MAGENTA BUILDING REPAIR LTD
Stonemasonry, restoration and complete repair works to historical and ecclesiastical buildings.
The Ostler's House, Corsham, Wiltshire
'The Ostler's House', Corsham was a project carried out under the direction of Rhys Brookes, Architect for The Wiltshire Historic Buildings Trust. The building was part of the historical coaching inn, ' The Hare and Hounds' at Pickwick, Corsham and was used as a store for the inn and a separate dwelling up until the early 1960s. Since then, the residential one - up, one-down, wing of the building was boarded up and empty whilst the hay-loft and stabling roadside portion was used as a garage and beer store.
The Wiltshire Historic Building Trust purchased the building with the sole intention of saving it. They employed architect, Rhys Brookes whose remit was to return the building to a habitable dwelling, suitable for modern living, whilst conserving and restoring its original fabric and making it a saleable commodity in order to return some of the trust's investment at the end of the project.
The stabling and hay-loft wing was carefully stripped out and the concrete and blockwork removed from floors and walls to reveal evidence of many years of equine inhabitance through worn stable floor setts and the manger where chains marked the original ashlar walls. The floor and roof structure, which was predominantly oak, was retained in the domestic wing, including as much of the lath and plaster ceilings as possible, although major splice repairs and stainless steel flitch plates were needed to beam and principle trusses.
We produce stainless steel, one-off, fixings, flitch plates, general ironwork and engineering tailored to use in historic building repair at our workshop in Milton Abbas. This facilitates the quick and accurate application of such methods during the, often ever-changing, requirements during a contract such as 'The Ostler's House'.
The roof and floor structure over the stable portion of the building was stripped to its shell and, whilst most of the roof components stayed in position, a new floor structure in green oak plus new tie beams were introduced and the original ones renewed to facilitate the new first floor. The old stable gable, which had been altered many years ago to a hipped end, was re-built using local rubble stone and the roof structure was replaced and made good up to it. This gable included a stone mullioned window of simple design and of local 'Bath' stone and stone coping cloaks running up the gable end. The introduction of a habitable first floor in this section was a key element to the successful, economic restoration of 'The Ostler's House' these rooms now being, by far, the most pleasant in the building; spacious yet retaining some of the feeling and proportion of its past form. At the top of the new oak stairs and hall landing, within the large loft space, the bathroom was created with boarded external walls and a mezzanine storage area overhead.
All original walls or surfaces abutting original work were re-plastered in three-coat limewash and any original plasterwork practically saveable was saved and reinforced where appropriate.
The complete roof structure was recovered using the original stone tiles and the short-fall made up from a matching new source. These were laid over modern roofing membranes, counter battens and tri iso insulation laid on softwood sarking boards on the oak rafters. From the underside the exposed rafters, with simple flat finished painted sarking, added to the unsophisticated look required when sensitively altering parts of the building.
All new window and door joinery was made and fixed in the original position. We copied the windows exactly, including unusual original detail on several of them, which added to the one-off feel of all new work. The original stable double openings have been filled with heavy oak structures, a curved-headed double-glazed screen in the elliptical arched opening and an oak glazed entrance porch covering the gable end opening. These oak frames designed so that the movement of the oak does not affect the glazing units.
Large sections of masonry to the West facing gable of the domestic wing were consolidated and re-built, including the chimney and gable cloaking coping. Four elevations were rendered in three to four coat hydraulic render. Once the render had initially set several coats of limewash were applied - the colour to match the mortar.
Slurry consolidation and mortar repairs in consistent materials and texture were carefully applied to the door and window stonework plus the internal fireplaces. The heavily worn kitchen flagstones, which were damaged and uneven to the point that they were unsafe, were conserved in their entirety.
Outside the building, the existing boundary walls were consolidated and enlarged with complete new rubble walls flanking the boundary at 'The Hare and Hounds' car park. Gently sloping worked stone gate piers, built into the boundary walls with invisible stainless steel restraint fixings, holding the oak gate posts into worked slots vertically in the piers from these posts, a set of hard wood gates, full height have been hung.
A clever part of Rhys' design is evident when reviewing the garden walling and gate layout. When viewing from the yard or from the main road, a newly created line of sight through the oak-lintelled rubble stone walling flank, springing from the stable gable elevation, through the opening onto the A4 which is tied to the character of the building via the iron single gate with an elliptical reverse at its head to match the entrance ellipse created in the stonework.
All the dimensional stonework, iron work, plus some items of joinery were created in our own workshops by our own staff or on site by our own staff. This 'in house' approach, in conjunction with the inclusion of specialist sub-contractors (with whom we have worked on many occasions before) ensures that the interpretation of the design and practical application of the works, including the many problems encountered during such a project, can be managed and overcome.
The Ostlers House is now a holiday cottage. For more information visit their web site at www.theostlershouse.co.uk
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Magenta Building Repair Ltd - Unit D, Milton Mills, Milton Abbas, Blandford, Dorset. DT11 0BQ