Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

BRIDGE HOUSE, CHURCH STREET: A SHORT HISTORY 132 woods. Growing hazel by coppicing produces many long straight sticks from each tree. Regular harvesting encourages more shoots to grow from the remaining stumps, thus increasing the yield. Brampton wood still has large areas of medieval coppice, but while it is possible that the sticks were cut from there, it is more likely they came from Buckden’s deer park. 1 Holes were drilled in the top and bottom rails of each panel and long vertical sticks were cut and sprung into these holes. V-grooves were cut into the vertical studs, then short cross-pieces were wedged into these grooves. The vertical and horizontal sticks were tied together to provide greater strength to the panel. String was not yet available to these early builders, so tough bramble strands stripped from bramble bark were used. Some of these original ties still remain, giving testament to the strength and durability of the material. The daub was mixed on site. Usually the winter before the frame was erected on site, a large pond was dug out on site. The earth that was excavated was piled up beside the hole. Over winter the hole was allowed to fill with water. In spring time the earth was thrown back into the pond, along with chopped straw. A post was banged into the middle of the pond, to which a cow was tethered. As the cow walked round and round, the pressure from its hooves acted to mix the earth and straw adding dung as it . Once thoroughly mixed, the cow was removed and then the mixed daub dug out and applied to the wattle panels. Usually the remaining hole in the ground was left to refill with water, thus forming a permanent pond. Many ponds associated with old buildings have been formed in this way. Once all the wattle panels were covered with daub, the exterior of the house was rendered. Most medieval timber-framed buildings were rendered to protect the framework. (It was not until Victorian times that it became fashionable to strip off the render to expose the frame.) Rough split branches were fixed to the outer faces of the frame and over this was applied a render of the same daub mixture. To provide a superior finish, a thin layer of lime plaster was utilised. Limewash was painted onto the lime plaster. The wash protects the plaster and also gives a finished colour to the exterior. During the restoration I discovered that the original limewash was an orange colour. This is a limewash containing sulphate of iron, commonly known as copperas. This was widely used in this district and gives buildings a distinctive rusty colouration. The windows were unglazed and divided with square-section mullions set diagonally about six inches apart. It was not until the end of the sixteenth century that the manufacture of glass became widespread, and so in the place of glass, oiled cloth - preferably linen - was fixed over the openings to provide some protection from the weather. In most cases these early windows were provided with timber shutters, hinged or sliding in grooves either internally or externally. The entrance doors were simply constructed from vertical boards of varying width, secured at the back by horizontal battens or ledges and, when the door was wide, with additional diagonal braces to prevent the door from sagging. Medieval doors had no frame and were hung directly to the opening using wrought-iron hinges. The internal floors would have been of compacted earth, strewn with rushes and straw and perhaps treated with ox blood and ashes which produced a harder surface. The internal walls and beams would be limewashed to provide some protection and also to brighten the dark interior. Alterations to Bridge House When chimneys first became fashionable, they were installed in many halls, in place of the open hearth whose smoke drifted out through the roof. This led to the idea of other rooms being heated and the possibility of both an upper and lower floor having fireplaces. The roof of a hall was usually lower than any cross-wing, and most halls were altered in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries to raise the roof and install an upper floor. This was the beginning of a period known as the great rebuilding Chimneys were often built in part of the cross-passage, on the back wall of the hall and on the side or back wall of a cross-wing. At the same time, glass had become cheaper, and when a hall was altered, the windows were often blocked up and new, larger frames incorporated. Halls sometimes had windows from floor to ceiling, and with the addition of a new floor, these had to be altered to accommodate two stories. The roof was often levelled up to match that on the cross-wing, and service ends were altered to provide kitchens with their own fireplaces. The rooms now started to have different uses, with more accommodation upstairs for sleeping chambers, and more private family rooms downstairs. The main chimney in the cross-passage of Bridge House was built in 1593 . At the same time an upper floor was inserted into the main hall, creating private rooms for the family upstairs. Families were no longer willing to share their daily lives with their servants and sought greater privacy, which the new first- floor rooms offered them. The chimney in the cross-wing was not constructed until 1680. This chimney 1 See under deer park in the A to Z section.