Friday 15 January 2021

Houses - Private And Public

 .....and a few other buildings found along the way.


Just a few pictures of quaint cottages and other structures discovered during nearly ten years of blogging but which, as far as I know, have never seen the light of day before.


You are of course being treated to these pictures because I've not been venturing out much during the latest "lock-down" in this country. And to be honest the weather hasn't been very tempting either.


The Rose And Crown at Histon, photographed some years ago.


I think the house above stands in Castle Rising in north Norfolk. The house looks very much as though it's built from carrstone, a form of sandstone that outcrops in a narrow band running up towards Hunstanton. Wherever it occurs the older houses have that "gingerbread" look.


This little building is the cricket pavilion at Langley in Essex. For some reason the teams' changing rooms for cricket are always called "pavilions", however small and humble they may be. More importantly tea is also served there - cricket being the only game in the world that stops for for sandwiches, cake and a cup of tea!


Cottages like these are much sought after by people retiring to the countryside. Without this constant influx of people (and money) many of these homes would have fallen down long ago.


The evening sun here is picking out the pargetting, or fancy plaster work adorning the front of the building above.


I think these lovely roses were growing around a cottage in Barrington, which was also where the first photo in this set was taken. It's just three or four miles down the road from me.


Many cottages in this part of England have the upper storey partly contained in the roof-space under the steeply-pitched thatched roof. Some of the oldest of these dwellings would originally have just had sleeping platforms reached by ladders and conversion to proper rooms only came later.


I suspect the little building above, standing beside a farm, may have started out in life as a small granary, though probably just used for general storage today.


It's thirsty work whizzing all over the countryside like this, so you'll be glad to stop for a drink in The Poacher Inn.

 

Another strange structure that I'm not absolutely sure about. I'd guess it was once a dovecot; nesting boxes for the pigeons were placed around the inside wall and reached by a rotating ladder fixed to a central post. The recently hatched pigeons, known as squabs, were considered a great delicacy.

An ancient half-timbered house in the village of Ashdon.



You not only need a certain amount of wealth to buy one of these old houses, but you then find that constant repairs are needed. Thatch, despite its obvious charm, needs replacing every thirty years or so and is a fairly laborious process, as can be seen below.



(I meant to put in this link:
- a post explaining a bit about thatch. Thanks to Marcia for asking in a comment below and thus reminding me).


Take care.

29 comments:

  1. belle variété d'habitations * de voir encore aujourd'hui des toits de chaume que l'on rénove, superbe !

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  2. I find these so interesting, John! I live in a subdivision where all of the homes (built in the 1970s) are sort of similar. When these were being built, you would have 4 or 5 models to choose from. People could customize their home with different siding, brick, roof colors but the basic floor plan and design of the homes were alike in many ways.
    The history of your area is fascinating and you find so much beauty to share with us. Thanks!

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  3. One of these is certainly on the top of the -what would I buy when I win the lottery-list.

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  4. One a wonderful set of photos. The thatching is such a mystery to me. How does it serve to keep the water out escapes my understanding? And where is thatch harvested?
    Thanks for the explanation of the pavilion. We saw one in our walking tour of Cotswolds that was purported to be built/funded by someone famous. Name now escapes me. Didn't see any cricket being played.

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  5. Such beauty, so charming. But yes, needing a fair bit of dosh, I imagine, to keep them watertight and suitable for modern living. Love the cricket pavilion; it reminds me of when I was a child Both my uncles used to play in the village cricket team and I remember a similar pavilion where my grandmother and aunts laid out the 'cricket tea', mountains of sandwiches having been made in the morning around grandma's kitchen table. I remember the pavilion's smell, of damp wood, sweaty socks and embrocation!

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  6. I love the look of the thatched roof but the upkeep must be a worry. I often wonder about the creatures which might find it a nice warm place to live.

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  7. Just read your post on how thatched roofs are made etc that you sent me the link to. Fascinating. I think the Cotswolds village we walked through with thatched roofs was an historic area used for TV and movies. None of our accommodations on that 7 day walk had thatched roofs though. May have learned more if one of them had. Thanks!

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  8. I think thatching costs a lot as well, some nice places you visited

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  9. So much character and beauty in all these houses and buildings. Impressive that roofers are available that have expertise in thatch and that people continue to use it. Keeps things interesting!

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  10. I’ll have the cottage in Barrington please :-)

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  11. Such interesting and diverse architecture. That little shed with perhaps a grain storage past, was built in a very strange way, so it's surprising that it's still standing. I am thrilled to see how thatch is done, as well as how beautifully it is accomplished.

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  12. These are so beautiful - and all these years I thought my home county of Devon was the place with all the thatched cottages! I saw some lovely ones in Normandy also, that was a surprise.
    Went back and read your older post on thatching - So interesting and have just forwarded to my hubby who loves English traditions. Thanks for all the info. John.

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  13. Well I'm happy that we're getting to see this series of public and private building John. Some quintessentially English cottages and other more quirky structures. Hope all is well with yourself and family, let's hope for a much better 2021 💙

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  14. Gosh John - if only we had sunshine and beautiful places like that to see today ... just a wonderful set of photos ... such fun - beautiful flowers, delightful buildings and homes. Great that we could have the link to the thatching of rooves - my Ma had a thatched roof in Cornwall at one stage. Take care and enjoy whatever walks you can take - stay safe too - Hilary

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  15. Hard to decide which cottage/house I would choose! Maybe one without a thatched roof given the cost of the upkeep!!!!! ;-)
    Lovely sunny images to remind us what we have to look forward!

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  16. So charming. Beautiful. The Rose and Crown would draw me inside.

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  17. Pavilions for cricket. I wonder. Got some reason it seems like a word the English in India might have used to describe the changing rooms. Might be the origin?

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    1. Yes, that seems likely. I believe that polo grounds also have a pavilion.

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  18. I loved this post! I've never seen that sort of plaster work before. I also was much impressed by the roof on the Poacher Inn. That's amazing work. I also appreciated seeing the thatched roof. I always wondered about their construction. Beautiful pictures.

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  19. Also I was pretty surprised to find that a thatched roof would last 30 years. Shingle roofs here last about the same amount of time!~

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  20. The appearance of the thatched buildings is quite different from those of my country and re-thatching is hard work because of shorter durability of the recent thatched roofs made with weaker materials and fewer experienced thatcher. The local government has been subsidizing re-thatching costs.

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  21. Well, that little series of pictures made me so happy. To people who don't live there, these houses and pubs are the essence of England. The England we all dream about when we watch all the TV shows! Thank you so much.

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  22. What a fun look at some very interesting houses, John, and I too would have stopped at either one of those inns after a walk-about. The thatching process was interesting to see and I was impressed at the life expectancy of the roofs.

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  23. What a wonderful series of houses. I haven't seen too many thatching roofs over here. They are amazing to see and interesting to watch them being worked on.

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  24. Hi John: Thanks for stopping by my blog. I was thinking that you hadn't posted for a while, but I see that it was just a few days ago. How I missed this I am not quite sure. It is great to have an archive to dig into during enforced confinement, and this series reminds me just how much we are deficient in historical structures in North America. This series conveys what to many of us is the essence of England.

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  25. So many different construction materials and designs using them. Thank goodness for the wealthy who buy them and keep them up, much like here where I live. It’s always so sad when one gives up the ghost and deteriorates past the point of no return.

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  26. There are such beautiful buildings in your part of the world. So so so English!

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  27. That thatching job looks pretty complicated. I do love those rose-covered cottages; as a child I often drew pictures of houses like that, my dream home. But it would have a lot of land with it for me to be truly comfortable.

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