Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

BRIDGE HOUSE, CHURCH STREET: A SHORT HISTORY 134 The vertical elm posts have been restored requiring scissor scarf joints; one can be distinguished in the left hand post. The new ground beam has been inserted and awaits the replacement of the foundation brickwork! lintels were made for the window and door opening, and ‘tumbling’, a traditional detail, was applied to the brick courses of the gable end. The repairs to the main building were carried out carefully by hand to avoid unnecessary disruption and loss of existing materials. The cement render was removed in sections, thus exposing the decayed framework. Where existing daub was still present, every effort was made to keep it in position. Where this was not possible, mainly due to the failure of the wattle through rotting in the damp environment, then the daub was removed and stored on site. This daub was eventually re-invigorated through the application of water and remixing with chopped straw. The daub could then be applied to the repaired wattles. As each section of framework was exposed, the decayed timber was cleaned back. It was amazing that, though visually very poor, the timbers cores were still sound. Each piece was assessed and then new feet were spliced onto the bases of all the posts. The maximum amount of existing material was retained. The new pieces were joined with a joint called a scissor scarf which is a double sided splice joint that provides great strength. The joint tightens the more pressure is applied to it from the weight of the building. The new posts were joined into the replacement sole plate with mortice and tenon joints. Where greater length was required the sole plate was extended by joining pieces together with half lap joints. The new sole plate was supported in place on pairs of timber wedges which were driven home to tighten the joints. Once completed, each section of frame had its brick plinth rebuilt to the underside of the sole plate. Bricks recovered from site were laid with lime mortar. When the mortar had set, the timber wedges could be removed and the building once again sat on its plinth. One section of the plinth contains square-cut stone blocks which were probably robbed from a local Norman building. Where the wattle was missing, holes were drilled in the sole plate and new vertical hazel sticks sprung into the openings. Cross-sticks were wedged between the timber beams and the vertical and horizontal sticks tied together. The daub could then be reapplied to the wattle panels. This was carried out by two people working from either side, a messy business! The internal floor level of the building had been raised approximately eight inches. This was probably to counteract damp problems, as over many years the outside ground level had risen considerably, by around eighteen inches. Through digging a test hole I was able to establish the original internal floor level and was granted permission to return to this level. This eased the problem of poor headroom internally. During the course of digging out the raised floor, in which I was assisted by my dad, we uncovered many buried artefacts: coins, clay pipes, bottles, pottery and bones—mainly things that had been thrown away, but of great interest. The bones we unearthed became of much greater interest when the local police arrived, having received reports of human remains being discovered! The bones were taken away and we were most surprised when the officer returned to report that they were in fact human bones, not the animal bones that we had suspected. Luckily they were even older than the house, so the case was not pursued. Underfloor heating was installed throughout the whole of the ground floor. This should provide a comfortable and even temperature, which will be less stressful for the house than the sudden temperature changes associated with radiators. The roof to the rear of the main wing was failing, so the peg tiles were carefully removed and cleaned. Unfortunately the previous roofer in the 1950s had bedded them all in cement mortar where they overlapped. This created much work in cleaning off the hard cement from the old tiles. The roof was re- battened and the old tiles returned to their place. Some new handmade tiles were mixed in to account for the broken and missing tiles. The two chimney stacks were repaired. The modern cement pointing was raked out and replaced with