CHEAP BUILDINGS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 March 1920, Page 9

CHEAP BUILDINGS.

A RETURN TO OLD METHODS. IN THE WEST OF ENGLAND. In parts of the west country may be found examples of a purely local form of building known as "cob." Hayes Barton, the birthplace of Sir Walter Raleigh, may be cited as one example of the manner in which the form of construction stands the test of time and weather, for it has cob walls and thatched rt>tff and is very picturesque. Briefly described, cob walls may be said to consist r 5 a mixture of clay and shale, straw and water, the proportions varying according to the nature of the soil. In building them a man stands on the low base wall, which must be of stone or brick in order to make a firm and dry foundation, and the material is handed up to 1 him on a special tool, something like an ordinary garden fork. He then lays and treads it into position; the tread- | ing is important to ensure homogeneity, j and the laying must be done in a certain manner to obtain what the builder knows ; as "bond"; in other words, tying together. A wall so ftiade can bo completed in an incredibly short time and possesses peculiar strength and dryness. A aubtantial width of not less than 18 inches is important, and this gives a warmth in winter and is cool in summer. The material can nearly always be dug on the site, thus saving an immense amount of cartage, and this is the heaviest thing in a building. It should not be thought that this method is a lost art dug up from the ' dim and distant ages of the past, for during the last few years eminent architects have used one or othei; of the systems in the correct locality for a modern building. Mr.' Girason used eob in a house at Budleigh Salterton, Devonshire. Mr. Lntyens used chalk in a dwelling-house in Hampshire, and MrHerbert Haker used "pise de terre" in a little w\ayside station (building at Simondium, South Africa. (Vide Spectator). If three such eminent men thought fit to employ the craft which Was the standby of their forefathers, it cannot be necessary to import "frame houses" from the other side. This point of view seems logical. It was a solution in the days when the Atlantic seemed omnipotent and it cannot be said that the judgment is biased, for we in Britain have all to gain and those on the other side nothing to lose, and, what is also important, wo can bring our modern knowledge to bear upon something which the test of time lias proved tj be of use and make it more valuable than it was in former dtys,