| Description | Long Rigging, Warley. Unusual early laithe house built c.1690
Long Rigging was the subject of an archaeological assessment by Colum Giles in 1980 as part of the WYAS/RCHME Rural Houses Survey. The photographic images and sketch plan produced by the assessment are held by YWAAS (Giles, C. (WYAS/RCHME). 1980). The fieldwork report is transcribed below:
'This is a stone house, dating probably to the second half of the 17th century [c.1690 in hand written note accompanying the report]. The house has what appears to be a contemporary laithe attached to the west, making it an early example of this house type.
The range faces south, is of two storeys in the dwelling area, and is built of coursed rubble masonry. The masonry is very confused; there are many irregular areas, and one straight joint up to first floor level between the windows of the house part. The fenestration survives only fragmentarily; where the surrounds are still extant, they show that the windows had flush mullions with a simple chamfer. In the laithe area the openings are late in date and there are no signs of earlier apertures.
Both house and laithe have an aisle or outshut at the rear. It is the arcade structure of the two parts which shows that the two are contemporary and also that the range has always been divided into house and laithe. The laithe is of two bays, with a central truss just west of the entrance. The truss shows the unusual characteristics of the aisled form; main post rising to support and arcade plate with braces up from post to plate and to the tie beam. Above the tie the roof has been renewed. The lack of a mortise in the soffit of the tie beam at its south end shows that there was no brace down to a post at this end and, consequently, the laithe has always been a stone structure.
The truss dividing the house and laithe is not entirely visible; again a main post rises to the arcade plate, with the usual braces. Below the tie, the dividing wall between the two areas is of rubble stone; because of the difficulty of seeing all the details it is not entirely clear whether this has always been the case. There are no peg holes visible in the tie beam, however, and this suggests that the division was always of stone. A peg hole in the main post about six feet above floor level could indicate that a cross beam originally ran south, perhaps to support the spine beam of the adjacent parlour.
The house is of three bays, the eastern most bay being slightly shorter than the others. Within the house the arcade plate is partially visible, and it shows significant differences, for here it seems to have had a stud wall beneath it dividing chambers from aisle. Regular peg holes appear in the arcade plate, and corresponding peg holes in the mid rail indicate the position of mortises for the bottom of the studs. Below the rail, the division between main rooms and aisle was a timber screen for the rail has a continuous groove in its soffit, designed to take the top of the screen. This evidence demonstrates that the house was always different to the laithe and that the present functional division perpetuates the original disposition. |