Alexander Gibbons (stick in the mud conservation)
Alexander Gibbons: Clay Dabbins
Alexander Gibbons of ‘Stick in the Mud Conservation’ described his work as building and repairing vernacular buildings of Earth and Lime. The area he covers is primarily both sides of the Solway Estuary, i.e. North Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway.
Through a series of slides, he illustrated how widespread was the use of clay/mud in the building of structures in the United Kingdom and across the world throughout the ages. He gave three statements: “One third of the world's population live in an earth building”. “Large sections of the Great Wall of China are built of solid earth, and are circa 2,000 years old”. “There are an estimated 60,000 earth buildings in the UK”.
In talking of earth as a building material we are not talking about top soil but the more clay rich subsoil which can be mixed with straw and water to provide a building material capable of lasting many years provided that when it has dried it is kept dry.
He gave the following names for Earth Building techniques used for solid walls:
Cob (South West)
Mud (East Midlands)
Mud Chalk (Hampshire)
Wychert (Home Counties)
Clay Lump (East Anglia)
Clom (Wales)
Clay Dabbins (Cumbria / South West Scotland)
Clay Biggins (Tay region)
Bauge / Masse (Normandy)
These different names all refer to the same basic material.
Except for one or two rare occurrences, new buildings are no longer built in mud and any work is largely restricted to the repair of old buildings in which problems have been caused by the use of a non-breathable waterproof render, usually cement based, which prevents the loss of moisture from the walls. Any render used to keep the walls dry must, when necessary, allow moisture to permeate from inside to outside to keep them dry, these are usually lime based. Mud walls may be described as load or non-load bearing. Where a Cruck Frame has been used to support the roof of a building, then the mud wall is a non-load bearing infill material. If the roof joists rest directly on the mud walls, then these are considered load bearing. Care must be taken when roofing in thatch, slate or tiles that all rain water is carried well clear of the clay walls.
There are approximately 300 clay buildings left in Cumbria but where are they in Dumfries & Galloway? Historic Environment Scotland had only one clay building listed which was owned by the Duke of Buccleuch and located near Canonbie. Although listed Category A, it was in a ruinous state. Alexander thinks that there are more but that they have yet to be identified. A classic example is the blacksmiths shop/wedding venue at Gretna Green. He gave examples of how clay buildings could be hidden in plain sight because they had been rendered or given a brick or stone outer layer.
Following an introduction to the local Factor for Buccleuch Estates Stick in the Mud Conservation were asked to carry out repair work to the walls of Category A Priorslynn Bothy. Alexander explained that the essentials for the long life of a clay wall is a ‘Good Hat and Good Boots’ so that the first task in the repair was to the two courses of stone at the base of the wall which had been badly disrupted by rat action. New ‘mud’ can only be used when there is a need to build up the full thickness of the old wall because new will not stick to old dry clay. Partial thickness damage to walls, corners and door/window frames needs to be repaired using premade air-dried clay blocks made from the local material bedded in earth mortar.
Some two years later and seeing that no further work had been carried out by Buccleuch Estates, Alexander approached them to ask if he could purchase the bothy and the Estate was happy agree. Following planning permission from D & G Council under newly introduced legislation which recognised huts and bothies as an exempt type under building regulations, the bothy is now fully restored as a thatched two equal sized huts block.
Alexander went on to tell us about the repair work he carried out on the fire damaged Cruck Cottage, Torthorwald, Dumfries. We were finally shown slides of mud buildings which had either been repaired or newly built from scratch as part of training courses in mud walling. Included with these were a mud walled thatched building built for the Prince of Wales at Dumfries House and work was due to start on a second building there in the week following this lecture.