Leagrave Cottages

Location:

Leagrave, Bedfordshire

Date:

1991-1993

Client:

Chiltern Open Air Museum

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