Stonework at Wytham Abbey
Much of Wytham Abbey is built from limestone which has been “brought to course”, meaning that the blocks in its facing walls have been fashioned into consistent sizes, then laid much as bricks would be. However, the appearance of this construction contrasts pleasingly with the uniformity of bricks, and is visible in the photo of the front elevation below: the courses are of constantly varying heights and the length of the blocks varies too, sometimes significantly.
Alec Clifton-Taylor writes about this treatment of stone in his wonderful foundational study, The Pattern of English Building: “A much more interesting effect is obtained, as the earlier builders were well aware, when the blocks of stone vary in size from course to course, the larger ones normally being laid at the base of the wall. Now and again one finds a specially large stone introduced, stretching up through two courses. This is known as snecking or jumper-work, and is now recognized as a good method of obtaining interesting surface variation; but in the age of Wren and in the Georgian period this practice was not admissible for the most elegant buildings.”
Modern cement was invented in England in the 1820s, and Wytham was built without it – instead, the blocks in its walls were bonded with lime mortar. Lime has special status for historic building owners and conservation practitioners because of its direct connection to traditional construction methods, and because not using it in repairs always causes significant problems. It also has the notable property of achieving its most difficult purpose – addressing the vagaries of a damp, maritime climate – by going with the grain of what is thrown at it by the English weather, rather as someone skilled in jujitsu goes with an attacker’s superior strength. Lime is soft, permeable and breathable – it accepts some moisture then, over time, offers it a route out.
As Clifton-Taylor writes, the repair of “an old wall must be done with mortar containing little or no cement, for strong cement is injurious to old stone”; its hardness will always cause moisture to be trapped damagingly inside the stonework.
Sadly, Wytham did not escape the attention of workers intent on using cement, most likely in the early to mid-20th century. And they did not limit themselves to merely repointing in cement – they applied it thickly as render, or stucco, to some of the building’s oldest fabric, the gatehouse towers of the early 16th century; the photo below shows the relatively hidden inside face of one of them, in its dull grey coat.
During late 2022 we were fortunate to work with Rupert Hilton and Oli Sharpin of Janus Conservation – their specialist surveys of the stonework and roof have yielded a repair methodology which will bring clarity to the process of working on the fabric at Wytham which is blighted by cement, and I’ll return with news of this project when it has departed the drawing board and moved to the scaffold tower.