December 30, 2008

Historical Explorations


On Saturday we went to Jamestown and Williamsburg with our friend Lauren. I had never been before, and Joe hadn't been in many years. Usually he doesn't like tours and such, but this time we were both excited to check out some old architecture and ways of living. We were especially interested in the timberframe and wattle and daub structures in the Jamestown settlement. Wattle and daub is similar to cob in that it is a clay and sand mixture. In the case of wattle and daub, however, the framework for the walls is a wooden lath (or wattle) of woven saplings to which the clay (daub) is applied. This is used as infilling between the timbers.

We were excited to find that there were earth ovens at both Jamestown and Williamsburg. The interpreter at Jamestown told us that the original clay ovens at the settlement were shipped over from England. They could have saved themselves a lot of trouble if they had Kiko Denzer's book "Build Your Own Earth Oven" like we did. I don't know that it would have helped them, though. They apparently sent a sorry lot of people over to colonize the new world. It would have helped if anyone had had some practical skills. It wasn't even until the 2nd or 3rd boatload of people that they decided to send over some farmers, carpenters, and here's a thought...maybe some women?



The Williamsburg oven was more similar to ours. It was about the same size, had a brick arch, and a wooden door. Joe was pretty excited.



I really enjoyed seeing all of the little houses at both places. The little houses just had so much warmth and character, especially in Williamsburg. We got there late in the afternoon and did the "free tour", meaning we just walked down the main street and didn't go in any of the buildings. Most of them had already closed up for the day. The evening light made for some nice pictures, though.






Throw in a visit to the cheese shop and the chocolate shop and it really was a fun day. You can see more photos from our trip here.

No comments: