The House Detective
A talk given to Cambridgeshire FHS
on 23rd October 2003
by Mac DowdyOur October speaker was Mac Dowdy, well known to his TV audience. We were not disappointed.
Mac’s background is fine art and architectural history, but his enthusiastic study is domestic architecture. We were shown a variety of slides which illustrated this and encouraged us to look at "ordinary" houses with fresh eyes.
The first slide was of Cherry Hinton Road houses built in the early 20th century. (Cherry Hinton was formerly a village adjoining Cambridge, but is now part of south Cambridge, while retaining some of its village centre). The houses have small front gardens, which is a concept introduced by Ebenezer Howard in the last 20 years of the 19th century. The original colour of the houses is the traditional white brick of the area, but there are colour changes due to repointing and cleaning. Changes in windows and doors were pointed out to us, as houses were modernised. One house retained its original features, and a member of the audience told us that it had belonged to a painter, who kept it in good repair, so replacements were not necessary.
The next houses were off Barton Road in Cambridge, numbers 1 & 2 Clare Lane, opposite the Red Bull. These were much more imposing houses, with 3 floors and extra rooms in the attic and semi -basement. A change of brick on the chimney indicated that its height was increased to improve upward draught. The room in the attic must have been very comfortable in winter, as it has a chimney either side to warm it.
Blinco Grove, where we meet, was out next slide. Mac used to talk to the students of Jack Ravensdale (a well known local historian and lecturer). He sent students out to survey the area. The group who plotted trees found that Blinco Grove had the same type of related fruit trees in the gardens, broken up only by houses. They realised that the site was originally a market garden.
The slide showed the usual parking problem in towns and cities, where front gardens were used as a car park. As in Cheery Hinton Road the houses had been altered, including one house which had an extra storey, but most extensive alterations were made at the back of the houses.
Our next stop was Witcham, in the Isle of Ely. This was a large and significant Gothick house next to the church, with crenellations, a steep roof, Elizabethan looking chimneys and elaborate support for the stack. Much of this was typical 19th century, but the steep roof could be earlier. The proportions were 18th century while the features were 19th century. The back of the houses was more varied with different types of tile on the roof for instance.
The inside of the house had been remodelled. There had been niches on either side of the fireplace. The depressed arch which replaced them had wood moulding and there was a moulded wood cornice. The level of the cornice and the position of the beam in the sitting room do not go together. The beam is that of a 17th century house. The hall and stairway have also been remodelled, and the dining room is late medieval. So the gothick exterior is very deceptive.
Next we visited Methyr Tidfil in South Wales. It used to be a mining village, but now the principal industry is beef farming. We looked at a row of houses on a steep hill. The houses are made of rough granite, a cheap building material as it cannot be worked. The rough granite is rendered on the inside. Many of the buildings deteriorated, as there was little money to spend on them when mining collapsed. The main building in the row was described as an inn- unusual in a strong non-conformist district – but this was a front for services in the old Welsh Christianity. The last two houses in the row are very dilapidated. They are a basic construction, with the winding staircase following the shape of the granite, and tiny windows. The houses belonged to bachelor brothers and a spinster sister, and were kept for best. They lived in a shanty across the road which was a horrible place, The other houses had adapted their shanty as a storage shed, but the brothers and sister continued to live in theirs.
Finally we looked at a magnificent house belonging to the ironmaster, now a museum.
Our last visit was to Sutton in East Suffolk. This is a village of bijou residences, which are pleasant but expensive. There are four large houses of 16th century merchants in the village, They had yards to the river and the village was reached by boats on their way to Ipswich.
Crow Hall was built in 1821 by Dr John read, an amateur architect, for himself. However, it has earlier parts, and resembles Witcham hall. The clues are tie and collar beams and steps up to the triangular roof space where servants must have slept in the past. There is an impressive plaster ceiling in one bedroom which is early 17th century. Mac referred to the marvellous plaster work in a merchant’s house in Ipswich. Some of the 19th century parts of the house are of a "hidio-colossal" style, and too flamboyant for modern taste.
Without the beautiful slides which illustrated this talk, it is difficult to give the full flavour, so we will have to wait for the next House Detective on TV.
Margaret Bone
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