Rear Roofing.
Rear Roofing
With the scaffolding down and all of the rubble moved, the original stonework to the front of the building seems to just pop out.
Looking at it now, it’s hard to understand the thinking behind applying the rice-pudding render to the front of the building. The rest of the building was in its original stone so presumably, it made the building look slightly more modern from the front. The lack of electricity, mains water and drainage was what really held it back from having a future as a church building but I for one am glad to see it go.
The original features and lintels are much more visible now including the stoned-up slopping-out areas which have large stone lintels above them. The main door has an old oak beam with some unusual markings on it which I’m careful to clean around. Hopefully it isn’t just Victorian graffiti and has some historical merit as it looks pretty good. I’ll have to check that at some point.
Going around the back of the building, more slopping-out lintels are visible now on all walls and with the scaffolding up at the rear now, Donald and his team have managed to lower and sort the slates to the ground, leaving only a handful of frankly huge slates on the roof where they are. I have no idea how humans could have moved these into position when this building was originally built and I’m already not looking forward to having to manhandle these off the roof and onto the scaffolding once we’re ready to install the new rafters. It might explain why people used to be a lot shorter than they are today though. Just one of these on your back for any length of time could mess you up for life!
Climbing out onto the scaffolding with the sun beaming down onto the oak frame, you can see the colours and get the feel for how the original oak trusses are going to look once the skylights go in. It needs a bit more cleaning up than the front though and we need to install the concrete lintels above the rear fireplace and the old pantry area for when we eventually open it up as a seating area. Trying to do it retrospectively would be a massive job so getting these in now just makes more sense.
Now the old rafters are removed, it’s clear to Donald that two of the old oak purlins to the right hand side will need to be replaced. They are just as hard as the others but he isn’t happy with the thickness some parts of the beams taper down to in the middle and one of the ends which enters the stonework. Again, this isn’t my area of expertise so we start to look for replacements in the local area including a trip to a local farmer Donald has been in touch with who has some beams in a rear field. Unfortunately, these aren’t in quite the condition and length we need but it’s another glimpse into Donald’s network. The hunt is back on.
We can make a start though as it’ll be a few days before we need to have these in place, so we get started on installing the wall plate and clearing the rubble.