Cottage Building in Cob Pise Chalk and Clay Part 5

The chief desiderata are a plain straightforward plan and broadly treated elevations where voids and solids are carefully disposed with an eye to getting as large unbroken blocks of cob as possible.

[Ill.u.s.tration: +Cob House temp. Elizabeth, Lewishill.+ Walls from 3 ft. to 4 ft. thick. A wing was added in 1618.

This farm has been occupied by the family of the present holder between 300 and 400 years.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: +Another Devonshire (Cob) Farmhouse, Weeke Barton.+]

The cracks that are sometimes found in old cob buildings are almost entirely attributable to unsuitable design in such respects, or to bad foundations.

Cob walls built up in the ordinary way are not very suitable for internal part.i.tions on account of their considerable width and the consequent waste of s.p.a.ce, though in old work cob was sometimes used as a filling for stud and lath part.i.tions which were finally plastered over in the usual way.

The sun-dried clay-lumps so much used for walling in Suffolk would seem to be admirable for forming the part.i.tions in a house of cob.

Cob work is usually repaired with rubble, stone, or brick.

New openings are easily cut through cob walls, and this fact has occasionally led to the collapse of an old building through the zeal for light and air of some new occupier exceeding his caution, and causing him to cut away the substance of his walls in cheerful disregard of the laws of gravity.

-- III. CONCLUSION

AUTHORITIES--ANCIENT AND MODERN

Not by any means was cob exclusively the poor man's material, and several old homes of this sort still survive that are of some consideration.

[Headnote: Raleigh's House]

Amongst them is Hayes Barton, the birthplace of Sir Walter Raleigh.

Writing of Raleigh and his home, Mr. Charles Bernard says:

_Sir Walter Raleigh's House._--"He had great affection for his boyhood's home--the old manor-house at Hayes Barton where he was born, and did his best to secure it from its then owner. 'I will,' he wrote, 'most willingly give you whatsoever in your conscience you shall deme it worth ... for ye naturall disposition I have to that place, being borne in that house, I had rather see myself there than anywhere else.' But alas!

it was not to be, and the snug and friendly Tudor homestead pa.s.sed into other hands. The house at Hayes Barton was probably not newly built when Raleigh's parents lived there, and it says much for the character of cob that the house is as good to-day as ever it was; though for all that it has, to use Mr. Eden Phillpotts' words, 'been patched and tinkered through the centuries,' it 'still endures, complete and st.u.r.dy, in harmony of old design, with unspoiled dignity from a far past.' Lady Rosalind Northcote gives the following description of the house in her _Devon_. She writes: "In front of the garden, a swirling stream crosses a strip of green; and in the garden, at the right time, one may see the bees busy among golden-powdered cl.u.s.ters of candytuft, and dark red gillyflowers, and a few flame rose-coloured tulips, proud and erect. The house is very picturesque; it has cob walls and a thatched roof, and is built in the shape of the letter +E+; a wing projects at either end, and in the middle the porch juts out slightly. The two wings are gabled; there is a small gable over the porch and two dormer ones over the windows at each side of it, the windows having lattice lights and narrow mullions. Dark carved beams above them show up well against the cream-coloured walls. The heavy door is closely studded with nails, and over it fall the delicate sprays and lilac "b.u.t.terfly" blossoms of wistaria.'"

[Ill.u.s.tration: +Ceilings of Modelled Plaster from old Cob Houses in Devon.+]

[Ill.u.s.tration: +A Cob Garden-wall with Thatched Coping.+]

_Reed Thatch._--In recent years slates or tiles have replaced thatch for the roofing of cob buildings and walls, owing to the cost of reed (the local name for the straw from which the grain has been hand-threshed by flail to prevent the straw being broken), and the difficulty of getting good thatchers. The opinion is held by many that the lasting quality of thatch has deteriorated since the practice of liming the cornland has unfortunately been given up.

_Primitive Methods._--Formerly the ground floors of cob cottages were all cobbled, but these have, generally speaking, been replaced by lime, ash, or cement floors. The cob builders of past generations apparently made no use of the square, plumb-line, or level. No laths were used for the walls, which were plastered within; outside, rough-cast or "slap-dash" was laid on.

[Headnote: Mr. Baring-Gould]

_Mr. Baring-Gould's Testimony._--Mr. S. Baring-Gould, in his _Book of the West_, writing on the subject says: "No house can be considered more warm and cosy than that built of cob, especially when thatched. It is warm in winter and cool in summer, and I have known labourers bitterly bewail their fate in being transferred from an old fifteenth or sixteenth century cob cottage into a newly-built stone edifice of the most approved style, as they said it was like going out of warm life into a cold grave."

DEVON COB

The following paragraph, taken from C. B. Allen's _Cottage-Building_, is of interest:

"The cob walls of Devonshire have been known to last above a century without requiring the slightest repair, and the Rev. W. Elicombe, who has himself built several houses of two stories with cob walls, says that he was born in a cob-wall parsonage built in the reign of Elizabeth, or somewhat earlier, and that it had to be taken down to be rebuilt only in the year 1831."

_Fruit Walls._--Again quoting Mr. Baring-Gould: "Cob walls for garden fruit are incomparable. They retain the warmth of the sun and give it out through the night, and when protected on top by slates, tiles, or thatch, will last for centuries." It will be seen that the disadvantages of cob buildings are solely due to faults of construction, and not to any inherent defect in properly made cob as a material, and that the construction of cottages, farm buildings, and garden walls is well within the compa.s.s of an averagely intelligent workman.

It is not intended to argue that the cob cottage could be advantageously built in every county, but only that where it has been used and liked for centuries, a wise building policy would encourage its continuance.

The materials are at hand, and the population ready to welcome this form of dwelling-place.

[Headnote: Old Cob Lore]

_An Old Authority._--An old writer treating of cottage-building thus delivers himself:

"A Bill for inclosing the waste lands of the kingdom having been introduced into the House of Commons, under the auspices of the Board of Agriculture, and as so beneficial a Bill cannot fail, sooner or later, to pa.s.s into a law, and as in consequence thereof, many small houses must necessarily be built, suited to small estates issuing out of allotments of such wastes, we have been induced to submit to the consideration of the Board three plans of such small houses to be built of different species of materials.

"The first is with mud walls, composed of soft mire and straw, well trodden together, and which, by degrees, is laid on, stratum-super-stratum, to the height required; a species of building not uncommon for cottages, and even for better houses, barns, etc., in the western and some other parts of the kingdom. It is the cheapest habitation that we can construct and is also very dry and comfortable."

And again:

"Walls of mud, or of compressed earth, are still more economical than those of timber, and if they were raised on brick or stone foundations, the height of a foot or 18 in. above the ground, or above the highest point at which dung or moist straw was ever likely to be placed against them, their durability would be equal to that of marble, if properly constructed and kept perfectly dry. The cob walls of Devonshire, which are formed of clay and straw trodden together by oxen, have been known to last above a century without requiring the slightest repair; and we think that there are many farmers, especially in America and Australia, who if they knew how easily walls of this description could be built, would often avail themselves of them for various agricultural purposes.

"The solidity of cob walls depends much upon their not being hurried in the process of making them, for if hurried, the walls will surely be crippled, that is, they will swag or swerve from the perpendicular. It is usual to pare down the sides of each successive rise before another is added to it. The instrument used for this purpose is like a baker's peel (a kind of wooden shovel for taking the bread out of the oven), but the cob-parer is made of iron. The lintels of the doors and windows and of the cupboards and other recesses are put in as the work advances (allowance being made for their settling), bedding them on cross pieces, and the walls being carried up solid. The respective openings are cut out after the work is well settled. In Devonshire the builders of cob-wall houses like to begin their work when the birds begin to build their nests, in order that there may be time to cover in the sh.e.l.l of the building before winter. The outer walls are plastered the following spring. Should the work be overtaken by winter before the roof is on, it is usual to put a temporary covering of thatch upon the walls, to protect them from the frost."

[Headnote: Mr. Fulford's Evidence]

_Mr. Fulford's Evidence._--Mr. Fulford, of Great Fulford, near Exeter, whose own village and estate can show as many good examples of old cob work as any place in Devon, writes as follows:

_Cost._--"It is not possible to give a close estimate of what would now be the comparative cost of a building in cob, stone, or brick, as this must depend upon the exact locality of the site. It may, however, be of a.s.sistance if I quote particulars of the relative cost of cob and stone building in Devon in the year 1808 when cob was in common use. The stonework referred to was rough rubble, and not with square or dressed blocks. It must be borne in mind that up to that date practically all material, stone, lime, etc., was carried on horses' backs. Wheeled carts which began to creep in about the beginning of 1800, were not in general use until twenty or thirty years later. As a boy I knew a farmer who remembered the first wheeled cart coming to Dunsford. In 1838 the Rector of Bridford (the 'Christowell' of Blackmore's novel) recorded the fact that in 1818 there was only one cart in the parish and it was scarcely used twice a year. In 1808 the price of building varied according to the district. In the northern part of the county the common price of stonework, including the value of three quarts of cider or beer daily, was from 22d. to 24d. the perch (16 ft.), 22 in. in width and 1 ft. in height. Including all expenses of quarrying and carriage of materials, stonework worked out at from 5s. to 6s. per perch running measure, and cob estimated in like manner at about 3s. 6d. Masons when not employed by the piece received 2s. per day, and allowance of beer or cider. In the Dunstone district (the clay shales from which make the best cob) masonwork was 18d. per rope of 20 ft. in length, 18 in. thick, and 1 ft.

high, stone and all materials found and placed on the spot; cob work of the same measure was 14d. In the South Hams district masonwork cost 2s.

6d., and cob 2s. per perch of 18 ft. in length, 2 ft. thick, and 1 ft.

high."

_Use of Shuttering._--"In those parts of the red land where Dunstone shillot or clay shale is not available, the red clay was mixed with small stones or gravel, and frequently the cob was laid and trodden down between side boards as used in building concrete walls. Three cartloads of clay built a perch and a half of wall 20 in. wide and 1 ft. deep.

Eight bundles of barley straw, equal to one pack-horse load, were mixed and tempered with nine cartloads of clay."

_Roofing._--"Thatching in 1808 cost 8s. per square of 10 ft.; 100 sheaves of wheat-straw reed, weighing 25 lb. each, were sufficient for one square. Thatching, however, is not, as many suppose, indispensable as a roofing for cob buildings; slate found in many parts of Devon was frequently used, and of late years Welsh and Delabole slates, tiles, and unfortunately, from the picturesque point of view, corrugated iron, have to a large extent supplanted thatch."

_A Protective Wash._--"Vancouver, in his report on the Survey of Devon for the Board of Agriculture in 1808, gave the following recipe, which he described as a preserving and highly ornamental wash for rough-cast that was then getting into common use: 'Four parts of pounded lime, three of sand, two of pounded wood ashes, and one of scoria of iron, mixed well together and made sufficiently fluid to be applied with a brush. When dry it gives the appearance of new Portland stone, and affords an excellent protection against the penetrating force of the south-westerly storms."