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Home & History

@layersofhome

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Charlie Booth ~ Home&History ~ Researcher & Archivist
~ House & local histories 📜
~ Archivist @robertwelchuk 🍴
~ Renovating an old cottage 🏚️

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a year ago

Why the hexafoil? An archivist’s instinct is to delve into documents, but the first part of a house’s story is written in its bones. By uncovering the brick, stone, wood & glass which it was built from we learn a little more about it each day, knowledge which will eventually help us to reinstate its identity.

Nearly a decade ago I hung two wooden stars either side of our staircase, before we stripped the plaster & exposed the beam.

Shortly after we had plastered the wall, in 2018 I was standing on the stairs as the Sun shone through the skylight & I caught sight of a very faint daisy wheel to the right of the white star. When I looked more closely, there was a second on the left, barely visible. I couldn’t believe it!

This well-known shape is one of those thought to be an #apotropaic or ritual protection mark. It could have been inscribed during the cottage’s construction, maybe originally exposed and then covered over, but the beam also has signs which indicate that it may have been reused from elsewhere so it is possible that the marks relate to a different place entirely - though they feel meant for this place.

There are various theories as to why these markings were made, one of which is they were thought to ward off evil from coming in through the drafty & dark parts of a house - commonly windows, stairways & hearths. They feel perfectly placed.

Last year I saw a very obvious burn mark next to the left-hand daisy wheel, nearly overlapping it. Another form of recognised marking, made by holding a lit taper close to the wood & letting it leave teardrop shaped scorch marks as the flame licks upwards - you can feel the indent where the wood has been scorched away by the base of the flame. How had I never noticed it before?

If these marks were meant for this place, then my stars have aligned in a strange way. Whatever they did once mean, their protective presence to me is knowing that I am part of a much longer & more intricately layered story than I’ll probably ever know.

#hexafoil #daisywheel #taper #burnmark #househistory #oldbeams #reusedbeams #oldcottage #malthouse #renovationproject #renovation by @layersofhome

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a year ago

Five years on from the first day of lockdown! I’ve been reflecting on how things have changed since that day, & I think it is time to take the step to launch my little research business.

More to come soon…

#homeandhistory #househistory #archivist #researcher #lockdown by @layersofhome

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2 years ago

Tiny sand dollars on Bournemouth beach by @layersofhome

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6 days ago

The joy of finally being able to unpack my books after three years+ ♥️ like meeting old friends & reminiscing. This @vinterior purchase was a great find, & the perfect place to house my local history library 📚 by @layersofhome

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7 days ago

Home from a trial run at kennels over the weekend, sharing so big could show little the ropes, & now happily snoring cheek to cheek on their dofa - winning 🙌🏻 by @layersofhome

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12 days ago

1️⃣ today ♥️ 🥳🎈still adorable, still dotty & particularly fond of lying on top of her big brother 🐾 by @layersofhome

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17 days ago

Having shared the poor photocopy of the newspaper clipping of Robert Welch at the Hans Coper Exhibition in his Chipping Campden Studio Shop Gallery in 1974, I went back to the file - I haven’t looked at it since I catalogued it in 2013. Turns out we have a wealth of wonderful information, including these gorgeous photographs of the show taken by Robert, order books & much correspondence as well. It seems that the start was delayed from August to September due to Coper having had an accident. Sadly the pot Robert bought - number 19 - was sold many years ago, but how wonderful that this has all survived! We even have the cover artwork on mount board for the catalogue, but I am yet to see a copy…

#HansCoper #LucieRie #StudioPotter #Potter #Craft by @layersofhome

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21 days ago

Archive details 📜 by @layersofhome

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21 days ago

Everyone needs a side quest right? 😂

These three negatives were called up in a recent archive search @gloucestershireheritagehub, unusual in itself as they wouldn’t normally be able to be requested.

As they had been, the archivist put them on a light box for me to view. I took photos to invert later, to see if I could find out where they were.

Having seen them, & knowing roughly where I thought they were pictures of - Westmancote - I got onto Google street view.

I found the first one in the garden of another property, Greenhayes. Amazing that the street view camera captured it as it is set quite a way back. In all other images it is obscured by trees.

This ornate window is intriguing, seems out of place. It is behind foliage in the old image. Wonder what it was, dovecote perhaps? Possibly a summer house or granny flat now?

The second is a working stone barn with huge central doors, a corrugated metal roof & lovely stone buttresses, & you can see a metal Dutch barn behind it, further up the lane

The barn has since been converted, into Willow Barn, but the Dutch barn still exists behind.

One buttress still visible behind the foliage on street view…

The last is what lead me to work the other two out. By finding this & tracing my way up & down Farm Lane I identified all three.

This is Manor Farmhouse in Westmancote, a house I was researching for friends until they decided to sell prior to renovating. I’m not sure this plan of how it changed is strictly accurate, I never actually visited as they moved before I could, but it is based on the research I had completed at the time. Maybe one to revisit eventually.

Again the working buildings helped me place it, the unusual curved windows in particular. I couldn’t identify it from the old black & white image, although I knew it was familiar.

Close up on the farm buildings (& chickens!) then…

…& now 💚 by @layersofhome

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22 days ago

Welcoming windows by @layersofhome

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23 days ago

I love them, both Dogs approve, child wanted to sleep on one… Husband still not sure #sofagate by @layersofhome

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a month ago