Cob: discussion participation:

[Kathryn Marsh]

At 18:27 18/01/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>I am "new" so to speak, a couple months or so and searching and saving all
>the tidbits that come my way.  Thanks to all contributers.
>     I am a middle aged widow living in a 20-y/o trailer and am seriously
>considering this an option for the lack of money, but also lack of debt.
>     The English cobs that are two story charm me-but as I have perused the
>emails, the two story concept of a proper English style cob has not seemed
>to pop up.
>     Can it be that difficult?  Now for a lone prospective builder such as I,
>it may be near impossible, but that is the first issue I would like
>clarification on.  Is a 2-story cob feasible?
>     Marsha
>     (0hio)

Marsha

I think most of what looks like two storey cob in England in in fact frame 
built and the wooden frame supports the upper storey - even when the frame 
does not not show on the exterior. My own grandparents' house looked like 
cob from the outside but was actually an A frame with the second floor 
pegged to the frame (you can imagine the timbers) and also originally 
supported by the central spiral staircase which was pegged into a central 
tree trunk - over the 7 centuries the house stood for the trunk rotted 
through at the base and it was eventually suspended from the floor - very 
unnerving for a smal child to climb to bed). The infilled walls were cob in 
some places and wattle and daub in other with the low upper storey 
entirely  wattle and daub. But these upper storey walls were very low - 
again the majority of these houses actually have the second storey windows 
cut into thatch which comes down to first storey wall height.

The problems of roof construction have been mentioned. The roof of this 
house, which was  in the English fenland, was reed thatch on a framework of 
willow polls, with split hazel lathes - the only available local materials. 
Very light and easy to use for medieval house builders and amazingly 
durable. The house was on a low gravel ridge above the swamps which would 
have surrounded it when it was built, which must have give sufficiently dry 
footage for its survival. It lived through many floods but was finally 
condemned and pulled down after the 1953 floods when my grandparents 
escaped, not for the first time, through the bedroom window into a rescue boat

kathryn