Glastonbury 2

!Stop Press!
31st March 2008

This house is no more... it is an ex house... it has shuffled....

Seriously though, it has been dismantled, as it was too far gone to be repaired. (see below)

A new house is being built on the same spot, based on Mound 74, from the Glastonbury Lake Village. Stay tuned for photos of the replacment.

This a a drawing of the excavation of Mound 74 at the Glastonbury Lake Village. The planked floor was found under the first clay layer. The building had five layers of floor during it's life span, each with at least one raised fireplace.

The new house is marked out, and the door posts in place. It will be a little larger than the old house, at about 5.8 metres(19ft 4in) in diameter

The wall posts are quite thin, and only 25cms (10ins) apart.

The wattle has to be very flexible at this scale, so one year-old willow rods are used to weave the walls.

Wattling complete. The top edge is finished off as you would a basket, to make a strong rim.

Primary rafters in place. These are lashed at the peak, and onto the wall.

All the rafters in place. Note the support ring up in the top of the roof.

The purlins are horizontal rods that the thatch is lashed to.
Continuing the use of the willow, they are bundled together
and twisted along the length to increase the strength.

Four layers of purlins well under way. The bottom two are close together to help the base coat of the thatch take shape.

First layers of thatch in place. Each layer overlaps the layer below. This helps the rain run down the outer surface.