The Dovecote Prebendal Manor

Dovecote Exhibition

2012-01-18T06:33:00.000-08:00

We are getting there.

This week we started to put all the information about dovecotes onto our huge doves. We have also put some of the children's poems which are really good on the birds. There is however lots of fiddly things to finish off before we open on Easter Monday.

Jake Allen is editing the video that the children made in the school and we have placed one of the poems on the door of the dovecote to tempt our visitors to enter.

2012-01-18T06:31:00.000-08:00

The Privy Restoration

We were only able to save some of the clay roof tiles as most had fallen into the privy when some of the roof timbers collapsed. The tiles had to be matched up with our existing ones. These were sourced in Wisbech. Having re-roofed the building I spent three happy days digging out the privy sump.

To my surprise it had not been cleaned out when I bought the manor in 1968. Luckily I was wearing rubber gloves for it was filled with old poo and animal bones. I also recovered some pottery and four glass bottles. These will go on display in the Privy exhibition. The old poo went onto the garden as excellent manure!

The last person to used the privy was in 1968, probably one of our builders who used The Daily Mirror for toilet paper. There were fragments of very grotty bits of paper with a date still visible. Needless to say I have not kept these for display!

I had to climb down into the sump in order to clean it out. It also meant crawling right inside underneath the wooden seats. The sump is large and well made and would have taken a large amount of waste. I am glad that I did not have to clean it out when it was fresh waste!

The Privy is now restored the two loo seats cleaned up.

The door had been repaired and repainted

When this privy was built Queen Victoria was on the throne, but not on this one!

The Privy Restoration

2012-01-18T04:57:00.000-08:00

The Privy Restoration

We had to remove the roof timbers, which were rotten and covered in Russian Vine tentacles. It made a fantastic bonfire!

I began to worry if we would ever manage to restore the building. There are not many privy's left in the county, many of them have been pulled down, or turned into small garden outbuildings. So we became very determined that our privy would survive.

We also had to remove all the old plaster, as most of it was falling off and not repairable. On doing so we uncovered a carved stone. The inscription states that Mr John King is a carver of stone in London 1686.

We thought that we knew all the history of the Prebendal Manor, but here was some new information.

We think that the stone was reused as building stone when the Prebendal Manor solar was demolished in 1798.

Dr Samuel Brunsell had been one of the prebendaries of Nassington in 1660. His brother's daughter married Christopher Wren. When Samuel died his window was given permission to remain in the manor. It is possible that due to her brother-in law's connections in London she knew where to find good stone carvers.The Prebendal Manor was altered during that period. Mr King may have undertaken the work.

So we had an interesting interlude from the building works while we researched the inscribed stone.

The Privy Restoration

2012-01-17T10:17:00.000-08:00

These are the Russian Vine roots that did all the damage to the privy

It was time to get the cement mixer our and start the rebuilding.My children gave me the mixer many years ago and it has proved to be really useful. However we only use lime mortar mixes on this site. Using strong cement mixes does more damage because the building becomes too ridged.

The Restoration Of The Privy

2011-12-05T08:41:00.001-08:00

The Damage done by the Russian Vine was considerable and we had to take this wall apart to remove the vine that was growing into the building. The Russian Vine originated from the garden of the adjacent property and had worked its way into the walls and down to the ground on our side. Luckily for the vine, but not for us, it found a big pit to provide an excellent source of nutrition, since the pit was the privy cess pit!

These are some of the roots that were removed from within the Privy's walls

The Restoration Of The Privy

2011-12-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

The Privy, at the Prebendal Manor is 19th century and in the garden at the north end of the manor. It was in a bad state of disrepair and in danger of collapsing. A huge branch from a Russian vine had grown into the walls. Because it was also covered in ivy we did not notice that the walls were being split apart. None of our visitors, or the volunteers who help here when the manor is open to the public, knew that there was a privy in the garden!

It was time to take action and to restore the privy before it fell down!

The School Open Day

2011-05-10T09:43:00.000-07:00

This is the end of this project. We had a lovely afternoon with all the school, who came to see the exhibition for the first time. They were very pleased to see that all their work had been included. They loved the film that they had made of themselves working on the project. We had to show it twice. The teachers, parents and grandparents also came, luckily it was a lovely sunny afternoon.

The exhibition will run until the end of September, at which time we will give children back all the dove models that they made.

Looking at their poems

Having fun

Watching their film

Publish Post

Dove City

2011-05-06T08:13:00.000-07:00

The Dovecote exhibition is now finished, and on Monday May 9th all the children from Nassington Primary School will be visiting with their parents and grandparents to see see all the work that they have completed for our exhibition.

We made a film of the children working on the project and we will also be showing it for the parents and families in the Tithe Barn Museum.

This picture shows 'dove city' which was made by the children in year four.

Since the dovecote is sometimes damp we put it in a big fish tank that we were given, to keep it dry!

Dovecote Exhibition

2011-04-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

We are getting there.

This week we started to put all the information about the history of dovecotes onto our huge doves. We have also put some of the children's poems, which are really good, onto the birds. There are however lots of fiddly things to finish off before we open on Easter Monday.

Jake Allen is editing the video that the children made in the school and we have placed one of the poems on the door of the dovecote to tempt our visitors to enter.

Nassington Primary School

2011-04-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

The Nassington Primary School have been working very hard on the dovecote exhibition which will be open for Monday 25th April. However we will be showcasing their work before an invited audience for the children, parents, grandparents and the teachers. We collected all the things from the school that they have made, including poetry and weaving.

The Primary School Visit

2011-03-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

Having hung our huge doves it was time to ask our Primary School children to visit and learn what a dovecote looked like. As there are seventy two children in our school we had to split them up into two groups, even then it was a tight squeeze.

Our new doves

During this past week the children have been writing poems, painting and making clay models of doves. The clay doves will be put into the nesting boxes. The children's art work and poems about doves will be added to our big doves. We will also be adding our own text.

We hope that these big doves will act as a deterrent to the wild pigeons entering the dovecote to nest!

What is the Navbar?

2011-03-13T10:14:00.000-07:00

What is the Navbar?

The new dovecote exhibition

2011-03-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

1200 doves once roosted in the 15th century dovecote at the Prebendal Manor. The doves were a valuable source of protein for the manor's inhabitants. It is now one of the few remaining late medieval dovecotes in the area.

Originally the dovecote probably had a thatched roof, however in the 18th century it was re roofed with a saddle back Collyweston slate roof.

In the 19th century it was used as a work shop, and to provide more light a window was inserted into the west wall. A iron stove to provide heat was also built into the dovecote.

When we bought the manor in 1968 the dovecote was so filthy that we did not know that it had a nice brick floor.

Working with our local Nassington primary school we are now about to embark on an exciting new project designing a new exhibition to be displayed in the dovecote. The children will be producing some history, paintings and sculptures. These will go on display when the manor opens to the public in late April.
We have hung four large doves to display the text and paintings. We rather hope that these large painted doves will deter the wild pigeons from entering and making a mess.

www.prebendal-manor.co.uk