Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/294

 276 THE BUILDING NEWS. Apri 5, 1872. NEW CHURCH OF S. PAUL, WOODGREEN, STAFFORDSHIRE. Wwe give this week illustrations of a church on the high road between Wednesbury and Walsall. It will consist of nave, with narthex or great western porch, north and south aisles, chancel, with south chancel aisle or transept (for organ), tower and spire, with adjoining vestry. The chancel, which will be divided from the nave by a screen or septum wall, will be provided with sedilia, piscina, &c., and the foot-pace of the altar is to be seven steps above the level of nave. The south transept affords space for a large organ, and the chancel stalls will accom- modate a sufficient choir. The material to be used in the external work is the Hammerwich stone, which is of a dark red colour, and the internal dressings will be of Bath stone. The church will have no fixed seats, except in the chancel, but will be seated with movable chairs, suitable spaces of wood floor- ing being provided where chairs are to be placed. The roof will be covered with local tiles—mottled, brown, and red. The church will accommodate about 480 persons, including clergy and choir. The con- tractor is Mr. P. Horsman, of Wolverhampton, and the architect Mr. E. Francis Clarke, of 11, Mitre-court Chambers, Temple, London. The design was selected in a limited competition. —_—>—_—_——_ LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS, ROFESSOR HENRY, in an essay on meteoro- logy, says that a lightning conductor should consist of a round iron rod, of not less than three- quarters of an inch in diameter. Other forms of rods, such as flat or twisted, will answer nearly as well, although a drawback attending their use is that they are liable to give off lateral sparks from the sharp edges at the moment of the passage of the electricity through them, which might set fire to very combustible materials. It is a commonly received opinion that a lightning rod need not be ! continuous, as it is supposed that the electricity will Jeap over short distances; but Professor Henry recommends that it be throughout its entire length in perfect metallic continuity, and that it be coated with black paint. As a general rule he advises that large masses of metal within the building, especially those which have a perpendicular elevation, be con- nected with the rod. eee eee SS THE JEW’S HOUSE, LINCOLN. PARAGRAPH lately appeared in a contem- porary drawing attention to the dangerous condition of the interesting Norman structure at the foot of Steep Hill, Lincoln, popularly known as “The Jew's House,” and urging that steps should be taken for its preservation. We have before referred to this building, which is one of the few remaining specimens of the domestic architecture of the twelfth century left to us, and suggested that measures should be taken to prevent the gradual obliteration of its characteristic features, which must inevitably take place from its being used as a shop and dwelling house. The paragraph to which we have alluded being calculated to excite alarm, we have caused inquiry to be made upon the spot, and are glad to find that there is no foundation for the report of the dangerous condition of the house, and that no further dilapidation has accrued to the building within the last few years beyond those that must neces- sarily arise from the use to which it is put. Although no immediate danger is to be appre- hended, it is, however, well, now that the oppor- tunity offers, to direct the attention of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln, to whom the house belongs, to the artistic as well as the archwological value of their property, and to press upon them the neces- sity of preserving it intact, and preventing as much as possible any damage or defacement to the build- ing. Mr. E. J. Wilson, in a descriptive account of the Jew’s House, in the first volume of Pugin’s “Specimens,” speaks of a sketch by Buck taken in 1724, which shows the original chimney-shaft, now destroyed and replaced by common brickwork, The original shaft is described as a tall circular tube with a square base having a small triangular gable at each of its sides; the top was shattered and wanted its proper finish. The chimney forms a very in- teresting feature in the house as it exists at present, being corbelled out over a semi-circular arch which gives access to the back premises. It would appear that one of the original windows has been destroyed within the last twenty years, as in a drawing by ‘T'wopeny, in Parker's “ Glossary” (edition 1851), a second two-light window is shown on the upper floor. There is only one at present, the other being a square headed opening with a modern sash. The archway has also suffered since Pugin made thedrawing engraved in his “Specimens” (Vol. I., plate 2),published in 1820. The carving of the corbels is now undistinguishable, and the lower portions of the nook shafts have been destroyed and are replaced by brickwork. This much is apparent from a superficial examination of the building, and other and perhaps more serious dilapidations have occurred during the present century. ‘The house was entirely rebuilt about twenty years ago, and the front wall is the only portion of the original building remain- ing. This wall is 2ft. 4in. thick, and is apparently substantial, but it might be well that it should be carefully examined. We earnestly deprecate any attempt at restoration of this interesting relic, and only ask for its proper preservation ; in its way the Jew’s House is as worthy of protection as the Cathedral itself, and we hope that the Dean and Chapter will not consider it beneath their notice. ——>-—__ SAMELS’ PATENT STANDARD LOCK. HERE are one or two features in the new “Standard” Lock, recently patented by Messrs. Samels & Co., well worthy of notice. The illustration given will readily convey an idea of the principle adopted. The working parts of the lock are confined in a small case readily inserted in a door without weakening it, as by making the large mor- tice necessary for most of the locks now used. The rod of the latch works in a hole easily bored with a common augur, and may be of any length, allowing the handles to be fixed as far as desired from the edge of the door. The construction of the lock is very simple, but yet affords greater security from violence than that given by many other locks. The principal advantages derivable from its use are notably the great saving of time required for fixing the effectual securing of the handles from lateral play, and the prevention of any wearing away of the woodwork by the action of the square spindle by meansiof the bearing, which extends through the whole thickness of the door. — RESTORATION. ON Thursday, the 21st ult., Mr. J. H. Chamber- lain delivered an address to the members of the Archwological Section of the Midland Institute, Birmingham, on the subject of “Loss and Gain by Restoration.” Mr. §S. “Timmins presided. The walls of the theatre were hung with a number of illustrative drawings by Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. A. Everitt, and with photographs lent by Mr. Councillor Stone. Mr. Chamberlain said his first reflection was, that his remarks and the discussion that might arise upon them would be thrown away, as not only throughout the length and breadth of England, but also of Europe, nearly everything that could be restored had been restored already. That was undoubtedly true, but this section ought to be critical as well as a collector of historical materials. His stand-point on the present occasion was the antiquarian. The true antiquarian was no partisan; he took no sides about “styles;” to him work of the fifteenth century was just as good as that of the fourteenth, or the fourteenth as that of the earlier part of the thirteenth; because he recognised that in all that man did man was constantly writing the history of man, and it was that history he wanted to preserve. To the antiquarian, therefore, eyery- thing that had been done by former ages possessed the greatest possible yalue; he saw in the record of it a record of life, without which he could not know what manner of men his forefathers were. After an age of neglect, in which it was the fashion to call all Gothic work ‘‘monkish,” the ancient monuments began to be looked at, to be appreciated, understood, and reverenced. Then came the inevitable reaction, and not content with preserving them, their ad- mirers conceived the idea of restoring them to the condition in which their founders had left them- This had resulted in a great many of our villages being studded with what might be called exotic ar- chitecture, painfully ‘“correct”—infinitely more correct than the original—painfully mechanical, painfully modern, not in harmony with any thought of the people, or with any house in the place, unless it was the parsonage, restored on the same principle. But was restoration, meaning by the word not the putting up of a new work but restoring the old, possible? He emphatically answered, No. The be- lief in it was part and parcel of the general belief in copying, one of the foolishest and absurdest beliefs we had. Noman could copy the simplest thing exactly like the original, not even handwriting, for the basis of all style was character, and the in- dividuality was stamped upon the method of repre- senting thought, as it was stamped on the thought itself. To form style there must be force of character and thought, and power of inventing methods of special expression. Imitation, therefore, was impossible, unless the imitator could be exactly the same as the person imitated. The past could not. be repeated, and however much we might love it we were and must be essentially modern, As a conse-— quence, partly, of the degradation of the modern workman to the level of a machine, working from patterns which he dared not alter, there was a pain- ful regularity about modern work, which contrasted with the picturesque irregularity of the old work, of which the so-called “restorations ” professed to be a copy. A startling instance of this occurred in Owen Jones's “Grammar of Ornament,” where there was a mechanical regu- larity not to be found in the originals of which that work all + fill: at Mos ave copies. This love of me- 1s Oa & P Oi pe i iP chanical regularity was an idea ee of the day, and a proverb had been made to express it; a Gothic building not perfectly symmetrical was said to be “ like a pig with one ear.” A modern builder would mark all the lines of brickwork in a house, and the jointing would be all of the same width ; the old builders were not particular about the size of their stone, or the even- ‘ ness of their joints. It might be said that these things did not matter, and were left to inferior work- men ; but mouldings were also as regular as they could be made in modern Gothic, while in old Gothic they were full of irregularities. There was no means of getting back to the old way but by giving the workman liberty to put such true artin his work that minor irregularities should count for nothing. The loss in restoration was evident, but the gain was not one which an antiquarian society could particularly admire. The gain had been this: In restoring churches they had gained knowledge of their anatomy. When Wyatt restored cathedrals, little was known of their construction ; now, we know on what simple basis that window tracery in Lichfield Cathedral was done, which was once thought to be hap-hazard. We had dissected churches, and called it restoration; knocked them into ruins, and thus picked up the secret of their construction. These researches differed from literary antiquarianism in this respect, that, after the language of Chaucer had been traced to its sources, Chaucer still remained, while the materials of the architectural antiquarian perished as their lesson A voteof thanks was passed to Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Everitt, and Mr. Stone. Mr. Chamberlain, in responding, said that the student of architecture had to carry on his studies under greater difficulties now than formerly, as he could now only find here and there one of the old monuments of which England was once full frony one end to the other. —————_>—_——_ A new organ, by Abbott, of Leeds, was opened in Clifton Church, Derbyshire, on Easter Sunday. It is stated that the Church of 8. Mary Woolnoth, by Hawhksmoor, and situate at the angle of Lombard- street and King William-street, is likely to be pulled down.
 * about to be erected on a commanding site
 * was being learnt.