Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2017 | Page 79

Country life
THE DISAPPEARING VERNACULAR
By Sam Biles, Managing Director of country Estate Agents Biles & Co
More years ago than I care to remember I worked for
the National Trust as a ‘baby land agent’. I was the
trainee - fresh out of College, with my Degree but as
yet with no practical experience. I remember in the
first week sitting in on a meeting and hearing the
buildings experts talking about ‘The Vernacular’. The
only context in which I had this word before was in
referring local dialect but they could not be speaking
about that - could they? They were of course
describing vernacular architecture - local, functional
architecture.
In days gone by farmhouses, cottages and farm
buildings were all built by local craftsmen utilising
local materials - whatever was nearby. But it is
not just across the UK that the vernacular styles
of architecture changes; on the Island there are
differences too. Around Ventnor you will see knapped
flint used - this compact crystallised silica is very hard
wearing and is found in the upper bands of chalk.
Chalk itself is used as a building material particularly
around Brighstone & Arreton where the very hard
chalk meant that it could be sawn into regular blocks
of ‘clunch’ and as long as it has been kept dry it
has lasted hundreds of years. The chalk was easy
to carve and there are many instances of graffiti -
often workers initials with the date but some prized
sketches (or scratches) of fully-rigged sailing vessels
exist on the walls of barns.
Oak beams and rafters were frequently used and
prior to industrialisation in the 19th Century the
oak was sawn by hand or split with wedges giving
undulating timbers often with bark still on. The
beauty of a roof built like this is not only on the
inside, but can be seen by the irregular rise and fall
in the actual shape visible from the outside. This
character was gradually lost as sawmills were able to
cut straighter timbers with circular and reciprocating
saws often powered by steam engines. In some older
Island houses there are former ships beams used and
you can see the remains of the joints used to bind the
ships together.
One great casualty of the industrial age is the
vernacular - new built homes are now likely to have
bricks from Berkshire, timbers from Norway, slates
from China and windows from heaven knows where.
A house built by a national developer in Newport is
going to look much the same as one built in Newport
Pagnell - and more’s the pity.
Countryside Tip
When making a walking stick, heating with a hair
dryer will enable you to straighten out any kinks.
Use the base of an old empty shotgun shell on
the end as a ferrule. If you are growing your own
hazel stick, wind some wild clematis - ‘old man’s
beard’ - around it, it will grow in an attractive
corkscrew shape as the creeper digs into the wood.
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