20/03/2023
Withern Cottage at The Village.
In October 1980, work began to demolish a brick and pantile cottage at Withern near Louth Lincolnshire. Soon a thatched roof appeared under the pantiles and a timber framed structure, with mud and std walls was found behind the bricks.
It was then that local residents contacted the 'Museum of Lincolnshire Life'.
After staff visited the site it was decided that the cottage should be preserved.The framework was sound and the building style typical of this part of the county.Many hundreds of Mud and Stud cottages once existed in Lincolnshire, but many have since been demolished or subsequently altered.
The cottage dates to the 1770's but belongs to a building tradition which goes back to the Middle Ages and its layout is typical of the 17th Century.
As preservation of the cottage in situ was not possible it was decided to move it to the then 'Lincolnshire County Councils' Church Farm Museum in Skegness (Now The Village Museum)
Discussions were started with Mr John Severn, an architect that specialised in timber-framed buildings and the county architect's department. Professor Maurice Bailey and other experts in this field were also consulted with regards to this project.
The Community Action Project, based in Skegness were approached to take on the dismantling and re-erection of the building.The idea was met with enthusiasm and soon, eight young people and two supervisors were on site to begin the project in earnest.
In the meantime detailed drawings and a photographic survey had been completed. This was an extremely important part of the proceedings because all doors, windows, timbers, roof supports and so forth, had to be numbered and recorded to ensure an accurate reconstruction.
A systematic dismantling began with the straw from the roof and even the mud from the walls being carefully bagged up for re-use. The chimney was removed brick by brick, together with the internal features; doors, cupboards, fireplaces and floors.
The cottage had been 'modernised' during Victorian times with the addition of two cast iron fireplaces. When one of these was removed, the remains of a circular bread oven were revealed. As it was intended to return the cottage as closely as possible to it's original condition; this feature was carefully measured and the other remains of the first fireplace, recorded. The fireplace has been rebuilt based on this information, together with evidence from similar buildings in the area.
Eventually, everything had been removed, leaving only the main frame of the cottage still standing., ready to face the winter. The following Spring, the cottage skeleton was dismantled and brought here to Church Farm Museum (The Village). The arduous task of putting all the timbers back in their correct places now started, following which, work could begin on re-cladding the walls.
This was the first time a project of this nature had been attempted by the Museum staff and there were many lessons to be learned.
The daub was analysed and found to contain simply chopped straw but to apply it, and in what consistency, could only be discovered by the time honoured method of trial and error.
It was found that the mud was best applied in layers of about 5cm, each layer being allowed to dry before the next coat was applied. as the finished walls are approximately 25cm thick, a considerable amount of time was needed to complete each wall, especially when all the mud had to be mixed by hand.
Another winter had approached before the walls could be completed, so during these months, the cottage was watched with interest to see if the mud would collapse. Thankfully, despite some superficial frost damage caused by severe weather, the wall survived remarkably well and work recommenced in the Spring of 1982.
The cottage was finally opened to the public in August 1982.
The project had raised the profile of Mud and Stud buildings and created an interest in the recording and preservation of other such buildings in Lincolnshire.
