The Half-Baked Kiln Plans
We've had a busy few weeks and another few ahead of us, with two grants due this month (one very soon) and of course, completely unrelated to those, we are very keen to set up the renewables and start heating up the house before the temperatures really drop. How did we run out of yet another year?!
To fill in the "downtime", I will tell you about my kiln plans, still very much in my head only, and where we currently are with them. It links back to one of those grants and a big rush to get as much done as possible over the past 2 weeks.
Our current BHIS grant is for the consolidation of the masonry. We only got half the money we were hoping for awarded this year, but that's probably for the best now considering we were, yet again, scrambling to get this done in time. As you know, we haven't been idle, but the house has been absolutely full-on and the birds nesting in the kiln have also forced us to focus elsewhere during the summer months.
Still, we are pleased to announce we had about 4-6 breeding pairs of sand martins using the SE wall of the kiln this year, on top of the usual wrens. It was the first time we'd seen sand martins and we are very excited about them! We have therefore focused on consolidating the SW and NW walls.
But when it came to the openings, it didn't appear as though they ever had a proper lintel, it certainly didn't look like there was space for one. I noticed that there were a couple of longer stones embedded in each side, the weight of the wall above on the one half, and the other half cantilevering and essentially supporting a third longer stone spanning between them. I wasn't too happy with just keeping this. Especially on the far kiln where two large stones kiss in the middle, while one is barely supported on the other side. I felt that I needed a solution which would give me more confidence that this will stay up but also not dramatically change the look or reduce the height of the openings. My mind conjured this wrought iron arch and I knew it didn't come from me. I was wrecking my brain about where I saw this done until a moment of epiphany sent me rushing through the site to gaze at the shaft opening in the mill... and there is was. That exact solution to an utter lack of proper long stones on site. I figured I was on the money but it took a little while to source these. Eventually, a local blacksmith, Alan Clarke, found suitable bits for us and voila... Now this is not meant to support the whole wall above, just give the old solution, still firmly in place and doing its job, a little extra support to avoid any dislodging.
So I spent a little time on the openings the weekend before last, and I've managed to get two out of the three done. The final one was done last Wednesday. Slide through for results... they are a little blurry as I screenshot them from a report.
Apart from these, we got some 18m2 of stonework repointed, and an inner lintel inserted to one of these openings. One is still ok but the other one needs doing as well, plus both need a big chunk of wall / inner leaf rebuilt above. For some reason (and I suspect I know why) these walls keep delaminating so perhaps I'll add in a few wall ties.
So those were the immediate plans, still in the future when I started writing this post, but now pretty much wrapped up for the year. I'll apply again this month to see if we can get a little bit more grant aid to carry on with the masonry in 2027. I feel like it's not a huge job but the vegetation and rubble make access difficult and with other jobs around the site things get prioritised based on urgency.
So what about the long-term plan you ask? Well, some may know that I am hoping to make this into a (circus) studio, if I can get that through planning. I have no real plans drawn up but the random internet images below might somewhat outline my strategy, although materials will be different.
I feel that the first image better captures what I am imagining, a new structure rising out of the old footprint rather than weaved through it... while the other is more accurate in terms of materials with a lighter touch. I am hoping to bring the glass up above the walls to allow for nice views from the trapeze and pay homage to the historic kiln function by either pairing it with charred timber or perforated metal (which is what the kiln floors were made out of).
Comments