How old might this door be?

[Chris1roll]

Hi,
This is the door at the end of our landing leading up to our roofspace, we're aware that it must be pretty old, but not sure how old exactly. I think its interesting no matter what.
Bit of background - We have the deeds for the house going back to the 17th century, originally a cat-slide roof construction, then in the 1850's money was borrowed from a sea captain to build a second story on the front. all the ceilings in the oldest part of the house are of reed.
We've been here 27 years, by all accounts the house is one of the three oldest in the area.
I guess the best indication of the age of the current structure would be pictures of the internal roof structure, but tonight that would mean going to find an extension lead and a lead lamp with a working bulb in it!
I won't post all the photos here, so here is a link, some pics are with and some without the flash.
Couple pics:
Door Closed:

Hinge:

Thumbhole on rear covered by thumblatch presumably added at some later date, and hand painted? wallpaper stuck to unpainted rear:

Unpainted Rear with wallpaper stuck to it.

Anyone have any best guesses?
Chris

 

[Ian Bond]

Difficult to be certain with this, but it looks old to me (pre 19th century) with just the 3 irregular planks, rather than more of the narrower machine sawn variety.

 

[JoceAndChris]

How lucky you are to have such a lovely door. Is this the one the ghosts rattled? :shock:

It's very like some of mine - Georgian- my cottage was built, we think, around 1790 ish. It might be a bit earlier. The way that hinge tapers down to a narrow point is strikingly simialr to what we have here in places. However, that's a very inexpert opinion!

 

[Chris1roll]

Hi,
The ones that got rattled are in the victorian second storey on the front half, and are modern, with reproduction door furniture from "from the anvil"

What I like about this one is the very tapered hinges, and the fact the three planks are overlapped, rather than butted up against each other.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

It looks early to me - possibly coeval with the first part of the house, but in remoter rural areas "how to make a door" was often governed bhy an "it was good enough for Granfer, it's good enough for me" attitude.

Maybe the rattling was a ghost disgruntled by the newfangled repro doors?

 

[Tom]

Maybe the rattling was a ghost disgruntled by the newfangled repro doors?

Oh dear, what am I in for then?? We didn't have a single original door, so have had to have them all made. Any ghosts around here are going to be well miffed :shock:

Jaqy

 

[Chris1roll]

Maybe the rattling was a ghost disgruntled by the newfangled repro doors?

Oh dear, what am I in for then?? We didn't have a single original door, so have had to have them all made. Any ghosts around here are going to be well miffed :shock:

Jaqy

In our case it was a choice between not having any doors at all on our bedroom and bathroom! And we needed a door at the bottom of our stairs
Did the best we could with the money we had at the time, H-L hinges and thumblatches.

there are a selection of doors of varying ages around the house, several other plank and ledge doors, two fairly old but younger than this one, two panelled doors on the living rooms, and some hideous 1960's thing with obscure glass in it where there should be a nice back door similar to the _very_ heavy plank and ledge front door, plus the three repro ones.
They are all funny sizes and shapes though!

 

[Juju]

Fantastic door! We have an attic door very similar to yours - which we've always assumed to be original to the house (late 1600s). Ours has the same tapering hinges which I'd never noticed before as they're so heavily painted. The rest of the house has cheap and cheerful repro ledge & brace doors put in by a previous owner which I'd love to change to oak and quality ironwork at a later date. We have one other nice old door which is probably Georgian/Victorian.
Juju

 

[Penners]

The door (and its frame) certainly looks old. As Gareth says, it could well be original to the house. Lovely hinges, too.

Are there any signs of previous hinge or latch positions - filled holes and so on? If so, then the door's obvious age might be deceiving us as to its origins. The problem with doors is they're removable and replaceable, so it's not unusual to find an old door that has been re-used in a house where it did not originate.

 

[lordmulberry]

We have a similar door in our house which is original to the house. It is in the bedroom and has the same sort of hinges which were made in the local forge. The part of the house containing the door is circa 1720

 

[Moo]

We have a couple of doors in our house that look a bit like yours. One is small and gives access to a hatchway through which it is (just) possible to squeeze when the gulley between the back and front roofs needs clearing out. The other was a bit of a find, and provided the final piece of evidence to substantiate my theory that (when our street was georgianised?) a whole section of the house had been sold off and demolished to make room for the posh building that now houses part of the YMCA (Gareth will know what I mean).
When we had to remove a section of lath&plaster from a wall in one of the front attic bedrooms we discovered that behind it the wall was clad in wide planks, like those in the rest of the room. So, we gaily worked our way along the wall, ripping out the l&p** to reveal the planking. And.... at the far end.... we uncovered a crude door, with L and H hinges, that opened on to...... the 'new' wall of next door.
Perhaps one day I'll be able to lure Gareth round with the promise of cakes&ale and he can date it for me!


** Honest, guv - we didn't know no better then.

 

[Penners]

Cakes and ale definitely not needed as an incentive to visit that house! It's beautiful and endlessly fascinating.

 

[judrop]

Hi , if I may venture an opinion, we have a very similar one ,though unpainted, also believed to be original to the house , that is c 1600 .

 

[Penners]

So there you have it. The door probably dates back to somewhere between the reigns of Victoria and Ethelred The Poorly Prepared. :wink:

As I said above, dating doors is very difficult - particularly vernacular ones such as yours. Their style is ubiquitous and ageless.

 

[Douglas]

Hi there, first post!
We have a number of similar three plank doors although without as many ledgers. I would hazard a guess at 1750. The rear of yours is hauntingly familiar to ours (I'll try post a pic as time allows) with a staircase off. We left ours as we found them. One or two neded re-hinging but we left the originals in place and put the new ones as close to them as possible.
More later
visitors.
And a brand new 6 day old baby
Life's good.
Douglas.

 

[Toby Newell]

Looks very much like in period with the house, very primative hand forged hinges probably locally made.