COMPARATIVE METHOD

 

The first 17 church models set up for comparison. This is where the decision to create these in the family environment comes into it's own. Lightweight and taggable, laid out in a grid, they will update as further refinements are made. They can be scheduled as data fields are added and populated.

 

 

So much still to be done, but you can start to see where this is going. Can I classify them in various ways. Type and position of bell tower /turret. Single cell/double cell /cruciform. Aisles or not. Porch, Vestry. Main material for roofing and walls.

 

 

They are already tagged by period /style and name of architect if applicable. But some of those groupings could be more precise, although this is tricky for the medieval work which is almost always phased over three or four centuries, with some early English remnants and a couple of perpendicular /Tudor windows elsewhere in the fabric.

For now I just need to crack on I think. But this was useful to get an overview of progress.

 

Entrances, old and new. I always enjoy catching the building process half-way through. I think it's taught me at least as much as reading books, even the ones crammed with section details. My advice to students when I used to teach was "keep your eyes open and ask probing questions. Why was it built like that? What is the sequence of trades? Can you hold it in your mind's eye and make a sketch when you get home?"

It's great to see a porch addition making the effort to match the house. Not the only way to approach the problem, but probably the right one in this case. I love the plinth bricks at the transition from brick and a half pier to sturdy timber post. Notice how the door has taken a bit of weathering over the years.

The stone capping over 3 brick pier in English Bond at the entrance to the War Memorial Park always catches my eye. Is this all one piece? Quite a mighty lump!

Finally the wooden fence and gate. Oak? Pretty chunky, classical in spirit and making a nod to masonry with the keystone motif. Is that fakery? Should we get all moralistic? I think not. For me it's just so much fun to come across all this variety and skilled craftsmanship on my daily exercise routines.