Down to earth
Cob is one of the oldest and most basic of English building materials. It’s basically earth, with added straw, manure, and often small stones, built up in layers a foot or two thick and a foot or two high, which are then left to dry before the next layer is added. Building up a wall like this takes time, but, provided the cob wall is kept dry by constructing it on a stone plinth and protecting it with an overhanging roof, it can last for centuries.
Devon and Dorset have many cob buildings, but cob has been used in many other parts of England too, from Cumberland to Hampshire. This example is on the village green of the Northamptonshire village of Guilsborough. It’s known as a stable, but Alec Clifton-Taylor, in his classic book The Pattern of English Building, says that it was used to keep a supply of coal for the poor of the village. Its cob is reinforced here and there with brick and has the orangey colour of the local stone. Cob in sandstone areas can have a pink tinge, while in chalk districts it is paler – although cob walls are generally colour washed, so the colour of the earth is often hidden.
The shed or stable at Guilsborough probably dates from the 18th century, although the lower side wing was added in 1897 and is built of brick. Since the lettering I featured in the previous post was admired by several of my readers, I include a photograph of some painted lettering on this extension. This bit of sign-writing (“DIAMOND JUBILEE BUILDING 1897”) must date from a recent repainting, but its letterforms’ curvaceous As and Es and carefully detailed J, evoke the late-Victorian period perfectly, an added bonus to a little building that's already full of interest.
In the East Midlands building with earth is called 'Mud' as in mud-walled, a cob is a round crusty roll you often have at lunchtime from a cob shop or bakers, for instance in Wigston there was a cob shop that was called the 'Cobfather'. Just to confuse the matter further where my sister lives in West Yorkshire a cob is a round loaf of bread.
ReplyDelete“Cob” (I checked my dictionary!) is "torchis" in French. I think it is most often found in Normandy, as a filler in the “holes” of a wood frame, and with overhanging thatched roofs. I suspect Alsatian traditional houses also use cob, also with thatched roofs (and a stork’s nest on top to complete the "couleur locale"!). I have never seen this dark red colour in France; it is mostly cream or gold here. I think it was replaced by brick in many cases, in Normandy at least, but there are many specimens left.
ReplyDeleteAnother arresting post from your fascinating blog. Thank you.
François-Marc Chaballier
Stephen: Great to read of these usages: thank you. The OED has a huge number of different uses of this word, starting with 'a big man' in the sense of a powerful or rich person, a male swan, a kind of horse, a kind of fish, etc. And then going on to a whole bunch of meanings to do with things that are round or roundish: nuts (in more than one sense), loaves, the stones of fruit, a dumpling, and 'a small heap or lump of anything'. There are also meanings to do with the head, which must also be related to the notion of roundness. The Dictionary is not very forthcoming about why 'cob' should also be used for clay or mud, except to note that one authority suggests it's about round lumps of clay.
ReplyDeleteI could be completely wrong, but isn't a key component of cob horse manure?
ReplyDeleteWorm: You're right! I forgot to include the manure! (Too much whisky before writing the post?) I think the manure helps the mix set. Also its straw content helps it to bind. It doesn't have to be horse – I think cow works too. Thanks for mentioning this - in fact I think I'll amend the post to include this important ingredient.
ReplyDeleteFrançois-Marc: Thanks very much for this insight into the French usage of unbaked earth in building. I love the storks' nests too!
ReplyDeleteFollowing up François-Marc's comment, may I add that in my home region (i.e. the easternmost part of Austria, right next to the Hungarian border) cob houses with thatched roofs used to be the traditional building form until the early/mid-20th century, too. Usually, though, they are whitewashed - like this.
ReplyDeleteOh, and many of them used to have stork's nests on top, too...
Thanks for another stimulating post!
c.
C: Thank you for the lovely links. Those baroque gables (and indeed the storks' nests) are similar to the ones I see in Southern Bohemia, in the Czech Republic, when I go there. But in that part of Europe the main building material is stone, particularly punishingly hard granite.
ReplyDeleteBohemia, Austria-Hungary, Normandy and ... Wigston. What a wonderfully cosmopolitan collection of readers you have!
ReplyDeleteChunter: Indeed. The reach of English Buildings stretches far and wide - even to Leicestershire!
ReplyDelete