Friday Morning Wood - Castle Roof

 So here we are at last, up inside the keep roof at Norwich Castle. The wooden roof structure is Boardman's from the 1890s and we need to thread our steels through it without touching it to enable us to support the new observation deck that will give such great views over the old city.

A tricky and delicate job involving lots of man-handling of hefty steel beams in and around the timber structure.

Knitting with steel poles.

I had to model all this in 3D to make sure it worked.

Up on top, a VERY long steel beam being lowered into place. It will form the base plate of an inverted triangular steel lattice on top of which will sit the new flat viewing platforms.

Here it is, in place. Now for the fun part!

Taking shape! The roof viewing platforms will be at the same height as the battlement walkway so anyone can wander over the whole lot and play spot the landmark.

More soon!

Friday Morning Wood - Viking Era Picture Door

The "Viking" door at Stillingfleet St.Helen's.

While the current church dates from 1150, it replaces an earlier Saxon church, the original south door of which is now preserved inside St.Helen's to protect it from the elements.

The door itself is thought to be tenth-century and is of a Scandinavian style of "picture door".

The C-Straps have dragon's head terminals, a popular Viking motif, reflecting Stillingfleet's century or so under the Danelaw.

Some beautiful Scandinavian knotwork.

Happy, dancy Viking people …

at least I HOPE they're happy and not attacking one another with axes.

 

Last up: a glorious Viking longship, complete with dragon's head prow and stern and steering rudder.

Life under the Danelaw wasn't all like The Vikings TV show or the old Kirk Douglas / Tony Curtis movie from 1958 (classic though that one was).

Blacksmiths didn't spend all day hammering out axe-heads and swords; they could have fun with story-telling on church doors.

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Little Hormead Church door, looking like I feel most mornings.

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Disco!

Haddiscoe, that is …

I designed the new Haddiscoe Hall a few years back and it became known in the orifice as "Disco Hall".

This is Haddiscoe St.Mary's south door, visible from the Hall.

Take a close look; that blacksmith was trippin' balls!

This is a surviving Saxo-Norman door from pre-1100 CE.

When the Normans first invaded they embarked on a crazy castle, cathedral and church building campaign and used the Anglo Saxon craftsmen already living here, hence the twirly, Norse and Celtic influences found on these rare, very early doors.

Spiffy, huh?

Friday Morning Wood … Droop

Friday Morning Wood - With Added Brickwork and an Iron Cramp

Bugger botox. The older and gnarlier we get, the more attractive we become. Witness the touchy-feely textures on this beautiful byre-yard wall, built in 1830 (from estate records) in the last days of George IV, now home to a whole garden's-worth of plants, moss and lichen and good old creepy-crawlies.

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I just love the negative space between this pair of painted pilasters, forming the shape of a kind of upside-down minaret.

Erin does most of our London period house interior design schemes and she's lately tended to use this "distressed" technique a lot. I asked her what it was called and she said she didn't think it had a name, so we've named it Erin's Technique for Going Totally Apeshit With a Paint Scraper.

For me, the jury's out, as I like to conserve original wall finishes rather than attack them like a psychopath, but it certainly produces some accidentally artistic effects.

So here we go with yet another photopost string: Accidental Art. More coming soon.

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These are some of the panels from a fully-panelled, seventeenth-century room which needed some TLC. I had the whole thing dismantled, the layers of paint were carefully removed to reveal the original colour (a kind of pale jade green). 

The backs of the panels were lovingly waxed/oiled/repaired as necessary, the fronts will be refinished in a bespoke breathable paint to match the original colour (the layers of white paint were oil-based and the lack of breathability contributed to the damage and decay behind the panels).

We retained all of those lovely little blacksmith's nails that hold the panels into the frames. The whole shebang will be reassembled some time in the next couple of years (there are a lot of rooms to do).

This is from the same estate that houses the old wagon from last Friday's post.

Friday Morning Wood - Don't Paint Your Wagon

Sing along now … "Where are we going? We don't know, When will we get there? We're not certain, All that we know is we are on our way … etc." A truly great movie for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Anyhoo … I found this charmingly picturesque fixer-upper in the corner of a meadow behind an abandoned farmhouse in North Norfolk, part of a vast estate where Old Dive's historic building conservation talents were called upon.

I think that wheel's gonna take some fixing.

 

I'm just chock full of fun facts to bore you with today. You know that posh wainscotting round the lower walls of the homes of folk richer than myself? Well that originated as Wægnschott …

Wægn from the Saxon Middle German for wagon or wain (as in Constable's Hay Wain), and schott for sheet. Basically wain-sheet: wooden sheeting around the edges of wagons to stop all the stuff falling out.

As the centuries passed, wægn became wain and schott lost its 'h' and Saxon eorls and later Norman barons started to put wain-scot around the bases of the walls of their halls and manor houses.

Back then animals were kept in the great hall and the family ate and slept up at one end on a raised dais to keep them out of the pee and the poo. The wainscotting protected the wattle and daub walls from the faunal effluvia and as time passed the feature was retained in wealthier houses.

This old wagon (built in 1830 … the estate records are remarkably complete and a treasure house for an obsessive old Aspy like me) retains its wægnschott but I think it'll take more than a lick of paint to get it up and running again.

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The stable door's locked but it looks like the horse has bolted.

Friday Morning Wood - A Thousand-Year-Old Oak

Hokay, so I was out at an historic estate on Tuesday, advising on repairs to a Victorian model farm (a collection of barns, cattle, sheep and pig buildings, courtyards for Suffolk Punch shire horses, cart sheds, dairy, game-hanging rooms, stables, etc.) when I turned a corner and saw this …

The estate owner was with me and was delighted at my reaction to the old oak. He told me that the AD 1600 estate map had it specifically marked as a "specimen tree" meaning it was already fully mature and a major feature of the landscape.

The county council's arboriculturalist estimates that it is at least one-thousand years old and the poor thing had to endure me hugging and stroking it.

Gorgeously gnarly or what? Unfortunately the weather was crappy so I couldn't get the light right but how could I resist taking a few shots?

I looked into the history of the estate (we've had some rainy lunchtimes here) and found it was created in AD 959 by the Saxon King Edgar and granted to the monastery at Ely.

In AD 1042 the grant was reaffirmed by King Edward the Confessor and after the Norman Conquest it is listed in the Domesday Book as having been taken over by one Walter of Caen.

In the many mediæval wars and rebellions it appears to have been wrested from its Norman owners by a subsequent reigning monarch (probably Henry II after the Anarchy) as the next we hear of it is at the end of Elizabeth's reign in AD 1600 when it was purchased from the Crown and the estate map drawn up showing the oak as a specimen tree.

 

Oaks are susceptible to branch drop (always be wary of sheltering under them in a storm) and this one has had its fair share over the centuries but from at least AD 1600 has obviously been well cared for.

So there it proudly stands. With love and attention it should have many more centuries of life to enjoy. The estate owner is certainly proud of it. If it were planted at the founding of the estate it would be one-thousand-and-sixty-two years old this year but of course it could be even older. 

It reminds me of the ancient oaks around Venta Icenorum, my local Roman fortress and market that was built to punish the Iceni after Boudica's rebellion. The Romans nailed every fighting age male survivor to the local trees in an orgy of crucifixion. The parents of some of those ancient trees still standing today may well have had Iceni villagers nailed to them in AD 60.

Amazingly, this majestic oak has not even started crown die-back, which is the sign of an ancient oak growing tired. Long may it reign.

Friday Morning Wood - Roots

"Lookit my roots! See my roots; they're all like naked. C'mon over here and root with me, baby."

Etc.

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A little tree with big ambitions.

Friday Morning Wood - How Many Eyes Does A Yew Tree Need?

I only have eyes for yew, etc.

Friday Morning Wood - Twister

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Friday Morning Wood