Poplar Progress Introduction

Rebuilding Poplar Cottage

	Introduction
	Repair of the framing timbers and erection of the frame
	Infilling the frame
	Daubing the walls
	Thatching
	Interior
	Gardens

Introduction

A 17th century timber-framed cottage is the 46^th historic building exhibit at the Museum .

roy armstrong The 400-year-old Poplar Cottage, originally from Washington Common, West Sussex, will be the Museum’s permanent memorial to its founder, the late Dr Roy Armstrong, who discovered the cottage’s significance during a survey of the buildings of the Wiston Estate, belonging to the Goring family.

The conservation and rebuilding of Poplar Cottage has been made possible with a Heritage Lottery Fund grant, together with funding from a variety of trusts and local individuals. The timbers were repaired and conserved throughout the winter of 1998 in a project led by Museum research director Richard Harris and carpenter Roger Champion.

Built between 1550 and 1630 on Washington Common, the little cottage was once the home of a landless labourer. It is a fine example of a smoke-bay dwelling, in which smoke from the fire which heated the rooms escapes via a wide funnel built of timber and wattle and daub. This was the transitional type of house built between medieval open halls, in which smoke escapes through the roof space and houses with brick chimneys. Examples of both of these have already been rebuilt at the Museum, Bayleaf and Pendean farmhouses.

"Poplar Cottage, containing the forerunner to the revolutionary chimney, enables the Museum to illustrate the ‘missing link’ in our story of house development and technology," says Museum director Christopher Zeuner. "It will be interpreted to contrast its construction and social status with that of Bayleaf Farmhouse, a much more substantial dwelling which is at the centre of the Museum’s recreated medieval farmstead. "

After Roy Armstrong had discovered its importance in the 1970s the derelict building was donated to the Museum by the Goring family, and dismantled in 1982. Built of oak and elm, the cottage was situated at the edge of the scarp slope of the Downs, where sheep pasture, arable land and common pasture meet - an important feature of the West Sussex landscape. The Museum also plans to interpret this environment.

[Next: Erecting the Timber Frame]

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