This for me was the most revealing and satisfying building project at the Museum. When the cottages were being dismantled, initial analysis of the timber-frame suggested they had been constructed as a pair of dwellings in the C18th. However, I recorded each timber individually and, during the early phase of repairs was able to establish the cottages had started life as a barn, and that this was an example of an early conversion.
The two cottages allowed a different interpretational approach to be taken for each ‘half’, one being restored to its C18th appearance, the other to how it would have looked in the early C20th.
- Project management of re-erection
- Experimented with chalk infill mixtures
- Commissioned thatching
- Commissioned leaded-light windows
- Researched and commissioned new bread oven
See
Bedfordshire Archaeology Volume 18
A Timber-framed Building in Leagrave by Stephen A. Castle pp.86-93