I would have been able to. The team was called to look at Littleton House, Littleton Pannell, in the parish of West Lavington.
The Feature in Question...
This old farmhouse had been owned by generations of Pococks who farmed the land for sheep and arable. The house itself goes back to the 17th century at least, and successive owners have each put their own stamp on it. Narrow mullioned windows gave way to broad, airy sashes in the 18th century, and chunky, louring beams to fine plastered ceilings in the 19th century.
As time went on the living accommodation proliferated, with more specialised functions being carried out in different rooms. By the end of the 19th century there were in addition to the usual reception rooms and kitchens a dairy, butler’s pantry, pump house, brew house, coal and wood house, as well as separate cellars for wine and for beer. To find out the identity of the feature, please 'read more'...
Posted by: Blog Administrator
on Apr 20, 2009
The last time I posted my blog I was exclaiming over a hidden gem here in the heart of Chippenham – a wonderful, possibly 14th century roof hidden away for many years and only recently brought to light. This time I have to say I’ve found another one in similar circumstances! A change of ownership of a cottage in Winterbourne Dauntsey near Salisbury necessitated a thorough going over by the various prodders and pokers of old buildings such as surveyors and architects. They broke through the ceiling to find a fragment of unique roof carpentry type hitherto unrecorded by us in Wiltshire and that is saying something, considering we have records of over 14,000 buildings! It is a two-tier cruck (the Rose and Crown used a single cruck) with the blades crossed over at the very top so that the top-most longitudinal timber, the ridge purlin, sat snugly in the angle. I had an enthusiastic student balancing precariously on some joists in amongst the soot-blackened thatch to draw it up this time so I didn’t look like Worzel Gummidge at the end of it. The roof would make a great candidate for our dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) project if we could see past the soot to make sure it’s of oak – the only timber that can be securely dated so far. If you want to see famous two-tier cruck roofs on a grand scale then visit the tithe barns at Glastonbury Abbey and Bradford-on-Avon. These roofs were chosen because they were the mediaeval answer to spanning wide buildings.
The unique apex cruck with crossed blades
The cottage was magically unspoilt – something that happens when a person lives in a house for so long they get used to it and never change it, or get too old to be bothered. In this case the interior survived the mania for flush-panelled doors and double glazing in the 20th century and kept its old planked doors hung on blacksmith-wrought iron strap hinges, and iron window casements as well as a host of other details normally swept away in the name of modernisation.
