AN ABC OF HOUSING TERMS

Ancient Messuage
(Messuage; a house plus ground around it) Usually commonly used to describe houses built before living memory.

Capital Messuage
Common in manor rolls and legal documents for large house

Curtilage
Yard and outbuildings of a house

Tenement
Rented dwelling or land

The terms above are met with frequently in old deeds

Other Terms

Mullion
A vertical division separating the lights of a window. Very noticeable in Elizabethan buildings

Palladian
Style of architecture inspired by Andreo Palladio (15l8 - 1580).One of the influences on what we call 'Georgian' architecture and almost synonymous with 'classical

Pargetting
Ornamental plasterwork, especially on timber-framed houses. Suffolk particularly rich in this.

Plinth
Square projecting base of a column. Alcester church's 18th century examples (1720s) stand out.

Quoin
External corner stones of a building

Solar
A quiet room in an upper storey, often on sunniest side of house.

String Course
A projecting ornamental band running round the face of a building.

Tracery
Ornamental stonework in upper part of Gothic windows. Most of the mediaeval churches in our area have examples.

Tympanum
Space between a lintel and the arch above. A feature particularly of Norman architecture.

An ABC of Building Materials

Ashlar
Square stones applied as facing; often cover irregularly cut ones.

Bricks
Brickmaking skills brought to Britain by the Romans but ceased with them. First English bricks about A.D.1200 and flourished at first in eastern counties influenced by the Low Countries. Bricks only occasionally used in our area in 17th century but they were not mass produced until end of 18th.

Cement
Comes from heating chalk or limestone. 'Portland Cement' so named from its resemblance to Portland Stone and was patented in early 19th century.

Cob
Mixture of clay and straw once used for walls of cottages. Usually whitewashed to protect from the weather. Various cottage examples in our area, normally of one storey.

Glass
A mixture of pure silica and sand, lime and soda. Earliest quality glass was brought into Britain from France and Germany. By the 13th century many churches had glass windows but by the 15th century only the very wealthy had them in domestic buildings. There were many substitutes (e.g. horn and lattice work of stone and wood). Sash windows came in at the start of the 18th century but the glass was still blown. Plate glass appeared in England in 1773 but the cheaper sheet glasses not available until 1838 In 1959 came the invention of floating the glass across a 'bath' of liquid tin.

Portland Stone
This is limestone found in S.W. England which turns white when exposed to the air. Improved cutting tools in the 17th century made it available over a wider area.

Slate
Mainly mined in Cornwall, Wales, Cumberland and parts of Scotland. It varies in colour from Bluish-grey to green, purple-grey. The advent of canals and railways allowed it to be used in non slate areas, particularly in the growing industrial cities.

Stucco
A rendering of lime, gypsum or cement applied to an outer wall surface for weather protection. Pebble-dash, now out of fashion, is a form of stucco.

Winter 1990 Index