Medieval Pigeon Loft

Buildings for Pigeons/doves, They been around for centuries.
There´s round ones,  square ones, octagonal ones. Ones built on arches, on top of Gateways, in the gable Ends of Barns or houses, ones on legs. Some are about the size of  garden shed, some the size of houses and others are quite literally massive. They were (are) made from Stone, wattle and Daub, timber or timber framed.

After a lot of searching (and I didn´t like the look of any of the common round turret designs) I went for a square design based on the Pimp Hall Dovecote. Similar in design is the Hawford Dovecote,  which was built a bit earlier, in the late 16th century.
It dates from the 17th century so not strictly medieval but the timber framed design fits alongside my buildings.

Wether this will end up in the Village or the town I haven´t decided. It´s a bit big for the Village and the tiles don´t fit in with the rest of the buildings, so it will more than likely end up in the town...but would the townsfolk put up with the Aerial bombardment from a large gang of pigeons? I could build a manor house type farm and add it to that.

The woodwork has turned out looking darker than in real life.

On the site for the Pimp Hall Dovecote,it´s decribed as a barn and dovecote but, without anymore info or actually looking, it could be that the "barn" doubled up as  access for a wagon so that  the Guano could be shovelled into it through a trapdoor.

In the case of the Hawford dovecoat The roosting Areas are only accesible through the barn doors and Pictures of the floors Show large openings...for shovelling Guano?

I searched endlessy for contempory Medieval representations of Pigeon lofts or dove cotes, and finally, I found one (right of the Picture)


From the Flemish book of hours of Marie de Medici.(1573–1642), Named after it´s last owner it was made around 1515/1520. 

Then...on a completely unrelated search, I found another. Looks familiar?

Threshing and pig feeding from a book of hours from the Workshop of the Master of James IV of Scotland (Flemish, c. 1541)

Both are reckoned to be by the same Artist, an un-named Person known as "The David Master" who is reckoned to be the Artist Gerard Horenbout.
 Gerard Horenbout (ca. 1465–ca. 1541) Master of James IV of Scotland (ca. 1485 – ca. 1526
The subject matter is the same..but one has a more mature style (Flemish book of hours of Marie de Medici) and is considered to have been  painted at the  the apex of his  (The David master) career and artistic maturity.
The styles don´t match, the birth and death Dates of both artists don´t match.

Three Flemish artists are linked... The un-named David Master,  Gerard Horenbout and Simon Bening (Bennink) (ca. 1483 - 1561)
Bening is associated with another work, the  Da Costa Hours, (c. 1515)and what turns up in that work? The second painting.

Top one Gerard Horenbout ? Second one, by a Student, possibly Bening,  working as a Student under Gerard Horenbout and he is therefore the un-named "David master"?

Garden Gnomes

Atfer seeing Tony´s recent Post on Garden Gnome Restauration I remembered I´d restored and painted up two of them  a couple of years ago. **
Number one....In it´s* natural Habitat.

Before the final layer of varnish

Medieval Beehives (2)

This time a beehive in a Bole.

A Bee Bole is a cavity or alcove in a wall for placing Skeps to protect them from the elements, the oldest surviving Bee Boles date from the 12th century.


Skep in a Bole

A wall purpose built to house Beehives.

I´ve also added a couple of pieces to the first Beehives..."ekes" (also called  "imps" or "Nadirs" )
An eke, 3-4 rings of woven straw made the same way as a Skep  and  was used by placing it under the Skep to give just a bit of extra room as the honey comb grew. As the saying goes,  to “eke something out "...to make it last longer or to go further. The word "Eke" is still used for the Frames that Slot into modern beehives.
A nadir is  a larger (taller) Extension of 5 plus rings

Hackles, Pointy shaped straw tents. These are placed on top of the hives to Keep rain off and Keep the hive warm in colder periods.
Hackle comes from the Old English hacele, meaning a cloak or mantle. Later it was used to describe to birds’ plumage, particularly roosters,  leading to the expression, raising the hackles.

I´ll make a small table like structure or a tree stump to place it on later.



The only contemporary  medieval pic I could find of Skeps covered with hackles

The complete Bee related bits and pieces.

Crazy ideas from the past about bees, including,  Bees are the smallest of birds,  and that bees are born from oxen  HERE

Medieval Beehives - Skeps

A Skep is described as "an inverted basket made of wicker or coiled straw used in beekeeping for housing bees".

Placed against the barn.

"Have you tried the honey liquor we call mead?"

Whilst hunting the web I came across a few different types of beehives shown in contemporary sources, but mainly the woven skep type.

Georgics - KB 76 E 21 II, fol. 42v (c. 1450-1475) This Picture gave me the idea for the Stand, but there´s loads of others showing the Hives placed on top of table like structures (pic below) or in Special niches (Bee Boles) in walls.

Taccuino Sanitatis (14th Cent)

A 15th century Picture showing not only Skeps but also "modern" looking box like hives. Manuscrit enluminé par le Maître des Vitae Imperatorum (1410 )

I could have gone for a box type structure (as shown in the last Picture)..but why make life easy?
"How too"
First off the Basic structure. A bit of clay shaped as a Skep but  a bit smaller than the intended finished size.

Next the material for the covering. I tried a few different materials.
Thick sowing  thread but it ended up with no visible form, the rope effect wasn´t obvious.
Strands of copperwire twisted into ropes but they sprang off.

Then, on the verge of giving up...I came up with using  Baling twine (the sort made from Sisal).  3-4 strands of twine, twisted into a rope and then smeared with PVA to hold it in shape.
I tied a knot in one end of the 3-4 strands, attached that into a slit in a sheet of Card, twisted it into a rope, then tied another knot, attaching that to another slit on the other side of the sheet of Card. Then, using an old paint brush I painted thinned down PVA over the "ropes"

When both the forms and the "ropes" were dry I smeared the form with PVA..let it go a bit tacky, then starting at the bottom wound the "rope" around the form, and using a toothpick kept pressing the "rope" tightly on top of the previous layer .
When the covering was complete, using the toothpick I formed a hole between the "rope"
Using Baling twine has an Advantage...it doesn´t Need painting to look realistic.

The stand is made from Card...no Explanation rquired.

Medieval Barn

Another Addition to the Village of Boddingham.
Loosely based on a building I saw on a recent trip out, a  Barn with attached house.

Halfway through I decided not to make it as a "closed" building but to have  the inside  visible, which either meant having the doors fixed open or...

..putting them on scratchbuilt hinges so they can be opened and closed.
The door at the back of the barn area  that leads to to the living space.

I´ve even gone and made more work for myself and added a loft hatch.(pic a bit blurry..sorry)
Later..when all ten buildings are finished and based,  I can add a ladder and some other bits and pieces

Medieval Chicken Coop

This was an Experiment to create another building, originally it was to be a storehouse/granary, but it turned out smaller than I had planned. I´d only built the walls  and clad them so it was shelved..in fact in ended up in the bin but then I had a think about it.
Make a hatch in the door, add some pillars (logically, they would have wanted it off the ground for the same reasons as a granary) and a run, also it´s tall enough to stand up in and shelving could be added for the hens to roost on = Chicken Coop.

Mary, on her way to collect some eggs, gets stopped by Pippin who is proudly showing off her new doll.
 

I couldn´t find much on how chickens were kept in the medieval era, but among the couple of Pictures I found, apart from some weaved "chicken baskets",  they Show them "housed".

Mary and pippin wearing red dresses

Medieval merchant's house

Based on the one rescued and rebuilt, now Standing in the Avoncroft Museum

In Production.
For one reason and another this proved a bit more fiddly than the others, mostly down to using thick Card for the construction as I intended to give it a thatch, but decided to Keep the strange looking chimney covering and a thatch would have hidden it.

Medieval Granary

A granary built on pillars  which lift it above the ground to protect the stored grain and produce from water seepage and the pillars are topped by the so-called ‘staddle (or Steddle) stones’ which prevent the access of rats and vermin. Being raised up, the air can freely circulate beneath the stored crops and this helps to keep it dry.

The Pillars I made from 1cm blocks of polystyrene, the Staddle Stones from squares of thick Card.

When looking for examples of Medieval granaries I came across loads of examples, some from the 15th century,  that still exist in the North of the Iberian Peninsula and called hórreos or paneras.
Hórreos are built with 4 pillars, the Paneras have more than 4.

Hórreo

Panera

nmn

Medieval Cottage/Farmhouse

Also for use in  Bodstonia as the village at the centre of the farming community of Boddingham.

And with one that was made as a "test build"
I´m not too happy with the lower floor..(all that White!!) but I prefer the thatch effect over that of the second building.

Fronts

Backs

Gable Ends.

Quick "how to".
As ever..the template. This time I´m using thicker card...1mm thick, or thereabout.
I was Clearing out a few old dogeared plastic covered ring binder folders and to make them more compact so they didn´t take up too much space in the bin,  I sliced the spine off one and found it had a loose Card core. Not glued in at all..a perfect Sheet of heavy Card.
With a modelling knife it took seconds to remove the Card from the front, back covers and the spine....and reduced the amount of space taken up in the bin by a massive amount.
Both the buildings are produced from one lot of Card from one Folder and there´s enough left over for further Projects.

When creating the Tabs it´s important  to make the gap between them as Close as possible. The Tabs were a bit "devil may care" on  the test build and   as the clay dried the Roof covering warped, pulling it off the small tabs which meant having to  contantly  re-attach the Roof by gently pushing it down.

This time, for a bit of variety,  I´m going to add walling on the ground floor so I´ve added a 2cm wide recessed Strip so that 1cm is sticking out the bottom.

Thin strips of high density foam added to the recessed Strip  along with some steps from the same material.

Thin strips of Card added to represent the Boarding. Window Frame made with thin strips of the "thick Card"

The thatch. I´d tried Teddy bear fur etc in the past but it just didn´t look right to me ....and took Ages,so....
..Clay. Bog Standard modelling clay. The Dries White, pots can be made from it, type of clay. Rolled into thin sausages, squashed to about 3-4mm thick and glued on with PVA.
One Problem, apart from  the roofing warping if it isn´t properly stuck down,  is that you Transfer some of the dried clay (from your finger tips) onto the house walls etc..but it isn´t a lot and gives it a bit more of a  "lived in" look.
I suppose I could paint the rest of the building after the Roof..but I´ve got into the Routine and it works so why Change?

The Chimney now gets added (pushed into the clay to make a hole and then glued into place with PVA) and the thatch  scratched into the clay with the tip of a needle.
All that´s left to do is wait a couple of hours for the clay to stiffen, then paint it. I added a bit of PVA to the base colour. Shame that the clay goes White when it´s dried.. unpainted (below) it Looks fine already.

The combination of the thick Card and the clay makes These quite heavy Little buildings.