Have you looked at glass, and other things?

Three years ago, I started to write this column for Neighbourhood News.  I expected to write six articles, enough for one year.  Three years later, this (eighteenth) article is about a selection of little things that didn’t fit into an individual article.  In some cases, there are more questions than answers!

 

We’ll start with glass and windows.  Every house has windows.  Most businesses do, although some of the warehouses on our industrial estates lack natural light.  Around St Leonard’s there are windows of various shapes. Some are square and some rectangular, others are circular and there are other curved outlines.  Within those shapes, the panes vary as well.  Apart from picture windows with no panes, most windows have their panes divided into rectangles.  But the fancier shapes demand fancier patterns for the panes, and in several of our local streets, there are ornate fanlights, divided by ironwork.  So, look out for the variety of shapes that can be seen around us.

We have a few local buildings with coloured glass.  The companies who supply glazed doors these days offer a range of standard coloured glass panels.  In earlier generations there was more variety.  During the late 19th century and first half of the 20th century, many houses were built with coloured glass above or around the front door, and there are plenty of examples around the neighbourhood.  Houses of that era sometimes have a fixed window with tinted glass, often with a rough surface making it translucent. 

Businesses – and a few homes – have patterns etched on the glass to make a decorative feature.  Look at the windows next time you walk through the village to see the variety of decorations and labels there are.

Most of the stained glass in St Leonard’s church dates from the time of its construction in the 1870s. 

Earlier in the series, I wrote about chimneys in the neighbourhood.  There is an ornate chimney pot on Trews Wear Court which I hadn’t noticed when I wrote earlier.  There are fireplaces in two of the first floor reception rooms of County Hall, but I wonder whether they have ever been used.  Does anyone know?  On the other hand, as I noted earlier, Bellair does not have any chimneys, because they were in the wings of the house which have been demolished.  (Incidentally, I have met people who did not realise that the grounds of County Hall were open to the public – do use this pleasant open space on our doorstep!)  There are a few local houses where the brickwork of the top of the chimney is turned through 45 degrees relative to the house walls; does this have any significance other than an architect’s whimsy?

After I wrote about balconies someone asked me whether there was a male counterpart for a Juliet Balcony; perhaps Romeo has a patio?  Sadly, there is no such item, but there is a town of Romeo in the United States, and there are suppliers of builders’ material in the town.  So, if anyone is travelling in that area, perhaps they could buy a ladder from the store, to help Juliet on her balcony?

I grew up in a country village, and many of the older timber-framed cottages had tie bars across them with the characteristic iron plates showing on the wall.  They are somewhat scarcer in cities, but there are two tie bar plates to be found in Lansdowne Terrace.  Two houses at the east end of Magdalen Road also have tie bars; for one, the plates are painted to match the wall.  There are others in various places.  But for a really good selection of tie-bar plates, look at the house in Southernhay East, visible from the northern entrance to the offices with a dozen plates.

I have had five questions about stone.  (1) Does anyone know what kind of stone was used for the house at Mount Radford?  The pub sign shows a stone-faced building, but what stone was used, and where did it come from.  (2) And what happened to the stone when it was demolished?  (3) The front garden walls of the terrace in Barnfield Road appear to be made of a hard limestone; does anyone know where the stone came from?  (Is it Beer stone?  Or Bath stone?  Also the facades are stone; are these houses of stone construction?)  In Colleton Hill, the paving slabs are made of a stone which is definitely not granite.  (4) Does anyone know where the stone came from?  Finally, there are a few gardens whose front paths are lined with large flinty rocks.  I suspect that this has come from East Devon.  (5) Did someone bring a load of these rocks to Exeter to decorate gardens?

From the Neighbourhood News, Nov-Dec 2012

Have you looked at … the battlements, turrets and towers in St Leonard’s?

Battlements and fortifications in St Leonard’s – surely not!  But it is true, there are buildings with crenellations at the top of their facades, and others with towers or with turrets on the roof.  Of course, these are purely for the sake of appearance, but their presence reflects a fascination with architectural features from earlier times.  Originally crenels referred to the gaps between merlons and merlons were the uprights at the top of fortified walls where the defenders took cover and crenels were gaps through which the defenders could shoot arrows or throw stones at the attackers.  Although I have not climbed up to see, I assume that the local walls we can see do not have walkways for archers.

In the early medieval period, people were supposed to obtain a licence from the king before they could build such defences.  It is on record that the Bishop of Exeter had two licences, in 1290 and 1322.  I don’t know how many archers the bishop employed at the time!

Locally, there are fine examples of crenellated walls on a house in Claremont Grove, visible from Matford Lane; the façade of The Maynard School has decoration which is influenced by crenellations.  Exeter School also has a low stone wall with crenellations in Victoria Park Road.  Just visible from Penleonard Close, there is a garden building with battlements which is associated with a house in Victoria Park Road.  Besides the school wall, there are several garden walls with such decoration in brick or stone.  There’s a concrete wall beside the Weirfield Path which has this design.  As a change from battlements, there are several houses with balustrades closing the top of the facades.  Painting the reverse of a roof-top balustrade is one of those domestic tasks that is essential but nobody will notice that it has been done.

The travel writer and TV presenter Bill Bryson wrote about the sight of some 19th century houses: “… with every embellishment known to the Victorian mind – cupolas, towers, domes, gables, turrets and front porches you could ride a bike around.”  Several of our local houses have towers on the corners, with turrets or cupolas on top.  I wonder what the owners do with the rooms in those towers.  Are they used as living space?  Or as storage space?  Do children play hide-and-seek in them?  With so many outside walls, heating them must be challenging.  There are examples of such corner towers in Spicer Road, Barnfield Hill and Matford Road, among others.  The bays of the main block of The Lodge in Spicer Road are topped with cupolas.  One of the local modern houses has a circular tower on the street façade.  (Reference books seem to indicate that the terms dome, turret and cupola overlap.  Cupola means “little dome”, so is probably more appropriate for domestic buildings – nobody would say that St Paul’s Cathedral had a cupola!)

On the top of the towers, the turrets are generally more substantial than their medieval equivalent.  The latter were generally wooden, lighter in weight than a stone or brick structure with tiles or slates.  Our local ones have finials of various kinds.  (Older residents will remember that flags were flown from the flagpole of the tower on Cornish’s store, at the corner of North Street and Fore Street.  There is a mechanism in the building which allows the flagpole to be lowered so it can be repainted.)  Exeter School’s main block has a four storey tower, and there is a square tower on the separate building beside Victoria Park Road.  That tall tower is remarkable for the chimney stacks on the east and west walls, and for the fine brickwork of the facades.  The Mormon Church in Wonford Road has a slender spire. 

Other buildings have turrets on the roof ridges.  Some of these are there to provide ventilation to the roof voids, as is the case in St Leonard’s Church and (just outside the neighbourhood) the Barnfield Theatre.  The builders of these chose to make a feature out of these vent covers.  The Maynard School has another example, visible through the surrounding trees.  The pavilion overlooking Exeter School’s playing field has a small ornamental turret.  In the adjacent grounds of Matford Lodge there is a coach house with a conical roof, topped with a large turret.  Round the corner, the modern building of Mardon House is one of several buildings which have large turrets covering clerestory windows which give natural light to the interior. St Leonard’s Church Hall has a turret with a small bell in it, as does the chapel at Wynards.  Maybe you want a turret for your roof?  There are online suppliers of small roof turrets if you want to add one to your home. 

An article about towers can’t overlook the spire of St Leonard’s Church, floodlit each night and a landmark for those travelling through the neighbourhood.

(The quotation from Bill Bryson comes from “The Lost Continent”) 

(July-August 2012)

Have you ever looked at the chimneys in St Leonard’s?

Have you ever looked at …

… the chimneys in St Leonard’s?

Unless you are a builder, or have needed repairs to a chimney, you probably haven’t given much thought to the features of chimneys. How about a walk to look at some of the variety of chimneys in our neighbourhood?

What is a chimney anyway? According to the dictionary, “A chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere.” In many modern houses, there are no chimneys, and the “hot flue gases” are vented through the walls. But chimneys were essential parts of most houses until quite recently.

A good place to start looking is at the end of Magdalen Road. Look across the valley to the Hotel Barcelona, the former Eye Infirmary, built early in the 20th century. It has splendid brick chimneys, with decorations and embellishments. You can see them in detail from close to, but these are chimneys that are designed to be a feature seen from afar. Even from here, you can see the chimney pots, the capping around the pots, and the brickwork which is there to strengthen and decorate the chimney stacks. Each pot corresponds to one fireplace in the building, and the layout of the rooms was – to some extent – dictated by the location of chimneys, fireplaces and boilers. Chimneys work best if they are vertical, or not far from vertical. However, the architect of any building with chimneys has to reach a compromise between the needs of the inhabitants for warmth, cooking and hot water, and the construction demands of chimneys. Until comparatively recently, fireplaces were an important source of heat, but each one needs a well-designed chimney.

Chimneys are expensive to build, for many reasons, because they are subject to variations in temperature and they need to be properly insulated from the rest of the building. (Look at a thatched house in the country; nearly always, the chimney is at the end of the house, so that the hot gases are in minimal contact with the thatch.) There are very specific building regulations concerned with chimneys. They need to extend above the roof, and in most houses, they extend from on or near the roof line to be the tallest part of the building. That ensures the dispersal of the waste gases, but means that the chimney stack has to be strong. It also means that they need to be well protected where they meet the roof, to prevent rain and snow penetrating through the join. Building houses with Lego doesn’t inform you about the technicalities of their chimneys, does it!

The almshouses in Magdalen Road have a magnificent set of chimney stacks, topped with matching chimney pots. The architect of these was clearly trying to make a lasting statement! With this height, they probably give a good draught to the fireplaces below; I wonder whether some of the residents found the draught too great as it would lead to increased consumption of wood and coal.

Walk up Magdalen Road, and into the older streets, and you will see a wide range of shapes and designs for chimneys. Over and over again, the builders and architects have been determined to mark the highest point of buildings with an attractive feature. There is a great deal of fancy brickwork to be seen, with chimney stacks that are rectangular, hexagonal and octagonal. Varied colours of bricks can be seen, and stacks are stepped outwards to give strength to the structure and protection to the pointing and roof below.

Then there are the chimney pots and the caps that protect them (more or less) from the elements. Pots are cheap ways to make the flues a little higher. Looking at them, you will see that pots are disposable; over the years, the pots in what were once matched sets have gradually been replaced, and the new ones don’t match. So there is a tremendous variety. Spot the pots with crown-like tops, those with one ring around them, or two rings, or three rings, and those with two colours of clay. Denmark Road boasts one pot with a star design; if you walk just beyond our area, the presbytery in Heavitree has several fine pots.

If you go to County Hall grounds, it is interesting that Belair does not have any chimneys.

The caps vary as well, from metal cowls to domes and clay lids. Once you start looking, you’re sure to find that there is plenty of provision for hot air in St Leonard’s and not just in election times. (May 2010 saw a General Election in the U.K.)

A chimney on the almshouses in Denmark Road:

The chimney below was not mentioned in the article; it is at Trews Wear.