Been playing with the new system ('fighting with' might be the more realistic term) and have so far succeeded as to be able to rotate this picture (had taken the picture with the camera on its side). The point of the blog entry is that we had lit a fire below the left hand chimney the other night and discovered about a third of a Tudor brick in the fireplace which hadn't been there before. The chimneys date from the late 1500s, so we thought we'd better get the chimneys checked out. Our good friend, David Northover, a builder who specialises in ancient buildings, came over on Saturday morning to have a look at it. His opinion was that the chimneys had better be repointed, this time using the correct lime mortar, rather than the concrete that had been used when they were last repaired. He also thought a fresh chimney pot (i.e. a second hand pot of the right period) on the left hand chimney would be a good idea. As he'll be using lime mortar, the job had better be done when all danger of frost had passed. Oh well, that should give me some time to save the necessary pennies (even at 'mate's rates - David's phrase for it - it will be fairly spensive). The joys of living in 'period properties, eh ? !!!!!
14 comments:
When we were having the house re-roofed, some 27 years ago, we had our Tudor chimney taken down and put back up again - there were plants growing in it and you could see daylight through the pointing. A neighbour walked across the field to remonstrate with us for taking it down - we invited her onto the scaffolding to see the poor state of repair, but she didn't take us up on the offer.
A lovely job was obviously made on your chimneys. I'm hoping ours won't be quite as serious as that.
Will you need an authentic 18th Century child to send up it?
I think you're being a little unfair to them, Rog. Any surviving ones will be VERY old men by now; although I don't think the survival rate was that good anyway.
Yes Rog, you are being most unfair. Clearly, a more recent model of small child will have to be used.
Thank you, Sir Bruin.That's a more reasonable idea. I shall put an advertisement for one in the paper shop window.
A little bird told me that you were having a celebration soon. Do have a joyous anniversary.
Thank you very much Pat. It is on this coming Saturday. We are having a family get-together to celebrate.
Rog and Sir Bruin. Ann has come up with the easy answer to the eighteenth century chimney sweeping children. She tells me that in view of the beef/horse meat scandal it is quite obvious that horses will no longer be quite so popular for a while. This, in turn, will lead to high unemployment figures among jockeys. Ann says that instead of placing an advert in our local paper, if I place an advert in the Newmarket Journal, there should be a flood of small, wiry, fit applicants to clean and repair the inside of our ancient chimneys. The added bonus (this bit to my way of thinking) is that they will be totally used to receiving wages commensurate with their size.
I hate to say it Mike, but Ann is clearly the brains of your particular outfit. As long as there are sufficient jockeys left for our annual trip to Newmarket, I believe she has come up with a winner. May I be so bold as to ask what the nature of your forthcoming celebration may be?
Thank you, Sir Bruin. Our celebration is on this coming Saturday. We intend celebrating our fiftieth wedding anniversary, together with our five children, our eleven grandchildren, various assorted partners of the aforementioned children and grandchildren, Ann's three brothers, and partners, and Ann's erstwhile bridesmaid, i.e. my sister Margaret and her partner. The only one unable to attend (by reason of ill health) is my erstwhile best man, my brother, who blogs under the nom de plume of Crowbard; his wife however, young Judy, intends to attend the do/ shindig/knees up. I kid slightly there. It will probably be a perfectly respectable lunch party. We'll see.
Greetings to young Ursa Minor, by the way.
And, of course, warm regards to you both, Mike and Ann.
P.s. And our good friend Hilary. She is honorary family in that she and Ann share a maiden surname.
Hello both, does Jude need a lift Mike? I saw her last week and she said that she wouldn't be attending. So looking forward to seeing you all, Love Maggie x
Hello Maggie. I think Judy is feeling a bit more like it. Jonathan is making a slight detour and picking her up. Look forward to seeing you,
Love, Mike and Ann.
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