plaster, water added, the ingredients beaten, carefully mixed and blended to produce a thick plaster which, when laid, was described by Professor Lethaby as ‘tough as leather’.
This plaster was generally applied to the face of the riven timber laths closely spaced and nailed to the face of the studwork, the plaster worked in between the laths to form a key. For the best work the plaster was floated on, in at least two coats the first coat being ‘picked’ or ‘roughened up’ before becoming set as a key for subsequent coats. When applied to an old timber-framed building, the infilling of wattle – and-daub was generally removed and, as with new buildings, the plaster and lath finish was applied to the internal face as well. In these cases it was not uncommon to fill the void between the two faces with chaff to improve insulation. In some cases it has been found that the wattle-and-daub infilling has been retained, with the plaster being applied directly to the face of the daub and timberwork, both of which had been simply hacked to produce a key. Occasionally the laths were omitted, the cross-pieces of wattle being carried across and nailed to the external face of the studs, with vertical staves set between the studs with the cross-pieces tied to them. Onto this was applied a layer of daub, a thick coat internally and on the outside a thin coat keyed to the wattle and extending over the entire face, onto which the plaster was applied.
The plastering of timber-framed buildings was generally confined to the eastern part of the country, in Suffolk and in the surrounding counties of Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and further westwards into southern Bedfordshire. Within this area it can be seen at its best in the villages of Suffolk and Essex (51). In Suffolk, in such delectable villages as Boxford, Kersey, Clare, Nayland, Hartest and Cavendish, not much timber-framing is exposed yet nearly all the houses are of timber. Similarly in Essex, in Finchingfield, Great Bardfield, Wethersfield and Manuden, among others, most of the buildings are timber-framed yet few of the timbers are exposed, most being plastered. This is also true in the southern and western parts of Cambridgeshire – for instance, the houses around the green at Barrington (52), and the village of Linton, and in Hertfordshire particularly in the north-east of the county, in Ashwell, for example. The use of plaster was not restricted to eastern England for it was used fairly frequently in Kent, particularly to the north of the county, as well as to some extent in Surrey and Sussex.
Plaster was probably more widely used than is evident today. The Georgians did not like exposed timbers, but the use of plaster fell into their concept of domestic architecture and there is evidence of its use in many of the towns in Hereford & Worcester, Shropshire and Warwickshire. Clifton-Taylor in Six English Towns gives one such
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