Court House, Cowgrove
Location
OS Ref: ST 990 000
Last Visited: 1993
Court House Cowgrove Vandalised
There are two schools of thought in the world of restoration: One states that you should put buildings back to how you think they were at some period in the past, the other that you should simply repair what is there, and let the building move on. Neither argument gives enough weight to aesthetic criteria or to the emotional impact buildings in my opinion.
Clearly when it came to the Court House in Cowgrove, Wimborne someone in the National Trust did the research and decided that originally it would have been lime washed all over.
Apparently, the original owners would have wanted to give the impression that it was stone-built, and would have been ashamed of the timber-framing. No doubt, if pebble-dashing had been available at the time they would have used that instead.
Well Iʼm sorry, but just because the original owners were pretentious it does not excuse "stone cladding" an ancient building like this. Exterior oak looks best untreated, and black and white cottages, rank alongside old ladies cycling to church, warm beer and cricket on the village green in the English psyche.
However it is possible to see what Court House might look like had it not been vandalised, through the magic of Photoshop.
Comments
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Strolling Guide
You are quite right, I am but a humble photographer and no expert on timber-framed buildings. Cleary the 'breathable' nature of lime wash (provided it hasn't been mixed with Casein, Tallow or Raw Linseed Oil to help it stick), could help control dampness, the chief cause of death-watch beetle. But, on the other hand, what lets water out must also let it in, so the difference between lime washing and leaving the timbers untreated must be fairly marginal. Clearly black bitumen would be inappropriate, however. If overall lime washing is the only practical solution, then so be it. But for me, as a photographer, it is still an aesthetic disaster, and should be avoided if at all possible.
Mrs. A. Cross
Obviously your writer had made no particular study into the Court House, otherwise he would have found that the beams have been lime-washed in order to try to limit incursions by Deathwatch beetle. It would have been nice to have had the timbers exposed, if they had been new,but because of except for the parlous state of them, most are like sponge, they need the lime to keep the ravages of weather at bay. If they had been painted in bitumenous black, this would have sealed in the damp, and allowed rotting from inside out, at least the lime allows the wood to breathe. Mrs. A. Cross, Court House, cowgrove, Wimborne.