Mud, mud, glorious mud.

[biffvernon]

MUD MASONRY – a two day symposium on the theory and practice of mud building
60% of the world’s architecture is constructed using mud. One third of the world’s people live in houses
built substantially or entirely of mud.
Mud is eminently breathable, flexible and readily available. It is easy to use. It offers the opportunity to
build healthy, carbon neutral buildings that carry a minimum of embodied energy and are thermally
efficient.
It can be used as the primary structure of a building, or as its bedding and plastering mortar.
Mud is not a building material of the poor – though it can make good housing available and accessible to
those most in need. It has been a material of high status across the world as well as in the United
Kingdom.
High status buildings of cob survive throughout Devon and Cornwall. High status stone buildings
throughout the UK – and especially upon the limestone spine of England – were built using mud mortars
throughout the historic period.Mud and stud buildings remain common in Lincolnshire.
Mud survives in buildings throughout Malton and Ryedale – it was the mortar of choice for highly skilled
stonemasons building with limestone. It was the plaster of choice in Malton until at least the early
Eighteenth Century.
We are beginning to reassert its usefulness and are using mud mortars in the repair and conservation of
York House, a high status gentry house built originally with mud mortars; which were also used in major
alterations in the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries.
Join us in Malton to explore and discuss the history, theory and practice of mud masonry and to have a
go yourself.
The days will be a blend of talks and practical sessions. Talks will cover the history and cultural
significance of mud masonry; regional types and methods, including cob, mud and stud, earth pise will
be covered, as will simple on-site testing and options for improvement of found materials. Practical
sessions will include earth plastering, adobe block-making and the construction of a rammed earth wall.
Speakers & demonstrators:
John Warren; Richard Allen; Ben Gourley; Chris McGregor; Nigel Copsey.
Fee: £75 per day. Lunch will be provided. Bring workclothes and boots.
Venue: York House 19th & 20thMarch 2009. Pre-booking essential. nigelcopsey@hotmail.com
Estate Office Stables, 90 Old Maltongate, Malton, North Yorkshire, YO17 7EG. 01653 690115
a people and places curriculum event

 

[Penners]

For anyone who (like me) didn't know what earth pise (acute accent on the 'e') is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rammed_earth

Biff - do you know whether clay lump will be included?

If anyone wants to construct a mud building, we're awash with the raw material around here, just now!

 

[Pford75]

When our wall came down, the top section was originally constructed in clay lump.....some of the 'bricks' remained stacked next to the wall for a period of 8-9 months in all weathers and uncovered. The ones around the edges were a little weathered, but the bulk of the pile was still in good order which I found quite surprising, since I'd always been under the impression that they would quickly wash away.

 

[middi]

Many of us can associate with the noble and informative intentions of the course, nevertheless, the majority of householders would roll about laughing their heads off when asked to pay 75 quids to be shown how to build with mud, all of them stopped building with mud when they were 5 years old :wink:

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Brilliant stuff, mud. You can even build windmills out of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhjww8FBsZk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNp2C8IWOKY
Not the sort we're used to here, but after all that's happened in that part of the world, how good to see a few still preserved.

 

[Penners]

That's fascinating! And arguably rather more efficient than our traditional design of windmill, which has to have a system of gears to turn the rotation through 90 degress, in order to turn a horizontal grindstone.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

That's fascinating! And arguably rather more efficient than our traditional design of windmill, which has to have a system of gears to turn the rotation through 90 degress, in order to turn a horizontal grindstone.

Only works in one wind direction though - which is fine because in Khorasan they have a 120-day wind from one direction which coincides with the period after the harvest. We had a few experimental mills like that in the 18th century but they had elaborate shrouding mechanisms to divert the wind from any direction onto the blades - and having introduced elaborate mechanisms, they also introduced more potential for a visit from Mr Cockup.

Fred Drift's back again, I see...

 

[Penners]

Fred Drift's back again, I see...

Well, his influence on this one is pretty mild, by comparison with many. Anyway, he often turns out to be the kind of chap who makes life more interesting.

Do I take it that Battersea Horizontal Mill was an attempt to create a horizontal rotator that could cope with wind from any direction? (I presume the apparently geodesic structure was unskinned, allowing wind to blow through?) If so, didn't it work?

 

[MdB]

http://www.newcomen.com/excerpts/horizontal_windmills/index.htm

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45371
On the site of Bolingbroke-house was erected, about two years ago, a horizontal air-mill of a new construction, and of very large dimensions: the shape of the dome or case which contains the moveable machine (fn. 45) , is that of a truncated cone; being circular, of fifty-two feet diameter at the bottom, and forty-five feet at the top: the height of the main shaft is 120 feet; that is, forty feet from the floor to the bottom of the dome, and eighty feet thence to the top. The moveable machine is of the same shape, and nearly of the same dimensions as the dome; having just space to turn round within it: the extremities of this machine are called floats, as in the wheel of a water-mill; the pieces of wood which connect them with the main shaft, are called the arms; there are ninety-six floats, and the same number of shutters in the dome, which, when open, admit, even when there is little wind, a sufficient current of air to turn the machine, and, by a particular contrivance, shut when the wind is so violent as to endanger the structure. This mill, at its first erection, was used for preparing of oil; it is now used as a corn-mill, and is occupied by Messrs. Hodgson and Co.

You learn something new every day...

 

[Penners]

Indeed you do. Fascinating, thank you, MdB.

...retaining the old shaft, hurstings, and staked-on gears with their applewood cogs.

Any idea what 'hurstings' are? I aked Mr Google, but he only seems to know the word as a proper name.

I wonder whether applewood is as durable as hornbeam, which I believe was traditionally used for cogs.

 

[MdB]

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=shaft+hursting+gear+-hurst

http://www.offalyhistory.com/articles/402/1/Tullamore-Distillery-Tullamore-Kingas-County/Page1.html
Rated about 125 I.H.P., the engine’s driveshaft links with conventional under-drive gearing that is contained within cast-iron hursting on a square plan. The gearing for a set of millstones, on the floor above, is carried on either side of the hursting, and a pinion linking with the great spurwheel carries both a vertical mill drive and, via bevel gears, a horizontal lineshaft.

 

[Penners]

Thanks for that, MdB. I confess that I couldn't find much in your info that made it completely clear to my dull brain what hurstings are, but - rightly or wrongly - I'm beginning to get a vague picture of some sort of gear housing.

 

[MdB]

Yep, that was my feeling too. I couldn't find anything definitive.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

The Hurst frame or hursting is the framework supporting the millstones and driving gears, more commonly encountered in full form in watermills than in windmills, as below at Trafford Mill near Chester:
View attachment 2
The hurst frame is the arrangement of vertical posts and horizontal beams (some of which are moveable to allow adjustment of the gap between the millstones)
Later, and more unusual, is this cast-iron hurst at Weston Mill, Morda in Shropshire, alas now to be house converted:
View attachment 1
There are local variants such as the "Lowder" in Cumberland, which is a (visually) "free-standing" table-like arrangement carrying the stones above the floor level, as at Heron Mill, Beetham:

 

[MdB]

“With Guru the egg of doubt has burst; my mind has been enlightened”

 

[Penners]

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.

Mr Hurst's invention is clearly infinitely adaptable, from a load of chunks of wood nailed together to a giant 'four-holer' casting.

Many thanks for your pedagogical contribution, Gareth.

 

[Jon Maine]

As I had to look it up Penners for the others like me wot didn't know the big word!!

Pedagogy

Pedagogy (IPA: /ˈpɛdəgɒdʒi/), or paedagogy is the art or science of being a teacher. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction.

Pedagogy is also sometimes referred to as the correct use of teaching strategies.

At least I did recognise it as of greek origin, its direct translation is "to lead the child"

 

[Penners]

It's a word I've always enjoyed, because it sounds insulting, while actually being complimentary!

 

[Jon Maine]

It's a word I've always enjoyed, because it sounds insulting, while actually being complimentary!

Cool 8)