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The early history of Pitt’s
Cottage is lost in the mists of antiquity, but it
is true to say that the main portion is genuine
XIII century. It is, perhaps, hard to
imagine that these same timbers were already old
at the time of Drake and the Armada but oak is one
of the most long lasting materials and a mere
hundred years often has little effect.
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This structure is usually
referred to as Tudor and it may be seen that the
frame-work of the building is formed in oak beams.
The oak being mainly split and joints holding
together without the aid of nails. The walls were
then plastered in with mud and cow dung over a
lattice of interwoven hazelwood. |
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In recent renovations it was
found that these same walls were mainly sound and
the oak, whilst eroded and beetle attacked, was
iron hard in the centre and it is difficult to
hammer an ordinary wire nail into them. Straight
edges and set squares were obviously scorned by
bygone builders. However, in some ways these
mellow timbers give an atmosphere of timelessness
and a promise of lasting another 700 years. |
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In Pitt’s Cottage there are two
examples of rabbit skin windows but now only the
frames remain. It is in only the last 150 years
that glass was used generally in windows and the
flank skin from the rabbit stretched on a frame
was a convenient way of letting in the light and
excluding the draught. In renovations evidence was
found of green paint on the ends of some of the
beams. This has been explained as due to an Oak
Tax which was levied in Cromwell’s time (circa
1650) wherein the use of oak was discouraged to
make it more available for fighting vessels. The
King’s men were empowered to commandeer oak
timbers thus producing the subterfuge of hiding
the wood with paint. |
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It was comparatively late in
the life of the building’s history that it found
fame as being the country home of Pitt the Younger
(1759-1806) son of the Earl of Chatham. By the age
of 24 he became England’s youngest ever Prime
Minister. Pitt was never married but once
professed a tender inclination to the daughter of
the Earl of Aukland, however his real passion was
for his work. |
