Archaeology

I've returned to ripping the house to shreds, and I'm pleased to report, that's phase one complete. The next stage is to take the floors out - but that fills me with trepidation so I'll sit on it for a couple of weeks.

Under the layers of paper and plasterboard was this linoleum wall covering. How proud they must have been when this was first fitted. And how practical. As far as I can tell this was contrasted with shiny green walls. Mmmm. It was covered with wallpaper laid over newspapers - spanning 1929 - 1937, so the linoleum went up pre-1929. In fact given how hard wearing lino is it's probably safe to say it's pre World War 1 - which is bringing it very close to when the house was probably built.



Reading the newspapers wasn't too easy - all torn and flakey as they were. But from 1929 there was a piece declaring that someone had found a tortoise that was a pet of Captain Cooks and in 1937 I read an opinion piece complaining about the mechanisation of the British Army - because horses and men are better than machines and always will be.

Upstairs the A frame of the roof had been covered with tongue and groove. It's unfortunate that we had to take this off - but we had to cos some of the roof timbers need replacing and we needed to have a clear view of it all. But in one of the two original rooms the tongue and groove overlaid wallpaper that had been pasted straight on to the sarking board. It must have been cold in winter - compensated for, no doubt, by the fact that it was common-place to have families of 10 or more in these 4 roomed houses. And at certain times of the year animals shared the house (a practice still common today at lambing time).