TWO MORE CHURCHES

 St James Woodcott, first pass. It’s a small single-cell church with a “bell turret” at least that’s what Historic England calls it.  Simplest form of housing for a church bell.  There are a few of these in my study area, but not very common.  1853 no architect given.  I’m not sure I can get to this one by bus, some arm-twisting may be called for.  There are farms at Upper & Lower Woodcott about a kilometre apart and a handful of houses between..  So it’s a sparsely populated farming area a little to the south of Highclere, visible no doubt from the iron-age settlement on Beacon Hill

 

 

Time to look at some towers without spires. I will start with the Church of the Ascension at Bughclere, a small village around 1900 which has expanded greatly since. The church is from 1838 by George Guillaume of Southampton, a cruciform plan with a substantial tower at the West End.  The choir and vestry were added a little later.  Using the schedules and sorting by the Architect field, I was able to quickly identify two more churches by Guillaume, one in Southampton and the other just outside.  There are common stylistic elements, in particular the hammerbeam roof trusses internally, and the use of slate roofing. Nothing about him on Wikipedia, but I found a book of architectural views of Netley Abbey on Abe Books that he produced in 1848. So he had an interest in researching architectural history using the same tools and skills with which he earned his living.  A connection there.

 

The collection of modular families is gradually expanding, as is my understanding of how best to approach these massing models.  Let’s keep going.  As always a big shout out to GAJ for rescuing me from Zimbabwe, backing my enthusiasm for Revit and helping me plan a soft landing into some kind of “retirement zone”

 

 

Working the Burghclere model up to the next level.  First get the roof material right or at least in the right ballpark. It’s blue-grey slate, not orange clay tile.  Then add some slots and a clock to the bell tower. What is not so obvious here is a change in tactics for gable ends.  Instead of having a single vetical extrusion for the nave & chancel then adding a triangular bit for the gable, I deleted the “wall” at the east end and extended the horizontal extrusion for the gable right down to the ground.  Not the face-based family for the window can sit nicely anywhere on that east wall.  That should be the standard tactic from here on in.

You can see the hammer-beam roof that is typical Guillaume in the interior view.  It’s kind of fake. There is a tie beam right across, so it’s pretty much a queen-post truss with decorative additions. Also the choir screen in similar dark wood.  Perpendicular style east window by the way.  My version is not parametric in any way. Seems like wasted effort to figure that out. After all, once you add some tracery it’s going to become even more ridiculous to try to control it all with parameter.  Much easer to treat it as a one-off and just draw the void cut directly.