It’s all in the name..

Close up detail of plaster work around the top of the ceiling above the marble staircase

Once again I headed for Kingston Lacy with a mission to check under the floorboards in the house. A condition survey was being carried out by Clivedon Conservation on the plaster ceiling above the marble staircase.

Douglas and Tina (National Trust paintings conservator) surveying the painted plaster ceiling

It was while looking under the floor in the third Tented Room above the ceiling that Douglas from Clivedon Conservation spotted some writing on one of the joists of the superstructure, but he had not had time follow it up further.

“James” written in pencil on the wooden joist

So as well as looking between the joists for objects lost down the cracks between the boards or hidden on purpose, I had a look at the faces of the joists to see if I could find more writing. It was difficult to get the right lighting and angle to make out the words, especially as not all the boards had been lifted. But with the help of torches and various settings on my camera I could make out one full name, a part name and a date!

The surname “Game” to go with the first name James

The complete name was James Game, followed by the name Isaac and something illegible, presumably a surname, and then the date November 25th 1837. William John Bankes commissioned Charles Barry in 1835 to remodel Kingston Hall. This work was completed circa 1841, so the 1837 date fits with work being carried out in the house.

November 25th 1837

With access to the 1840 census I thought I would look up James Game to see if I could find him in the area or on the estate. It was exciting to find someone of this name living at Hillbutts, a small group of dwellings beside the boundary of the parkland around Kingston Lacy house. But best of all, his occupation was listed as a joiner!

I think the second name of Isaac starts with an N? All ideas and suggestions welcome, then we’ll see if we can find Isaac on the census as well!

I think the surname of Isaac starts with an N, or perhaps M

The name Isaac written in pencil

 

All I want for Christmas……

It’s always exciting when I am handed bags of finds from work done by archaeological contractors in and on our properties.

Box of delights

This week it was a few objects found by Ian, while doing a building survey, they were under the bedroom floor of a farmhouse in North Somerset. The main part of the house dates to the 18th century but it looks like it could go back  to the 16th or 17th centuries and was at times the home farm for a bigger estate.

I took out the bags and noticed it said wooden animal on all of them, so not the usual nails, fragments of wall paper, cigarette packets or chewed up paper from rat nests!

I took them out one by one, they were a bit nibbled but still recognizable as animals. But apart from the piggy they did not look like ordinary farm animals.

The wooden animals a pig,  a Deer/Lama/?  and a long  legged Bear/?

I wondered if they could be from a set of Noah’s Ark animals, I remembered seeing one at one of our properties, so I searched our collections database and found quite a few images of very similar animals to the ones Ian found.

Wooden animal from the collection at Erddig, Wrexham

Wooden animals for Noah’s Ark, from Felbrigg, Norfolk

Our animals have the remnants of paint on them so would probably have looked a little bit like the set below.

Wooden toy figures of Noah and his wife, and pairs of animals, next to the Ark, at Scotney Castle, Kent.

Close-up of the Pig showing evidence of paint

Close-up of the possible Bears head

Probably more like this set from  Snowshill Manor

Close view of the wooden Noah’s Ark with model animals made in the mid-C19th in the Black Forest area of Germany, collected by Charles Wade and displayed with other toys in Seventh Heaven, Snowshill Manor.

So the rest of  the title would be ….. the rest of the Noah’s Ark animals, oh! and an Ark to put them in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whats under the floor?

Worlds hardest jigsaw puzzle!

The phone call went ‘Hi its Tim the building contractor, we are working in the roof at Walnut Farm and I think you will be interested in what we found under the floor boards, I will bring them down for you’  Mmmm could it be a mummified cat, an old cigarette packet, coins or letters? all things that are often found under floor boards. The doorbell went and I rushed downstairs, I opened  the door to see a grinning Tim empty handed, but behind him  was a truck loaded with 40 fertilizer bags full of ‘stuff’ from under the floor!  
Tim, who I had worked with on another building project had recognized that the cloth bits chewed up letters and nails in amongst all the dust, rat nests and general detritus would be worth looking at, rather than going in the skip.

Oh lucky student placements this was the job for them, sieving through the bags to see what they could find. Though I would make sure I got chance to have delve in the dust  🙂

Sieving the ‘stuff’ from Walnut Farm, Dorset

There were lots of things in amongst the dust, we found the remains of animals –  rats and birds, iron nails, a bone knife handle, and a brass lid with engraved initials.

A page from an Almanac – a bit rat nibbled

Tthe most interesting items are  the things that tell us a bit about the everyday lives of the people who had lived in the two rooms in the roof of the farm. The rats had nibbled pages from various books, a play called the Double Dealer, and an almanac from 1798, a clue to the dates of the other things  found in the rats  bedding!

A page from the Double Dealer

On one piece of paper someone had been practising their writing, and there was a letter mentioning John Galpin probably from the early 19th century, which was  the name of the tenants living at the farm when it was found under the floorboards.

Cloth was the largest collection we found, it had survived as it was dry in the roof, and some of it had been tightly packed, probably stuffed in the cracks to stop the draughts!

It’s a very varied collection and we think dates from the late 18th/early 19th century, some of the patterns are very Jane Austin! We are hoping a student will take on the research of this collection, as we had not expected to find it, time and funds to do research are not plentiful.

Here are some of the things we found. Enjoy!

Needle case or book cover – very small

Patchwork

Childs cloth shoe

Cut off stocking sock – very crusty, I think they had more than one hole in their shoe!

A selection of cloth pieces

Childs ‘corset’ stiffened with thick string and there are remains of bone stays

Detail of string ‘stays’

Detail of bone stay remnant

Detail of another piece of patch work