Who's been drawing on our ceiling?

[DaveBrigg]

Whilst cleaning up the limewash on the kitchen ceiling, the pattern below appeared. It's a flower, formed from intersecting circles, and there are clear holes in the centre of each where compasses have been used. There are several Georgian features in the kitchen, and signs that it once had lath and plaster, making the limewash surface beneath probably the original, dating maybe from 1530. The design is on the underside of a floorboard that has a limecrete floor on top.
Has anyone else encountered a design like it? It is the only pattern on the ceiling, so either it was meant to be a single feature, for reasons unknown, or the decorator soon got bored.

 

[Gervase]

The daisy wheels, scribed with compasses, is fairly common on old timberwork. Also known as a variant of the Vesica Piscis, it has been used in the past as a Christian symbol.
However, research onn a 15th century building in Wales suggests that it could be a constructional reference, based on geometry, which reflects the plan and cross section of the building - at least according the an article, Compass, Cut Circle and Daisy Wheel, published in the Mortice and Tenon journal in Spring 1997 and quoted by Richard Oxley in his excellent Survey and Repair of Traditional Buildings.
I'm not entirely convinced, but Oxley writes: "This research illustrates that we have, up until now, greatly underestimated the level of thought and understainding that went into the actual design and construction of these buildings."

 

[middi]

At the risk of confusing this issue even further, these intersecting circles were drawn on studwork, plasterwork, or on other parts of the building but more prominent at the entrance of the building.

They can also be complemented by inscriptions in order to ward off evil spirits, whitches or whitchcraft, as in our case.

A cottage I was restoring , a few years ago, was plagued by intersecting circle and olde english phrases warding off witches and evil.

There was a small access hand operated hatch near the doorway, with lots of circles and phrases of this nature, apart from other intersecting circles in many parts of the buildings, these were more intense near window openings.

Waltham Abbey museum had this access panel on display for a while about 10 years ago whilst they were exibiting a selection of old buildings restoration procedures.

When they kindly returned all photos and other artifacts found on my building restoration site, the access panel was nowhere to be found.

I thought it was creepy anyway as there were drawings of ugly goats with massive horns ( something to do with the devil ??), I said that if it turned up they could keep it.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Whilst cleaning up the limewash on the kitchen ceiling, the pattern below appeared. It's a flower, formed from intersecting circles, and there are clear holes in the centre of each where compasses have been used. There are several Georgian features in the kitchen, and signs that it once had lath and plaster, making the limewash surface beneath probably the original, dating maybe from 1530. The design is on the underside of a floorboard that has a limecrete floor on top.
Has anyone else encountered a design like it? It is the only pattern on the ceiling, so either it was meant to be a single feature, for reasons unknown, or the decorator soon got bored.

Kitchen ceiling's an unusual place for them, but that looks like these sorts of apotropaic (great word) marks:

http://www.apotropaios.co.uk/ritual_marks.htm

lots of other useful info on how to keep witches out of your chimneys on that site too. (What do you mean, "it's all a load of superstitious rubbish"? have you had any witches coming down your chimney? no? proves it works then)

And some ceiling ones, but done insmoke, at the bottom of this page:

http://www.oldhouses.com.au/docs/ritual.html

 

[Nemesis]

Brings back many memories of primary school, drawing these things with a pair of compasses on paper with pencil and filling in the pattern with wax crayon.

No we had no witches there either.

 

[DaveBrigg]

Fascinating info - thanks. The links are great too, and have made things a lot clearer, especially the info about witches' bottles, one of which was found in our wall. (a researcher has it at the moment). Several of the roof timbers also have marks like a pair of brackets ( ) which resemble those on the website too. Time to have another detailed look...

 

[Gervase]

Interesting links. The second site has a dodgy etymology for apoptropaeic, however - if my rusty Greek is correct it means "that which turns away".
We found assorted clogs stuffed into the eaves of our place:

 

[Carol]

We have various sets of these carved into our beams, some are so faint we didn't see them, but they were spotted by a visiting timber-frame fanatic who used a torch to find them. My daughter had been sleeping right under one for 7 years without noticing. We also have a cat, skeleton only left and a tiny bottle hidden in the eaves. Don't know if it was thought to be a particularly risky place or whether the owners were just careful! OH thinks they were done over a very long period of time and perhaps when various alterations were made. What do others think we should put back when our next phase of building work happens in the spring? (All done with LBC and even a tiny compliment from the CO!!!!)

 

[Flyfisher]

What do others think we should put back when our next phase of building work happens in the spring?

I suppose a dead cat is not really the done thing these days, despite the undoubted historical authenticity

On a slightly macabre note, is it actually known whether dead cats that were used for such things, or was a live cat incarcerated?

 

[Carol]

We told our cat mad daughter it had "probably been a well-loved pet that had died" and hoped that she would be grown up before she found out the other options. It seems to have worked, she is now twenty and regards all old houses as grubby, time and money wasting nuisances. Ah well! I was thinking more of a tin or bottle of something? And the thought of interring our old ginger mog (after his demise!) in that way doesn't really appeal even in the interests of period authenticity, particularly as it took me nearly a week to recover from the shock of finding the cat! For a few horrified minutes, before closer inspection, we thought it was a human baby's remains.

 

[DaveBrigg]

What do others think we should put back when our next phase of building work happens in the spring?

If you are thinking of putting in another bottle, bear in mind that all those found and tested were discovered to contain urine. If that doesn't appeal, a can of Fosters would be a close substitute.