Hall panelling

[Juju]

We've been in our 17th century house for a few weeks and have been intrigued by the hall, living room and stair wall panelling. In some places, it actually forms part of the wall (as opposed to being stuck on to plaster). It's clearly quite old (very warped and wobbly like the walls!) but what intrigues us is that it is horizontal not vertical. Was this a DIY bodge job from a hundred or more years ago or is this quite common? I can only find mention of vertical panelling in my reference books.

Any ideas welcome!
Juju

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[Gareth Hughes]

We've been in our 17th century house for a few weeks and have been intrigued by the hall, living room and stair wall panelling. In some places, it actually forms part of the wall (as opposed to being stuck on to plaster). It's clearly quite old (very warped and wobbly like the walls!) but what intrigues us is that it is horizontal not vertical. Was this a DIY bodge job from a hundred or more years ago or is this quite common? I can only find mention of vertical panelling in my reference books.

Any ideas welcome!
Juju

that sort of boarding isn't all that uncommon in agricultural buildings, I assume your house hasn't been converted from a stable, barn, cartshed or granary?

 

[Moo]

We've got exactly the same in our attics. The presence of a proper staircase and a fireplace means that the rooms must have been dormitories for the servants.
Ours don't seem to have been painted, but there are traces of newspaper stuck to them, together with shreds of cloth (hessian?) tacked to the beams.

 

[Juju]

The house is part of a long terrace of houses so I don't think it was an old granary or other agricultural building. We're very near one of the old Witney blanket mills and I know from some census info, that weavers lived here. We've been too busy unpacking our stuff to do much research yet but am looking forward to getting into that!
Juju[/quote]

 

[middi]

These may have been " office" partitions for weavers as opposed to being animal shelter partitions as Gareth suggested.




.......( Probably people were less important than animals a few hundred years ago, why should have they been treated differently).......