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The weekend I was scouted by Deanne Whitaker
September 2004
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The weekend I was scouted by Deanne Whitaker
Location: Devon
I have always wanted to know the history of my house and then bingo, the Winkleigh Society and ACE came up with the House Scouts project, to do the very same. We arranged a date! Friday and Saturday, June the 27th and 28th at nine o’clock.
Having a very busy working life I don’t have much time or energy to spring clean the house, so nine o’clock on the 27th came with feelings of excitement and fear, Janet Daynes and Gordon Fisher were first to arrive with big boards, bags and all sorts of strange equipment. Colin Humphreys a professional archaeologist, turned up next, he was to guide us through the ordeal. More people arrived whom I did not know, after intros and coffee we set to work with tapes, disto gizmos etc. Luckily the cottage up from mine was empty and with the cooperation of Barbara Wilson down from me, we split into three groups and we measured and drew the downstairs of all three buildings, we soon got the hang of it.
After numerous cups of coffee and Ken Jones following us around to photograph and video the proceedings, we got through the morning. The three groups got together for lunch and we were chatting about and comparing our different projects. After noon and my feelings of dread came, oh dear, we now had to measure the rooms with my glory holes in. HELP, hope no one sees the big cobwebs and junk in the big junk cupboards. Opening the door gingerly so the whole contents wouldn’t spill on the floor someone said, “I’ve got a cupboard like this” and then another voice said, “So have I”. After that I thought, who cares how many cobwebs you have, everyone else seems to have them. At the end of day one the moment of truth all three drawings had to match up, hurrah! They did, so we had learnt something.
Day two, survey of first floor, roof space and front elevation will we do it in time? Nine o’clock Janet, Gordon and Colin arrived with yet another person to learn all of this, hence we split up into three groups to commence with tape measures boards etc in hands.
Barbara’s friend sitting in the house suffering toothache was very entertained by different people up and down the stairs with ladders etc (loft space hatch in Clover Cottage only). Honey Cottage alive with everyone wanting to use the loo (as theirs was occupied by strange people with tape measures) and the washing machine doing its stuff in the kitchen.
Lunchtime, hey, we did do well as we had all completed the task, first floor drawings (the ground floor took a whole day yesterday), crunch time did they all match up with ground level? YES. Doorbell rings, Jill from the Forge “ This lady and Gentleman are from High Wycombe and are looking into their family tree”, do I have time to help? Yes, got big box of history out, the Mitchell family, found photos, census etc, wish I had time to do more for them, but big job in hand for House Scouts. Miss Mitchell, very pleased with her info proceeded to the church, with notes in hand and said “see you in October”. Back to lunch.
Now the scary bit, the space of unknown, the attic, with torches, clipboard, marker stick, up went Gordon, Bob and I. Not being a light weight or not very agile, wading through the rafters was a bit scary, with cobwebs and dust from the thatch and woodworm (eek). Gordon and Bob were most excited about the roof beams with the big wooden pegs in them to hold them together, possibly since 1450, we are not sure yet. We soon established that part of the beams were made to be seen.
In the meantime Colin, Janet and Peter Stutt went outside with big tapes and stuff to draw the elevation, we left them to it, there was more interesting stuff in the attic.
Any way down from the attic with drawings to meet up outside, the local paper had sent out a photographer, after posing again and again we were pretty much Scouted out, so after yet another cup of coffee we all sat down and agreed that we had had a great time House Scouting, and I had learnt a lot about my house.
The next project was the Record Office at Barnstaple, but that’s another story, I hope that my experience will not put you off having your house done in the future, I had a wonderful two days, thanks Scouters.
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