Hi Richard,

I have uploaded a digi pic of Pembroke Cottage [2011] taken last summer whilst out on a bike ride to survey neighbouring Moat Cottage in Hartley Wespall, North East Hampshire (that's another story)

To say that Pembroke Cottage is 600 years old is probably a bit of an exaggeration - Dan Miles has now dendrodated the cruck framed part of the cottage (on the left) to 1414 and so it's actually only 598 years old. The box frame (on the right) is much newer and probably dates from the mid to late 1400's.

A more up to date 3D image of the Pembroke Cottage box frame can be found in OBR Newsletter No 44 where this features in an illustrated timber frame glossary in the article on pages 4 and 5 - "What's in a word". Check out the other Oxfordshire Buildings Record Newsletters that can be downloaded for free from http://obr.org.uk

I think that old buildings tend to be reivented with the passage of time as bits decay or are removed and replaced and not necessarily with like for like materials (what evidence of this can you see in the photo). It would be very difficult to forecast just how long a timber framed building might survive or at what point in percentage of original materials remaining that we can still call it the same cottage. The secret of long term survival would appear to lie strangely enough with poverty and and to a certain extent in neglect. Generally the worst things happen to these veteran buildings when new upwardly mobile owners move in and begin to assert their will on the component parts of our built heritage sometimes causing significant damage and loss. This is nothing new and it is known to have happened over the centuries as fortunes wax and wane but at least these days there is now a due process to be followed when making changes to historic buildings.

The version of Pembroke Cottage constructed by Tom Musco in Royalston, Massachussetts (up on the border with New Hampshire) was made using local vernacular materials instead of English oak and so this included such timbers as Eastern white pine, Eastern Hemlock, Red Oak and some Yellow Birch. The frame is clad and so is to a certain extent protected from the elements however the internal army of carpenter ants is ever present and remain focussed on their task to recycle dead wood.

It would be wonderful if Tom or someone living local to Pembroke Cottage II could take and post a pic of his wonderful creation. I am sure that it will outlive us all and then, with our passing, so will the joys and sorrows associated with this kind of human endeavour be forgotten, with only the building remaining, holding tight lipped onto the true story associated with the creation of one of New England's future historic buildings.

Vive la Pembroke !

Regards

Ken Hume

Hello everyone tonight

Hi Ken

Thanks for coming on board with the great reply, and the offshooting leads for everyone to enjoy--I certainly did--

The parts to me that appear to not be original, are:

--bricks starting at the bottom section, they appear of a different size, Then moving to the central area they are thinner probably older from my experience, and then the top part seems to be a replacement, but nicely done
--part of the vertical corner post missing, replaced with brick which appear to be a slightly different size but coloured close to the original

--part of the bottom sill also replaced with brick which appears to be a nice match
--All the windows seem modern, the lights are a little too big to be created for the older sized glass

Thanks again for the learning experience for everyone

NH

Hello everyone tonight

Ken

It would really be nice if you could explain to everyone what the original windows of this 600 year old Pembroke Cottage have looked like, and what would the glass panes have been made with at that time, I would really find your answer to this query very interesting indeed, and I am sure others would too

Thanks in advance

enjoy

NH

Hello,

Well, to my knowledge - to the extent that I can lay claim to knowledge - in the years 1400 - 1450 there was no trade in tropical hardwoods between regions in the tropic zone and Pembroke so what can explain this gate at the foreground?

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff

Hi Don,

I will check the timber type the next time I pass bye the cottage but I suspect that as per most modern gates of this type which are found widely across England today that these tend still to be made from oak and not tropical hardwoods. This cottage is located in quite a shaded damp spot and so the colour apparent on this gate is mould. You raise an interesting point as to whether or not all features on a historic site should replicate former patterns and practices but to what date should these comply ?

Richard,

The simple answer to your question about windows and glass is that this type of building predates the use of glass and so any wind hole openings would have been fitted with wooden mullions and sliding shutters. These were located above and below the gable end cross beam and are now covered by the attached chimney (see article sketch).

The chimney employs thin tudor bricks and it has been built to follow the already badly deformed profile of the gable.

The front sill is 10 inched higher than the rear sill and this is because the original sill must have rotted out and been replaced. Evidence of this can be seen high up on the front wall centre post where a "scotch" has been cut into the post to facilitate prop jacking of the whole building using a Spanish windlass.

The gable corner post has rotted off and is now underbuilt with brick and has also had a splint stud added.

The cottage originally had wattle & daub infil external panel walls with these later being knoocked out and replaced with brick. The internal cross frame walls are stil wattle & daub.

A low doorway at the front is now blocked with brick and this is opposite an extant rear door forming a good thru draft for this attached kitchen hall.

The oriel dormer window in the cruck end of the roof is a later insert doubtless done when the cruck hall was floored over after the addition of the box framed kitchen hall.

Regards

Ken Hume

Hello everyone tonight

Thanks to both of you --good conversation--

I am not an authority on glass, but I had thought that production of crude glass had not been tried yet in the 1400's, you have verified that for me--thanks--

So then Ken all window or air passages were closed by wooden shutters of some type or another, and no doubt lead to very uncomfortable living quarters early on in the cold weather areas especially.

How did they overcome some of these problems, I am sure they must have developed alternative measures to deal with inclement weather--I do suspect that the light from the open hearths probably substituted for natural light somewhat, would you care to comment


enjoy

NH

Hello,

To be clear about it though, using glass to close off windows goes back much further than the year 1400. It was expensive in the early times and maybe could not be used in this house for that reason.
The wooden mullions for keeping thieves and buggers out, the shutters to keep out the wind and snow and at the same time control ventilation of the smoke from the fire.

I wonder if in such a house farm animals would have been kept along side where the people were living?

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff

Hi Don & Richard,

Glass has been made in England since Roman times (2000+ years) but as Don points out it was a very expensive commodity generally available only to society elite and certainly not to be found in a simple copyhold farmhouse such as Pembroke Cottage.

When I examined this cottage I did debate whether the LH ground floor bay in the box framed extension could have been used for keeping a small cow since it had a cobbled floor and an opening to the floor above but it is very difficult to confirm this one way or another. There is an adjacent barn with an outshot stable that features lap joinery and this is likely to be even older than the cottage.

Jack Sobon once pointed out to me that burning an open fire inside a room released 100% of its heat into the room whereas almost 95% of heat goes up the chimney in a fireplace and so maybe it wasn't so much cold as draughty and uncomfortable from stinging smoke hanging in the air.

Regards

Ken Hume

Hello everyone tonight

Good replies--just what I wanted to hear--I thought that glass had been produced earlier that 1400, but wasn't sure--so that puts that part to rest for now, unless someone else wants to further this conversation.

Talking about open fireplaces, at UCV I had my headquarters on site in the hired man's house, which was a open one room log building with and upper floored area, it was heated with a large open stone fireplace, the chimney I am sure one could crawl up it was so large, but my goodness would it throw alot of heat, it always amazed me, I believe like KEN says the fire radiates out much of the heat due to the openess, meanwhile directing the smoke upwards

Thanks for this conversation

enjoy everyone

NH

Hi all,
I want to interject a question. Hope this is the appropriate place. I have hewn a few timbers, and have pretty well followed the score up, hew down thinking. This has been long beams and curved braces. Not until a hewn post was used did I notice that this put any effects of scoring facing up, which is contrary to direction a hand would move "down" a post. For washing or for pleasure. I have no historical reference around me, so kinda curious.
Have a good day