Archaeology and respite

We've had a very nice weekend of catching up with sleep and life after a busy week. We're back at Girton this evening and hoping we'll be finished ramming on Tuesday. Camilla, George and Grandfather came by for tea and a tour.

This evening we've picked out some of the artifacts from our archaeological dig, giving them a good wash and deciding on an arrangement for embedding them into the wall. Got them all laid out ready.

We had to have an archaeological survey completed as part of our planning permission. It never made any sense to me that we had to pay for the pleasure, but that's the way it works. We challenged this condition as the development across the road had not had it imposed upon them but we were told that this was a cock up ... grrr. It was £1500 for the standard survey. We really didn't think we'd find a thing but we got a call to say there was a find! How exciting! Nick went down to meet Nick and Nick the archaeologists and all the Nicks had a fun time uncovering some cobbled yards and various bits of pottery, bone, ditches and post holes. No gold or jewelry unfortunately, and an extra 2 days on site to add to our bill but hey ... it's good to have some history. In amongst the cobbled yards were lots bits of quern stones (for grinding corn) made from german lava stone which would have been sent over on ships to East Anglia as ballast - wool would go on the return journey. There's a full report - if you're interested in a read let me know and i'll send it to you.

My uncle, George (see above), is an archaeologist. We thought we could take advantage of the trenches and the information supplied by the archaeology team and have a bit of fun looking for more treasures. George kindly agreed to arrange some structure for the day and a recording system - we found loads more stuff (still no gold) and had a great day. Highlights of the day: Jos and Charlotte found flint, Oscars birthday cake, Clare dissects a vole, pottery George thinks is probably roman (nearby Huntingdon rd is an old roman road). There's an online album (also in links section) - including the digger disaster of the following day.

Rammed earth wall - day 7

Had a great day today. Shuttering ready to receive and all systems go so we've had our best day yet for height, achieving 1.2 metres (ish).

My crew mate of three years, Chris, is on holiday this week so very kindly put in a day's work for us.

Chris and Nick. 

It was Stelios' last day today. If you're reading this Stelios, you were missed at the dinner table tonight! He's been a top worker and very good company all week. Thanks, Stelios.

Lunch time picture. Final layer of shuttering put up last thing. 1.5 metre's left to ram. Predicted finish day = Tuesday.

Ahhh! 

The ramming rod is a modified scabbler. Usually used to key cement surfaces - so I'm told. 

Team extreme. 

Rammed earth wall - days 5&6

Nick managed to dislocate his finger at football!! What terrible timing. Luckily he gave it a pull and it went back into place almost straight away so it's a bit swollen, bruised and sore but he's able to move it about ok. He's fashioned a tube like splint and has managed to carry on shoveling and helping on site. No ramming or heavy lifting for the moment.

Yesterday went well. With Nick on light duties I was in the mix a bit more and got to man the rammer for a bit. It's not at all easy and takes quite a lot of muscle to maneuver it around although there's definitely a technique to it. We had a couple of breaks during the day to build up the shuttering.

Today I had to go into the office so missed out on the action. More breaks to sort shuttering and extend the lift and then re-gig the lift. We're finding these breaks eating into the ramming time so we haven't quite managed a metre on either day. Progress has felt a little slow but we are now over half way.

View from the top of the lift. You can see the two colours of earth we have behind the mixer.

Proof I've done my bit!

Nick on the mix. The earth has the right moisture content when you can squash it into a tennis ball sized blob and then when you drop it from hip height onto a hard surface it should break into several large pieces. Too dry disintegrates totally, too wet splats or doesn't break. 

Stelios sending up earth. The shuttering ends you can see here are 500mm short of the final height. This section now has sides and the earth lift has been extended up to the next level of scaffolding. 

Rammed earth wall - day 4

Nick, Stelios and I are staying at the hostel of mum and dad this week - thank you mum and dad. Stelios has joined Nick this evening for football.

This morning an 8am start, but only to supervise the scaffolding and lift set up. It all looks really impressive now. So ... a bit of hanging about and then work on the wall recommenced after lunch. Everything working really well.

Accidentally took B&W pics here! We have 2 different heaps of earth. 1 very yellowy from a new estate being built in north Cambridge (Orchard Park) and another quite brown earth from a new development just south of Cambridge (Trumpington) - the two are blended in the mixer and then water sprayed in until the moisture is just right. The mix is emptied into buckets and off it goes to the wall ...

Here's scaffolding and the bucket lift being fitted.

 Stelios ramming. We're must be a bit over 2 metres now - just 3 more to go. Final pic is looking down on the rammed earth:

Project Cam

Nick found a great project camera that we've put in the pear tree next to the play room.

Lovely picture of the slab shuttering ... check out Nick in the background putting up Project Cam.

And here's the view. It's programmed to take pictures between 8am and 5pm (when the builders have to stop work as a condition of our planning). We started out with it taking 1 shot every 3 hours but have upped this to every hour.

At some point we'll get them all loaded up to a flicker account, or set up a slide show or something. Will post the link when we do! 

From earth closet to earth wall ...

Title suggestion from Dora, my Great Aunt, who very kindly wrote us a bit about the history of the land and Reynolds Close. Here is her message, typed through the fug of a heavy cold. Thank you, Dora!

Dear Kate and Nick,

You asked about how Reynolds Close came to be, at any rate my recollections unfettered by reference to sources. But I am copying to Fabian for his comments additions, corrections etc. as he has a better memory than me.

1919 Dad back from german prison, got a post with Agricultural Research Council at their Cambridge center to improve, by his trainimng in genetics, the various breeds of cabbage (later changed to chickens). Married Mother in January and started looking for a house, preferably outside Cambridge and near the ARC farm. So Girton obviuos choice. Mr Hall, a local farmer offered a shack in strip where the entrance now is to Gretton Court. Parents weren't too struck with it, corrugated iron roof, one storey, three or four small rooms only. They looked over the hedge, saw a large field with view of Madingly ridge, a high boundary (?enclosure) hedge and four stately elms. Decided to buy and build.

Got gov't subsidy for small dwellings, Therefore two large army huts. First house in 50 years to be built in Girton. Very hot summer and Mother pregnant with Joanna kept seeking shade under elm trees, while Dad layed out the garden with Irvine King's help. Wedding present, possibly from one of the dons in the big houses at Girton Corner, of two wheelbarrowfuls of plants immensely helpful. Heavy clay as you know. All very different from Surrey, ?Hampshire( Bedales), and Germany, where Dad organised prison garden.

House extended in 1950s with annexe from  Mother's money. She had also bought cowfield inlate 1920's, so they had cows, goats, ducks and hens, two orchards. Mother was in charge of the dairy side. 

House called Reynolds Close, as tribute to Grandfather Edward Reynolds Pease. Wedgwood family suggestion of "the Pod" turned down..

Mr Hall put his stockman, Walter Mathews, wife Elizabeth, and two sons , Cyril and ?John, in the cottage rejected by parents. In 1950/60's Hall wanted to evict them, so Dad bought the strip to safeguard them, and ccreated a thid  orchard, once he had cleared out the very decrepit but yummily delicious greengage trees. Very soon the Matthews parents were given a council bungalow in the new St. Vincent Close, and and Dad was presented (?by Mother ) with a greenhouse, where he could grow tomatoes.

Dad died in 1966, and I think what with death duties, and wanting to run a smaller show, Mother and Bas ? and Joanna decidedto sell the Matthews' strip plus a chunk of Dad's garden and  the land between it and the stream to the founders of Gretton Court.
______________________________


Excerpts from subsequent messages between Dora and Fabian (her brother, my Great Uncle):


Fabian: Dora has given a far fuller account than I could have done and I have nothing to add. One minor cavil which is that the Playroom was not an army hut but was put together later (dunno when) and is of inferior quality than was the original army hut which had been a 'sick quarters' as Dad claimed that the medics always got the best huts.


Dora: I think the playroom was a hut of that period, but I agree the "Army Hut" was far superior. My understanding was that it had been the VD clinic which is how Dad got it cheap. The original Reynolds Close had an earth closet in the Army Hut which Dad (very ecologically minded) always used and Fabian and I were supposed to use during the day. The WC was upstairs and for Mother's use.

Rammed earth wall - day 3

Monday: Picked up Neil, met Michael on site 8ish so a bright early start. Stelios arrived late morning to complete the team and it was a good day's ramming with a break for the second level of shuttering to go up.

From left to right: Neil, Nick, Stelios and Michael. Hammering down one of the ribs. Michael brought all the kit for the shuttering pre-assembled - it's brilliantly built, all to within a millimeter and cleverly designed. There's a middle section that we should be able to remove to allow the floors to be finished right up to the wall - but leaving the rest of the wall covered whilst the house is fitted out preventing damage.

We built around a metre of height today, at which rate we think we'll finish in 5 or 6 days if no weather delays. Michael usually rams by hand and has worked out that the pneumatic ramming rod has made the ramming part of the process about 5 times faster.

Rammed earth wall - day 2

Unfortunately I had to work. boo. Nick has recruited a friend, Neil, as a helper so there were 3 of them on site yesterday and it sounds like it went really well. The morning was spent getting systems up and running and the earth and water mix right. Wall building began in the afternoon and Nick says they are up to about 600mm now. We're going over later (apple crushing weekend) so i'll get to have a look.

Next week Michael is bringing a student of his who is keen for some earth wall experience along - Stelios. I'll get a picture of the full team and progress up Monday or Tuesday.

A name!

Pease House is now official. We have paid our monies and the council are registering us as a new property. No number for now, just the name. We'll have to see how much of a problem that is for the post.

Pease is the name of my great grandparents who bought the cow's field at number 1 High Street in the early 1920s. They built the original part of the main house at number 1.  Dora (my great aunt, their daughter) has kindly offered to send me some history/memories of how it all came about - I will post when it arrives.

Rammed earth wall - day 1

We couldn't start on the wall until the slab had set and our foam glass plinth was in place. The foam glass is a thermal break - without it our wall would conduct chilly winter temperatures up from the slab and into the house. It was fitted yesterday, so today has been our first working on the wall. It's great to get started ... the anticipation has been building and nerves have been on edge!

The foam glass needed a re-gig this morning - 50mm out, but not too hard to sort out fortunately. Michael was with us by mid morning with another load of wood and shuttering to unload and Nick and he have been busy getting the site set up.

We have decided we're going to build the wall without any cement. Michael usually 'stabilises' his rammed earth building by adding 5% cement but the walls at the CAT Centre and also the rammed chalk walls at Pines Calyx Centre in Kent don't have any in. We have made quite a few test blocks and prefer the look of the earth without the cement. It should also have better hygroscopic qualities without - be better for humidity control. Since the wall is not structural (we've designed the house around it) and won't be exposed to the elements we reckon we should be safe to ram with just good old earth. Here's hoping anyway!

It was mid afternoon by the time the first lot of shuttering was set up so it was decided to start the earth mixing bright and early tomorrow ...

Rammed Earth Wall

We saw our first rammed earth wall at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales and decided there and then that we wanted one!

As well as looking amazing they have great properties - helping to regulate temperature and humidity.

It's the only bit of the house we're building ourselves. It's a fairly straightforwards process and certainly not one that a builder would know anything about so we've done all the homework and prep ourselves with guidance from our Rammed Earth Wall project manager Michael Thompson.

There's not many experts on rammed earth around so it was great when we found Michael a year or so ago. He's built a very smart looking shed in his garden from rammed earth, he runs earth building courses and has been abroad working on various projects. A carpenter by trade he's got a great can-do attitude and has been really positive about getting our wall built.

Our wall is planned as a central feature of the house. It's 2.7m wide, 0.5m deep and 5.2m tall ... so pretty big! Michael has made the shuttering (formers) and dropped some of it at Girton on Saturday. The rest will arrive Wednesday when work begins in ernest.

Nick has also been working hard getting things ready. Through July and August he sourced earth, built a seiving machine and has now sieved something like 20 tonnes of earth!! We have a collection of sample blocks dotted around at Girton and Stanley Road and are really pleased with the soil mix and colour - the latest test block looks gorgeous :-)

Engineering of the highest order ...

Only 15 tonnes to go!

The first sample block in the making:

You can check out the machine in action here. Complete with grasshopper embelishment in honour of the Corpus Christi clock:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdXSXWu3p6k

Week 5 - The Slab

It's been a good weekend. As well as a double birthday do for Rachel and Iris on Saturday afternoon and evening (yummy roast lamb) the slab has been poured.

Nick was up early on Saturday and over to Girton to see it happen. Ian, our main contractor, was on site and guys from DJE construction whom have been building our foundations. The site has been cleared and top soil removed, then the 10m piles put in place. Next a layer of clay board (wrapped so it stays dry) was laid on the levelled ground covering the whole footprint. The clay board is pallets/blocks of cardboard structure - very light, about 6/7 inches deep and structurally strong as long as it's dry. A layer of this forms a base for the concrete slab to be poured onto. Pipes are run from each pallet of clayboard through the slab. When the slab is set water will be poured into each pipe causing the pallet to break down and decompose leaving a gap under the slab. Clay is notorious for expanding and contracting - with this gap it has plenty of room to move without effecting our slab. Very cunning!

Laying the clayboard:

Pouring the slab. This crazy contraption is called an elephant arm - the lorry full of cement is out on the road.

Nick's favorite shot of the day!

The finished product - each blue pipe goes to one of the clayboard blocks.

Welcome to friends and family :-)

We started our build a few weeks back ... our foundation slab is being poured today so we are well and truely under way!

Nick's keeping a blog for our architects to keep tabs on what's going on - he is project managing the build but our architects are still very much involved, administering the contract. 

http://construct1highstreet.blogspot.com/

www.acarchitects.com

The purpose of this second blog is to fill in some of the back story and provide a bit more information about how we get on during the build. I know Nick is going to be a much more consistent blogger than me - I am a reticent writer and slow composer of messages (I have started 2 previous and didn't finish to post!) but I will try to keep it up ...