“(2) It can be carried out by a skilled labourer who can be otherwise employed during unsuitable weather.
“(3) No fuel is required as in burning bricks.
“(4) If a suitable rendering is employed to keep it weatherproof, and a good damp-course on the foundations, the cottages are nice and dry and keep an equable temperature, chalk being a good non-conductor.
“Sir George wonders if any method could be devised by chemical means to harden the chalk and make it weatherproof; if this could be done it might save the expense of the cement rendering.”
CHALK CONGLOMERATE
From Country Life, February 23rd, 1901:
“Soft chalk is practically mud, yet Dr. Poore, one leading authority on rural hygiene, had his model hygienic cottage built with it at Andover, just outside the boundaries, in order to escape the tyranny of the bye-laws. In several other places this material has been used time out of mind.
“The white cottages on the Wiltshire Downs are as good as any in England.”
