Got scaffolding up at my property so thought it was worth looking at getting a couple of sealed up sashes moving.
My flat's the bottom two storeys of a Georgian townhouse in Bath, c. 1765. It was heavily refurbished by the council in the 1970s when it lost most original features such as the doors but retained some of the shutters. The downstairs' (garden level) windows are replacements, prob. from the 1970s but upstairs' (street level) ones are original. The main room, the full width of the house (now sub-divided for a bathroom) has a triple window overlooking the garden:
The two closest windows already open but have sash cords for the lower sashes and spiral sash balances for the upper ones. The far one the top sash was fixed (on the far window, above, you can see the strip of wood that was supporting the fixed upper sash) but the lower (with sash cords) opens OK.
These are typical Bath windows so the lower sash closes against the outer stone cill and the face of the upper sash is against the stone.
So after removing the staff bead and the cover to the weight pocket (?) first thing I notice (apart from the woodworm) is that there's no space for a weight for the upper sash – it's solid stone behind the left-hand (outer) half of the frame:
(Also note the wood revealed below the top sash appears never to have been painted.)
Next thing I notice is that there's no sign of any groove where a parting bead would have fitted. Checking one of the other windows I find that the parting bead there is nailed onto the surface:
Anyway, I get the top sash out and there's no sign of any sash cord mechanism – no pulley, etc. It looks like the sash was never designed to be opened. The sash itself has flat, unmarked edges. (It appears to be the original as you can see the remains of the glazing bars. The lower sash is thinner and looks like a replacement.)
So could this explain why the other two upper sashes have sash balances rather than weights – not originally intended to be opened and both sash balances and parting beads added at a later date?
(More to follow...)
My flat's the bottom two storeys of a Georgian townhouse in Bath, c. 1765. It was heavily refurbished by the council in the 1970s when it lost most original features such as the doors but retained some of the shutters. The downstairs' (garden level) windows are replacements, prob. from the 1970s but upstairs' (street level) ones are original. The main room, the full width of the house (now sub-divided for a bathroom) has a triple window overlooking the garden:
The two closest windows already open but have sash cords for the lower sashes and spiral sash balances for the upper ones. The far one the top sash was fixed (on the far window, above, you can see the strip of wood that was supporting the fixed upper sash) but the lower (with sash cords) opens OK.
These are typical Bath windows so the lower sash closes against the outer stone cill and the face of the upper sash is against the stone.
So after removing the staff bead and the cover to the weight pocket (?) first thing I notice (apart from the woodworm) is that there's no space for a weight for the upper sash – it's solid stone behind the left-hand (outer) half of the frame:
(Also note the wood revealed below the top sash appears never to have been painted.)
Next thing I notice is that there's no sign of any groove where a parting bead would have fitted. Checking one of the other windows I find that the parting bead there is nailed onto the surface:
Anyway, I get the top sash out and there's no sign of any sash cord mechanism – no pulley, etc. It looks like the sash was never designed to be opened. The sash itself has flat, unmarked edges. (It appears to be the original as you can see the remains of the glazing bars. The lower sash is thinner and looks like a replacement.)
So could this explain why the other two upper sashes have sash balances rather than weights – not originally intended to be opened and both sash balances and parting beads added at a later date?
(More to follow...)
