AFTER
Before
Rye is a historic town in East Sussex dating to the time of the Roman occupation when it lay on “a huge embayment of the English Channel called the Rye Camber, which provided a safe anchorage and harbour the bank”. It flourished during the medieval period as an important port, a fact marked by it becoming one of the Cinque Ports, a title it still holds of course, even though the River Rother silted up centuries ago. It received its Royal Charter from King Edward I (1289); was half destroyed by gales and floods (1375); sacked and burned by the French (1377); became a centre of smuggling (c.17th) and was made the the western Command centre for the Royal Military Canal during the Napoleonic Wars.
Rye has a long association with writers, artists and performers going back to Shakespeare’s collaborator, John Fletcher. Other residents have included: Sir Anthony van Dyck; Henry James; E.F. Benson; Paul Nash; Spike Milligan as well as the fourth Doctor Who, Tom Baker; the creator of Captain Pugwash, John Ryan and Bob Marley’s great-grandfather Frederick, who was born in the town in 1820.
The two storey Norman House was built in the late C.18th or early C.19th and was listed in 1951, making it one of the first under the present system introduced in 1947.
Grade II
Private Homeowner
To restore the painted brick façade to its original state and repoint appropriately.
First a test patch was selected and the paint and plaster work carefully removed. The test demonstrated that the façade could be effectively cleaned and the painstaking work commenced.
Once this had been achieved, the coservationists argued that the façade should now be rendered.
Both us and the homeowners could not understand why a listed building designed to have a visible brick facade should now be rendered. Lengthy discussions ensued and the argument won.
We were therefore able to remove the inappropriate cement mortar and repoint with our own lime mortar – both historically and technically correct.
This decision was further vindicated when the project won two awards: a Rye Conservation Society Townscape Award and a Sussex Heritage Trust Award.
Once this had been achieved, the coservationists argued that the façade should now be rendered.
Both us and the homeowners could not understand why a listed building designed to have a visible brick facade should now be rendered. Lengthy discussions ensued and the argument won.
We were therefore able to remove the inappropriate cement mortar and repoint with our own lime mortar – both historically and technically correct.
This decision was further vindicated when the project won two awards: a Rye Conservation Society Townscape Award and a Sussex Heritage Trust Award.
Materials:
Brick
Work:
Cleaning
Restoration
Sector:
Residential