Old Examples.—Those who may wish to see buildings in chalk conglomerate, both old and new, would do well to visit some such typical chalk district as that lying about Andover in Wiltshire.
It should, however, be constantly borne in mind that most of the old cottages were somewhat unscientifically erected by their original jack-of-all-trades occupiers, that damp-courses and Portland cement were unknown, and that the advantages of proper ventilation and the causes of dry-rot were discoveries yet to be made.
Secondly, a large number of these cottages have been sadly neglected either recently or in the past, and they bear the disfiguring marks of their ill-treatment upon them now.
But a chalk cottage that is well found in the beginning, and that is reasonably well cared for subsequently, has nothing to fear from comparison with cottages built in the most approved manner of the more fashionable materials.
Mr. James Thorold gives the following particulars of a block of three chalk cottages recently built for Sir George Cooper on his estate at Hursley, near Winchester:
“The chalk walling was done by Messrs. A. Annett and Son, of Winterslow, near Salisbury, where this method of building has been kept alive from olden days. It consists of working up the soft upper strata of the chalk by putting a bed of it 4 ft. 6 in. thick on the ground, watering and treading it to a sticky consistency with the feet, working in shortish straw at the same time. When thoroughly mixed by the builder’s mate, he lifts up a forkful to the builder working on the wall immediately above him, the latter catches the chalk, dumps it down on the top of the wall, building an 18 in. course all round. As soon as the weather has dried this sufficiently he goes round with a sharp spade squaring up both sides of the wall. As this work is greatly dependent on the weather it is well if the men have other work to fall back on, and that building operations should be commenced in the spring or early summer. The wall is built 18 in. thick to the first floor joists and 14 in. above. Chalk in itself being very absorbent of moisture, the usual plan is to render the outside of the wall with a lime mortar, which, however, requires renewal every few years. To obviate this we fixed with long staples 1¼ in. mesh wire-netting over the outside surface of the wall to give a reinforcement for a rendering of hair mortar and cement gauged in proportion of 1 to 2 respectively, and left rough from the trowel. This rendering was done at a cost of 3s. 3½d. per square yard, which is a substantial addition to the cost of the walling, but so far there is no sign of a crack or hollow place behind it, and the cottages have kept very dry. The walls were finished off with a limewash containing Russian tallow and copperas.[9]
Cost of Three Cottages
“As regards the cost of this block of three cottages, the result is obscured by the fact that tall chimney-stacks with ornamental bricks and appropriate foundations were built and reinforced leaded lights were used in the windows to keep the building in character with the other cottages on the estate, but at the time we estimated that the chalk walling saved a sum of £54 as against the amount we should have had to have spent in carrying out the building with bricks made on the estate, and this had to include lodging money and profit, the builders being independent men. The ornamental chimney-stacks were put in for the sake of appearance, flues built up in the chalk being entirely satisfactory and fireproof. The foundations are either flint or brick with a slate damp-course.
“I consider that for a chalk country this method of building has many advantages.
“(1) It saves cartage.