BROKEN PROMISES

 

Further investigation of the broken bond posted a week ago. Many thanks to all who took an interest.

The snapshot was from the rear of the last house in the row. Broken bond above the kitchen window on the ground floor of a double storey offshot to the rear of the house. The layout is familiar, common to many terraces and semis of the Victorian/Edwardian era which saw so many towns expanding rapidly across Britain. In fact my son’s previous house was very similar to this, albeit slightly smaller and part of a terrace. There may have been an “offshot to the offshot” for outside WC and coalhouse.

 

 

In this case it’s a group of seven semi-detached houses built with polychrome brickwork in an eclectic style. Seven pairs, which appear on a map of 1913 and perhaps under construction on the 1888 map. So probably Victorian. There is a possibility that this pair was the last to be built, perhaps after 1888 (the resolution of the map makes it hard to be sure, the group of semis are shown as a single block, but there is a gap at the end of the row).  In most cases the outside WC has been demolished and replaced with a modern extension.  Styles vary.

 

The gable at the far end of the row uses Flemish Garden Wall, obviously 9 inch (one brick) thick. The facades are all in Flemish with pale/cream string courses and quoins plus the occasional blue brick header. The original photo of the broken bond is from Jubilee Road which I take to be the Golden Jubilee of 1887, just before the map. (available of the National Library of Scotland website as an underlay to the 1913 survey, with transparency slider. What an excellent resource that is.   

 

 maps.nls.uk

 

 

 Windows are timber sliding sash set behind brick reveals. From my experience working on similar house construction in the 1970s as a bricklayer and general builder, the sash box will occupy the thickness of the inner leaf plus plaster, and be finished with architraves to match the door  frames. 

 

 

Was the polychrome intended to convey a red-white-&-blue patriotism?  I haven’t spotted any original rainwater goods, but I’m guessing cast-iron. In Sheffield it would have been timber gutters with cast-iron downpipes. Actually there may be one cast-iron downpipe in the next image. Fretwork barge boards, handsome tall chimneys. The builders may have been a bit lax in their approach to bonding around the back of the building, but you have to admire some of the craftsmanship and respect for local traditions on show here.

 

The use of stretcher bond on the side and back of the last block I take to be a “rationalising” measure, using metal ties. Don’t see the logic of introducing cavity walls just at the back of the building especially when windows there follow the same logic of brick reveals. Did all the headers on the front façade of the building carry right through the wall? Maybe not. Did they actually use metal ties? Perhaps they just hoped for the best. 

 

The broken bond seems to arise from window openings that are four and a half bricks wide. On some other blocks in the same area the windows on the end wall have quoins in white brick. Obviously these need to be symmetrical and planned for at ground level. Broken bond above and below results. Maybe they wanted the reveals to be symmetrical even when they weren’t picked out in this way. Perhaps it was “the way we do it”

 

 

 

This has turned into a much deeper dive that I originally intended but all the better. My aim is to keep studying the buildings around me, especially the older ones, and to gradually come to a deeper understanding of what’s going on. To conclude I will conclude with another visual from the study of my son’s former house that I did in Revit (incomplete). The sash window study earlier in this post also uses Revit of course. My tool of choice for many years now, as an architect, whether on commercial work, or on personal historical studies like this.

Many thanks to all who offered their thoughts and suggestions on the original Linked In post. That’s what prompted me to do the deeper dive and it turned out to be a lot of fun.

 

 

 

STONES OF HAMPSHIRE

 

Three examples of stone carving. Paradoxically the one in the youngest style is probably the oldest. (memorial plaque in the classical style) The other two date to the restoration by Scott. The floral termination to an internal window head I would classify as Decorated Gothic in style. These are just labels but it helps to structure our knowledge as long as we keep an open mind.

The font is definitely by Scott and I would suggest that he was giving a version of Norman or late Saxon. To me it's a splendid, robust, rustic form: well suited to a small rural church.

To the right of the plaque, or wall monument is one of the main timber uprights supporting the roof structure.

 

 

St Michael Heckfield. An interesting conglomerate stone called Ferricrete is used for most of the walling. Lower courses are Reading Beds Sandstone and the carved dressings around windows and doors Bath Stone. The Ferricrete can only be roughly shaped and the matrix is porous. Restoration work has filled up the joints flush and used broken pieces of tile, pushed into the surface, to stop the thick mortar from slumping.

It makes for fun patterns, but I'm guessing the original approach was to Limewash over the whole wall. Except perhaps for the Bath Stone dressings? It looks like some kind of Resin coating has been used in recent times as a modern approach to waterproofing.

 

What can I say? This strange patchwork of materials has become merged into the identity of the church. Should there be a campaign to revert to whitewashed purity? Thankfully it's not my decision. But I would like to think there is a place for strange patchwork churches like this: monuments to serendipity, as well as for others with a unity of form: frozen records of the old ways.

 

 

I spotted this building from the bus the other day. Built in the 1930s for international pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. Shades of Art Deco but without the flamboyance. "During the 1930s the Town Council was promoting the town as a good place for businesses to build their factories"

That's from a small book I bought a while ago. A history of Basingstoke from the year dot. Last week I borrowed a book on Basingstoke in the 1960s from the local library. The beginnings of the London Overspill plan for the town.

Gradually piecing things together.

 

 

 

CHURCH CRAWLING

 

Rotherwick Church, visited today with two of my dearest friends. It dates back 800 years, with alterations and improvements at regular intervals ever since. Not spectacularly beautiful, but full of character, craftsmanship and texture.

There is wonderful, warm red brickwork. There is magnificent structural oak framing. There are areas of flint cobble facing with limestone ashlar trim. I love the scissor-trusses with the subtle curves at the end, supporting the nave roof.

 

So much beauty accumulated over centuries. It must reflect something valuable in the culture that spawned it. We can't just go back. Secular modernity has brought many wonderful gifts. But when I visit these churches, atheist that I am, I feel a sadness for something we have lost, but also great pride in my British cultural heritage.

 

It was splendid sunny day, ending at a country pub in Rotherwick. Typical old-style English country pub with good food and a picture of Winston Churchill over a rustic fireplace. Cliché perhaps, flawed character (like me) But that's not the point. Travelling through the villages and farms to see three old churches, take photos, discuss the experience with two dear friends. What a privelege.

 

Hartley Wespall. What wonderful names. Inside it's a Saxon Barn but with a wild flourish of artistic flair. Lavish curves playing with the tension between negative and positive space. On the outside it has been careful curated by GG Scott, the architect of St Pancras Station Hotel.

 

I am left to marvel at the fact that one of the first large commercial practices in Britain could blend respect for tradition/craft with bold intervention, on such a tiny project. It's a beautiful little church and I couldn't care less that the tower was altered dramatically in Victorian times. It holds together as an integrated whole and maintains a chain of connection to the distant past.

Etymology. Parish. Para-wick. Near the clan. Village lands. Saxon settlements walked their boundaries in a ceremonial procession.