Courses/books/magazines

[Liz Kershaw]

Hi all,

Regular users of the site may have noticed newbie me springing up with basic enquiries. Apart from this great forum, can anyone recommend an opportunity for me to gain more knowledge of c1600 timber frame cottage renovation? I was thinking decent books or magazines -or even a course if available.

Thanks

Liz

 

[mattice]

I've found the Old House Handbook a nice coffee table book. It doesn't go into a huge amount of depth, but the content within can substitute many hours of internet searching and help to pull together your ideas.

 

[Flyfisher]

Have you looked at the 'books' page on here?

http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/ppuk_books_general.shtml

 

[mivec]

I would recommend the courses at the Weald and Downland Museum in West Sussex.
Quite a long way for you but well worth the journey.

I have done a few over the years and found them very good. There's lots of choice and they're always adding new ones. The current course details can be found here...

http://www.wealddown.co.uk/Courses/Courses-Introduction

If you have never been before you will learn lots just by visiting. It's amazing to see how your cottage would have been when it was built.

The museum is also going to feature in a new BBC 2 TV show about life in the 1600's.
Not sure when it starts but the details are here...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/tudor-monastery-farm.html

 

[Gareth Hughes]

They may seem expensive, but you could do far worse than trying the SPAB's Homeowners' Course
http://www.spab.org.uk/homeowners/
fully booked for this year, but they do run them every year
Their "Repair of Old Buildings" course is longer, more specialised and may or may not be for you at this stage in your adventure, but just in case
http://www.spab.org.uk/builders-professionals/repair-course/
If you're in or near Essex, Essex County Council run some rather enjoyable seminars, courses and site visits (though it's their annual brickwork one that really sticks in my mind as being pretty much perfect)
http://www.essex.gov.uk/Activities/Heritage/Pages/Traditional-Building-Courses.aspx
I'm sure the Weald and Downland ones will be very good, not least because I'm teaching on one again next year, he said modestly (not a timber frame one, I'm afraid)

 

[Liz Kershaw]

This is all really helpful, thank you. I'm going to register our interest for a Weald course - it's a long way geographically but we can plan a couple of days away around it. I'll also join up to the SPAB and investigate what they have to offer. And I'd been too dense to notice the books tab, above, so now I have and will get purchasing (too busy browsing this forum to notice anything else!)

Liz

 

[DJH]

Yea, I've done some demonstrations at Weald as well Gareth ( added modestly like yourself... ) in the barn and I think there may still be some photos hanging from of my hands casting a lead rabbit. There's also some of my stuff in the plumbers workshop there.

Liz, old book shops are great places to find books on architecture. I love them... bosh the shops and the old books.

Doug

 

[plasticpigeon]

I have a book called Cassell's carpentry and joinery. It is a Victorian book, but has a section on half timbered construction. Old construction books are really interesting. I remember going to a nice bookshop in Lime Regis which has a nice selection for not too much money (£10 to £20 on average). Also there is a website http://archive.org which isn't so easy to use, but has loads of old scanned books including construction and architecture books. It might be worth just searching around on the web for an evening or 2.