17
Sep
Raising the Frame, 22 - 23rd September, 10.30am to 5pm
Raising the Frame – an exciting event at the Weald and
Downland Open Air Museum.
At the heart of Keats Country this weekend, there is the
excitement of witnessing an old fashioned “barn
raising” – 18th century style! Anticipation is building
at the Museum as the foundations are laid and the beams prepared
for the re-erection of the 18th century Tindall's cottage planned
for the weekend of 22/23rd September. Tindalls Cottage was
dismantled in 1974 as a result of the construction of the Bewl
Water Reservoir, near Ticehurst in East Sussex and has been in
store at the Museum since that time. The cottage is timber framed
with a large stone and brick chimney and contains two rooms on each
floor plus an attic. The event will give visitors the chance to
view the timber structure as it is carefully put into position, and
an opportunity to learn from the experts involved about the
progress of the project. The event will also include talks about
the dismantling of the cottage by David Martin, who recorded the
building in-situ and helped take it down. There will be tours of
the Museum's historic houses; demonstrations of various crafts
relating to timber building construction through the ages; the
opportunity to meet timber framing companies, and local suppliers
of timber and tools; and tours of the Downland Gridshell
Conservation Workshop, which include information on its
construction and a look at the large collection of rural artefacts
housed inside. The event will also celebrate the tenth anniversary
of the opening of the Gridshell where much of the cottage's repair
work has been undertaken.
Re-erecting the frame follows many months of painstaking
restoration work, and research into the cottage's history and the
people who originally lived there. Tindalls Cottage demonstrates a
significant moment in this development and provides a valuable link
in the Museum's time-line of building history. When completed, the
interpretation of the cottage will include its furnishings, the
surrounding garden and curtilage, in order to provide visitors,
including school groups, with a greater understanding of this
period of building and social history. Dr Danae Tankard, the
Museum's historian, has uncovered fascinating information about the
cottage and its occupants: the interpretation will be set during
the period of occupancy of the first John Tindall who was living in
the cottage from 1748.
So come to witness this marvelous event this weekend, 22nd and
23rd September from 10.30am to 5.00pm each day.