COUNTRY LIFE
Thatch and Clunch
Sam Biles takes a look at local architecture on the Island
T
he vernacular architecture
of the Isle of Wight is one
of its joys, particularly in
the unspoiled villages where
period houses & farm buildings
make the most of locally-sourced
materials and styles. Inevitably
there will have been man-made
structures on the Island since
prehistoric times though none
of the simple, timber-framed
shelters have remained.
Before the industrial revolution
building materials were inevitably local:
stone, timber, lime mortars, straw thatch,
stone, tiles, hazel laths for plastering,
wattle and daub, all were sourced locally.
In Tudor times brick became popular and
the landscape is peppered with old brick
works naturally situated on the clays of
the northern part. Latterly these were
fired in kilns – one of which survives at
Hillis but more often in clamps where the
bricks were stacked around and between
the fuel of charcoal or coal and the clamp
sealed by earth as it burned. Different
clays produced different-coloured bricks
with the Royal Brickyard on the Osborne
Estate producing a much paler brick.
The local stones are distinct –
Bembridge limestone is often a honeyed
80
houses, the green timber pegged
together and marked with the
joiner’s adze to label the joints.
Older stone barns have irregular
timbers formed by splitting, often
with bark still attached. Later
barns after 1800 show more
Sam Biles is Managing Director
regular sawing as machinery
of country Estate Agents:
replaced hand tools.
www.bilesandco.co.uk
The individual materials shape
the character of the area and
the styles of the cottages in one
yellow with its surface pitted with fossil
part of the Island are completely
snail shells – it is easy to cut when freshly- different to another. Each estate would
quarried but hardens on exposure to the
have its own style as can be seen by
air. Clunch – the hard chalk sawn into
standard cottages on the Seely and
blocks is common in the south west and
the Ward Estates. One of the biggest
Arreton areas – farm buildings often had
changes was the introduction of welsh
their lower course of Bembridge stone
slate in the 19th century – prior to that
and the walls above of softer clunch.
many of the farm buildings, farmhouses
The greensand ‘freestone’ is common
and manor houses were thatched with
and is the bes t and most durable of the
local straw – the shaggy over-hanging
local sandstones, many of which are
thatched roofs would have given a
quite easily damaged or eroded. Harder
very different look to the countryside
ironstones are less common, but can be
than that which we see today. Modern
seen often as quoins or mullions on older building materials are mainly sourced
buildings.
from the mainland or abroad – this leads
Fully- timber-framed buildings are not
to buildings which, however impressive
as common as in Kent, Surrey or Cheshire or well-designed, can be disconnected
but the local oak was usefully employed
from their landscape in a way that older
in the roofs and beams of stone and brick buildings never were.
In the
Country
by Sam Biles
www.visitilife.com
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