Glebe House: Architectural Design and Conservation

24/09/2026

Home from helping alongside Eartha - The East Anglian Earth Building Group at the Clay Day.

An afternoon of practical demonstrations using wattle and daub and clay lump. It was a well attended event.

Sadly, I couldn’t join Stuart because one of our children was unwell and home from school. That means I didn’t take any photos of the clay action….

So, instead, here’s the sunset we had tonight.

Not bad eh?

21/09/2026

Clay lovers… this is a free event this Thursday in Swaffham.

A Day of Clay.

There will be demonstrations and discussion of heritage building techniques focusing on clay lump and wattle and daub.

We’ll be there too and it would be lovely to see some of you there.

Although it’s a free event, we do still ask that you reserve a free ticket via the link rather that just arrive. We need to know how many people are attending. I believe there are limited tickets left now.

Do let us know if you’ll be attending. 👍

Join us for a day of clay building discussion and demos of heritage building skills. This is a free event where we will be discussing the amazing qualities and properties of clay as a building material. We will be looking at the uses of clay within heritage structures prevalent to East Anglia and spanning hundreds of years, as well as exploring the exciting opportunities that earthen materials bring to the future of the construction sector today.

If you are interested to know more about clay and other forms of earth building, and would like to know more about your local area we recommend coming along. There will be discussions and demos of the heritage skills involved in wattle and daub and clay lump and a chance to get your hands dirty!

EARTHA is delighted to offer this free day event in conjunction with Breckland and Swaffham Council, kindly funded by Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund and also very kindly hosted by Iceni Swaffham Hub.

To find out more about EARTHA and how to become involved please visit - https://eartha.org.uk/

Tickets are available here:

https://HeritageEarthBuildingOpenDay.eventbrite.co.uk

Swaffham Community Centre - Iceni Partnership Breckland Council Swaffham Town Council What's Going On In Swaffham

19/09/2026

Quick before and after.

We visited this clay lump cottage again on Thursday. We have a second phase of work to carry out which we were discussing over coffee and pastries. How very civilised!

We sat around the dining area table and remembered how the fireplace and cupboard had looked before we started.

The previous owners had renovated areas of the cottage but they’d used inappropriate materials and added doors and windows that weren’t in keeping.

The new owners wanted to return some of the lost character and to remove inappropriate materials which could damage the structure of the building.

These photographs-

Before and After.

🔸We’ve used hot lime plaster to cover the bricks around the fireplace. Fireplaces were always plastered. This one has been rebuilt using modern bricks so not original.

🔸Removal of gypsum on the walls which was replaced with an earth plaster and a hotlime/chalk plaster.

🔸Dan has pargetted a beautiful floral design on the overmantel.

🔸George has made new doors for the cupboard using reclaimed pine from Georgian floorboards.

Other modern doors have also been replaced with reclaimed doors.

The whole area has a much softer feel now and the clients are looking forward to lighting that wonderful burner for the first time.

We may have another little project in this room. It’s in the ideas stage at the moment but I’ll keep
you posted.

09/09/2026

Here’s an interesting one…

We’ve just started a new job. The property is a 17th century (possibly 18th century) timber frame cottage.

First task is removal of cement render. The wattle and daub infill has been removed and replaced with mineral wool insulation. EML was attached to the frame and cement rendered over that. Internally it’s plasterboard and gypsum.

So far, so standard when it comes to these poor buildings but look closely at what we found under that render…. Hands up if you know what we were so interested in. 🙋‍♀️

05/09/2026

This is Jack. We’ve known him for a long time and have tried to secure his services for many years.

We’re very pleased to say that we are now able to use his skills on our framing and specialist carpentry projects. He has enormous talent and is quite simply one of the best carpenter/joiners we’ve ever met.

He is working on new plinths blocks for this C17 doorframe. The originals had suffered rot and beetle damage to the bottoms of the jambs. He started by cutting away the damaged pieces.

You can see that the originals had some carved detail but they’re very worn. Jack has had to interrupt what he could and use that as a starting point for his carving on the new pieces.

And… photos 9 & 10 show the finished plinth blocks which will be spliced into the original frame. Aren’t they absolutely beautiful? This is why we love Jack.

I’ll make sure to post photos of the finished frame.

04/09/2026

No premix bags here.

We hot mix all of our plasters, renders and mortars.

We tailor our mixes to suit the age, construction and location of the buildings we’re working on.

We cover all of East Anglia and all aspects of heritage building repair and conservation.

Please do get in contact with any questions or to arrange a site visit where we can assess and works you may be considering, help with listed building applications and arrange schedules of work.

[email protected]

03/09/2026

A few pics of today’s work.

The laths have been repaired/replaced where necessary and the first earth/lime and straw coat has been applied and gone off.

The second coat is a sand/lime hot-mix which is being applied today.

A third coat (top coat) of hot mixed lime and sand will be applied next week, weather depending! ☔️

26/08/2026

Quick progress post… internal walls in the clay lump barn.

Removal of inappropriate plaster reveals clay lump and red brick.

Consolidation with first coat - hot
mixed earth, lime and straw mix.

Final coats of hot mix lime and chalk.

Beautiful soft finish which will be painted with a hot limewash.

23/08/2026

I came across these photos again whilst looking for something else. I’d almost forgotten what the fireplace was like before. We’ve gained quite a few more followers this year so this is for those who didn’t see it the first time… (existing followers are also welcome to look again 😉)

🟥⬛️🟥⬛️🟥⬛️🟥⬛️🟥⬛️🟥⬛️🟥⬛️🟥⬛️🟥

If you’re going to do something…

It’s pretty bonkers and nothing we’d ever have thought to do if we hadn’t found those 17th century paint fragments.

We had permission to reinstate the original design from our (sympathetic) CO who told us we should, ‘Go for it!’ It’s incredible to think that somebody knelt in this fireplace, 400 years ago, and painted the same chequerboard design that I have painted back again in 2026. I wonder if they stood back and thought it as crazy as we do!

The design on the overmantel is based on a carved strap-work pattern from a 17th century wooden chest.

We started with a 1950s ‘renovation’ of an inglenook which consisted of a modern brick infilled fireplace, cement and gypsum plaster.

We removed all of the modern bricks, cement and gypsum, as well as the metal fire hood to reveal an original herringbone brick fireback, original brick cheeks with fragments of lime plaster displaying remnants of a 17th century painted chequerboard design.

We conserved what was left by repairing the herringbone fireback. We repointed it in hotlime with a mortar matched to the original.

The painted plaster was photographed and recorded. It was then conserved by laying parchment paper over the remaining fragments followed by laths and lime plaster. The finished fireplace was marked out with a chequerboard pattern exactly matching the size and positioning of the original squares. The deign and colours were matched and painted using a hotlime binder and pigment.
This is the result 😃

Huge thanks to Lloyd and Mark for their amazing workmanship. 👍

15/08/2026

If you go down to the woods today…

Yesterday, Stuart and I went on a trip to a hazel coppice near Saffron Walden to collect a supply of hazel poles that will be used for wattle and daub repairs.

A beautiful corrugated shed, peeling paint, dappled light, piles of poles in varying sizes, folk music playing in the background. I’d have happily moved in!

We came away with a boot full of poles. We have a few projects where these are needed. The will become the wattles around which the clay daub will be packed in.

I’d like to make a reel about our visit as the chap also demonstrated how to split the hazel poles. Unfortunately I can’t mix photos and film on individual Facebook posts so I can’t add those here. I’ll also add some pics of our previous wattle and daub repairs so you can see the hazels being used between the studs in timber frame buildings.

Any questions, please do ask.

Happy Saturday!
🌞