Limewash or Bare Stonework?

[JohnB]

I've just stuck my head into a roof space where there is a wall that would have been outside, before the nasty cement render was added in the late sixties. Here are a couple of pictures:
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This is the front of the house in 1967 before it was rendered. The views above are of the back wall at the left hand end where the single storey extension was built:

The walls are stone with earth mortar, and it must be the old lime pointing. It doesn't appear to have neat pointing, so would it have been limewashed in the past, and the wash has worn off most of the stone, or would it just have been slapped on untidily?

There is only one window at the back upstairs, centrally above what would have been the outside door, which is west facing, but two large ones at the front that faces east. I've no idea what, if any, windows there were downstairs at the back. Is this normal?

What's the lintel made from? It looks like brick, but seems far to big. It's a tiny loft hatch, and I don't think I could get through it, and don't plan to try at the moment! Do 21st century insulation fitters use child labour????

 

[Feltwell]

What's the lintel made from? It looks like brick, but seems far to big.

It looks just like a brick arch to me. It's hard to tell from the picture - is the bottom of the brickwork flat or curved? It looks flat, in which case you've got a flat or "jack" arch.

http://www.gobrick.com/bia/technotes/t31.htm

Seems odd to have one there though - a later addition perhaps?

 

[JohnB]

I think it's flat. It's interesting that it hasn't been completely filled in. The other side is a modern upstairs passage, and is plastered, and there's a bit of plastic pipe sticking out at floor level :?. No idea what the strange previous owners got up to!

I don't know how the house was used originally. A new information board has appeared a few yards down the road that says that there was a hand loom workshop here (it's in a former thriving area for woollen mills). The 1891 census shows it as one house, but it's been lived in as two houses for part of the 20th century, and it appears to have been built as two houses, with a 2ft wall dividing them. The earliest date I've seen is 1857, but I've no information on when it was built. I'm wondering if part of the house was built as a workshop for the loom/s. The local history society know nothing about it, but I haven't been to the local National Wool Museum yet.

 

[DaveBrigg]

There is only one window at the back upstairs, centrally above what would have been the outside door, which is west facing, but two large ones at the front that faces east. I've no idea what, if any, windows there were downstairs at the back. Is this normal?

Our house is very similar in this respect. It has some Georgian modifications, but there are eight large windows at the front, (four up, four down) but only one on a gable end. At the back there are a couple of small windows downstairs, two dormers upstairs and one large window for the dining room. I assume it was all about image, trying to impress the neighbours. Big windows are cold and expensive, so why bother putting them where no-one will see?

 

[JohnB]

Big windows are cold and expensive, so why bother putting them where no-one will see?

Solar gain! The house gets sun at the back, and one end, but the majority of the windows are at the front that only gets direct sun first thing in the morning.

Anyone got any idea on whether it would have been limewashed, or if it was just scruffy pointing?