Category Archives: House History
No Wallpaper- a Two Century Rollback?
In the last post Nick had taken us back fifty years in terms of wallpapers. On the adjacent wall he had to go deeper, revealing not only another wallpaper but also what is very probably the original lime wash/whitewash from … Continue reading
Wallpaper- a Half-Century Rollback
I hadn’t intended to do another post this week but Chuck, Nick and Alan are decorating the big bedroom for us and today this emerged from under a few other layers of wallpaper while they were stripping the walls. It … Continue reading
Hole in the Wall
Over the years we have been lucky in finding a succession of folk to do the maintenance we cannot do- which is most of it. Currently our friend Chuck and his helpers John and Alan do the building and decorating … Continue reading
The Pump
At one time these pumps were very common in England, though the only one I ever saw in use (and used myself) was the street pump outside our grandmother’s cottage in County Wexford. However this one in our garden is … Continue reading
The Case of the Puzzling Panels 3
In the two earlier posts I looked at some puzzling features of a particular chimney piece in our home. In this one we step back a bit from that to see the problem in the wider context of the rebuilding … Continue reading
The Case of the Puzzling Panels 2
To get behind the surface appearances here we need to, well, get behind the surface. This is the fireplace from the previous post, viewed from inside. This shot (sorry about the quality) looks directly up towards the chimney pot three … Continue reading
The Case of the Puzzling Panels 1
These two shots are of the mantelpiece in our front room. At first sight it is just a decorated mantelpiece, probably put in after the house was rebuilt in the 18th Century. But it has some puzzling features. I am … Continue reading
Wood and Weave
The family who lived here before us were clearly fond of stripped wood (this was the 1970s) and I think probably did the work themselves. The house was mostly burnt down during a fire in in the 18th century; I guess stripping … Continue reading
Reflections 