The Twenty Pits which once stood on the site of Alexandra Park were described as Marl(e) pits. Marl is the term used to describe soil which combines clay and grit. The grit it has been discovered, is actually fragments of seashells and rock from eons ago ! Relics from the Stone Age have been found in the area as was a medieval submerged forest, when works were being dug for the park. The pits would have been dug for two reasons, marl makes an affective fertiliser and also can be used in the construction of wattle and daub house building. Wattle and Daub is the oldest building technique which can be traced back as far as the Bronze Age. In England evidence of such housing has been traced back to the 12th century. A timber frame would be constructed then the walls would be built by wattling which is using sticks and twigs to weave in and out of the timber frame. The daub part would have been using clay or marl mixed with straw and then applying it to the walls to weatherproof them, in a similar way you would plaster a wall. To mix the straw, marl and clay effectively, it would be laid on the ground near the cattle feeding trough and the constant walking over by the cows would produce the perfect substance to daub with - complete with cow dung ! The walls would then be covered with a layer of lime plaster or colour wash. Hundreds of these pits lay up and down the country. Clarendon Rd was all clay pits before it was built on, which led to subsidence problems down the line and the site of Piccadilly Gardens, long before it was built on was known as Daub Hole, it being where builders in the city centre got their Daub from. Probably our most famous Wattle and Daub building, would be The Shambles.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 08:40:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015