COTTAGE COMPLETED IN EIGHT WEEKS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 44, 16 November 1920, Page 8

COTTAGE COMPLETED IN EIGHT WEEKS

— ¥ WOMAN'S EARTH-BUTLT ROUSES. A postwoman and ft woman worker in an aircraft factory nro assisting two men and an architect to build cottages at Midhurst (says tho "Daily Mail"). Mrs. Oliver Strachey, who was nn Independent Parliamentary candidate at tlm last (tenetlal election, is tho "contractor," and she intends netting up in business as a builder on a large scale next spring. Her houses are to oe built mostly of pise clay walls. One which she intends to. occupy horsalf at Midhuret. has just been, completed in a littlo less than eight weeks, and a pecond one will bo put up almost immediately. Tho cottage with its thatched roof and live rooms, has ■been built entirely of ordinary earth rammed down by a henvy mallet between wooden partitions 18 inches apart. Tho windows were blocked out, and the only skilled labour employed was that of the carpenters and thatchere, The two women and two men were taught their task by on ex-oilicer of tho Ex-Scrvic« Building Company. ■ Agricultural loam is the best for suMi houses. When rammed between the wooden boards it forms a hard monolithic wall, wlrioh can'be distempered, or' treated in various ways.