Markings and writing on wall

[FamilyWiggs]

As I was removing the tanking from the former office, I noticed this marking under the layers of limewash that came away. It is clearly man-made. Not sure if brush r finger though.



So I started to investigate a little further... It is on the very lowest level of limewash direct onto the plaster underneath. This makes it very fragile, as that layer adheres better to the layers above it than to the plaster.

General view of one wall:



Close up of a corner by a window. Could these be tally marks? I've no idea what the room was originally. It is little more than 6 foot square with windows on three sides, and directly above the porch. (In a 17C Welsh farmhouse).

 

[Feltwell]

Proof that ye olde Welsh chavs didn't have access to spray paint for their graffiti I reckon.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I'm sure this is writing of some kind. Quite neat.



This looks like a little flag:



Whilst there are some scratchings diect into the plaster here. There was definitely nothing in the layers of limewash above, so I'm, pretty sure these were contemporary to the plaster - or at least prior to the lowest layer of limewash presntly there.



Anybody got any thoughts? And any tips for removing all but the lowest layer of limewash? There must br 40 or 50 layers in places. Sadly most of them come away with the limewash, which in many cases is "blown". I will preserve what I can and certainly one of the other walls is much more sound and so I should be able to preserve it as is.

Where I do have to remove it, can I use it to remix new limewash? At least that way I would be retaining it in some form in situ.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Proof that ye olde Welsh chavs didn't have access to spray paint for their graffiti I reckon.

Yes I wondered if it was old cowboy builders being rude about their clients before limewashing over the wall! But perhaps the house might have been built and plastered by the family who farmed the land? Could the flag be by a child?

 

[MdB]

Might be worth seeing if you can borrow a UV fluorescent light from somewhere. It may help show up the lettering.

 

[JohnB]

One of these days someone will uncover the block wall I've just drylined and insulated, and discover some strange markings and the number 25. They'll never know I was curious to count the number of barrow loads of cement I removed from the three stone walls in the room .

 

[robgil]

Lots of scribbled measurments on my walls, smiley faces and heating flow and return pipe runs.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Might be worth seeing if you can borrow a UV fluorescent light from somewhere. It may help show up the lettering.

Good idea, thanks.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Hmmm. To me it looks like pigmentation has leaked into small cracks and fissures in the plaster, much in the way an egg receives marbling if you hard boil it in onion skins ( pretty for Easter) That would suggest though, that the walls were at one time reddish which is curious in itself.

As for the idea that the farmers built the house and outbuildings, I really doubt that. People had an allotted place and job and status, a farmer was pretty respectable and I doubt would have had the time or inclination to self build - repair, yes, but build from scratch??

However I might be entirely wrong.

 

[Penners]

The very first picture looks as though it might be a letter B with the female symbol at the bottom of it.

Was the room ever occupied by a young lady called Blodwyn - and was she well known to the local male population? Could the other scrawlings be the remains of a price list? Or perhaps the menu du jour?

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Joce - I know what you mean - but I can assure you these are deliberate markings, not accidental - although there are other sections that look more like they have been painted in the red pigment.

There were only two colours in all the layers. The first one is red in places, then a few dozen in white, followed by the final in a lovely yellowy/cream colour.

Penners - trust you! :lol:

 

[Penners]

Don't close your mind to any possibility. :wink:

 

[tobydog]

A satanic ritual?

 

[Keithj]

I think it's a natural outlet for those who feel frustrated that they haven't been published yet.

Folks have been writing on walls since many decades BC ... Daniel 5 v 5 "the fingers of a human hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the wall of the royal palace, next to the lampstand. The king was watching the hand as it wrote. "

 

[FamilyWiggs]

But so much nicer in the King James version, this being such an anniversary year and all that:

"In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote."

 

[Keithj]

Yea forsooth, yet my congregation verily understandeth not ye parlaunces of ye Tudor rendering.
Beautiful language, less than excellent translation.

"And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a cave; and Saul went in to cover his feet"
What was he covering his feet with? Why?
Oh, and sheep round here live in folds; cotes is for doves.

 

[worms]

Yea forsooth, yet my congregation verily understandeth not ye parlaunces of ye Tudor rendering..

Tudor? :shock:
Surely, by definition, the King James bible has to be Jacobean! :wink:

 

[JohnB]

Oh, and sheep round here live in folds; cotes is for doves.

Don't you have flying sheep round your way?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkw2DdoskPY

 

[Keithj]

I did stick a lamb in the back of the Maule, but it made a terrible mess which took a long time to clean out. Sheep are not fundamentally designed for aviation.

King James version - yes, it's Jacobean by publication date, but with extensive use of earlier (Tudor) versions.
The problem of translation and understanding remains. What was Saul doing with his feet?
I prefer more recent translations - particularly the NRSV and The Message.

 

[LadyArowana]

What was Saul doing with his feet?.

Wasn't he going to put them under one of the sheep to keep them all warm and snuggly?

Apologies to Mr P for use of the word "snuggly"