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Archaeological Survey
Project Update - 14th September 2005
Clay Bat Making Demonstration
The Buildings Take Shape
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Project Update - 14th September 2005
Location: Cambridgeshire
Work on dismantling & relocating the two buildings is now well advanced. Both have been dismantled and the rebuilding of the bakehouse is about 50% complete.
Dismantling the privy was very straight forward, being a simple brick-built structure: the bakehouse presented a much more complex & challenging task. We needed to salvage as many clay bat blocks as possible, as they are no longer readily available, are expensive & have a long delivery lead time. Each block had to be individually dismantled.
The trickiest part was the brick-built oven & flue complex. This entailed numbering each brick, making sketches & taking photographs to ensure it could all be reassembled correctly. Volunteers cleaned old mortar from bricks to facilitate re-use & local people responded well to appeals for old bricks to minimise the cost of replacements.
Thankfully, delays in the sale of the site removed the fear of the buildings being demolished before we could clear it. A downside of this, however, was that as development was not imminent we had to re-instate the boundary with a neighbour's property - an expense not in the budget!
Two very positive & unexpected developments will further improve the authenticity of the rebuilt bakehouse. Firstly, when removing the concrete floor we found the remains of a brick floor underneath. The bricks themselves were unusable, but we have been able to obtain appropriate replacements to enable the original design to be replicated.
Also we have obtained a wash-house "copper" clothes boiler & fire door of the relevant period. Originally one was fitted alongside the fireplace, but this had long since been removed & the cavity capped & concreted over. The new building will now show the original layout.
We were less fortunate with the roof timbers, which proved too weak to perform their function. They will be re-fitted for cosmetic purposes but a re-design will be needed to provide the necessary support.
Work at the new site goes ahead smoothly. As this is close to the 16th century moated manor house an archaeological watching brief was needed. The results were much more interesting than we expected, casting new light on early settlement in the village. (See Archaeology page.)
Meanwhile,our skilled builders have mastered the art of working with clay bat & the intricacies of rebuilding the oven & flues. Weather permitting, the actual building aspects of the project look to be on course for completion around the end of this month.
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