Parish of Olveston Design Statement
Olveston, Tockington, Old Down, Ingst, Lower Hazel, Awkley
3. The Character of our villages
Space

3.4 Traditional detailing

Walls - warm-grey limestone, roughly shaped, randomly sized and coursed. Buildings of importance used dressed stone for special details. Domestic buildings were frequently rendered
Wall openings - window and door heads are usually expressed, frequently formed by brick/stone flat arches or oak lintels that occasionally incorporate a characteristic stone drip on older buildings. Reveals are minimal and softly curved with sills incorporated within window frames
Mortar / pointing - soft flexible lime mortar naturally coloured, with grits and fire coke often added to give greater weatherability and brushed back to expose the stone. More recently Portland cement has replaced the lime mortar

It could be said that details are to buildings as words are to sentences.

Sentences form stories and buildings together make villages. Without their distinctive details our villages would have no identifiable character or language of construction.

Conserving this characteristic juxtaposition of buildings and their surroundings and adding to the richness of our environment is what we seek to achieve.
Windows - originally small and always subdivided due to the cost and size of glass vailable. Side hung flush-faced casement windows are typical with sash windows common during the Georgian period on more refined facades. Windows are usually equally subdivided with continuous mullions from sill to head, occasionally with slim transoms between. Each period is typified by the relationship of window to wall with subdivided timber windows greatly contributing to village character
Guttering - if fitted, was cast iron supported on metal brackets fixed directly to stonework or to fascia boards if present
Roofs - simple gable ended and covered in natural red/orange overlapping clay pantiles, later double Roman - that age to a mellow burnt orange. Dormer windows are not common. Cat-slide roofs (lean-to at a lower roof pitch) were utilised on more rural buildings to increase the ground floor area
Entrance - the method of entry - whether by bridge over a rhine, through a gate, under a plant covered archway or direct to the edge of the pavement - gives each property and adjoining road its character, degree of privacy and charm
Doors - usually unprotected from rain, solid timber panelled or planked and painted. If money allowed, a timber and glass porch was added to provide cover and express the individuality of the owner
Colour - timber was usually painted in soft, natural pigments and was typically white or cream. Ironwork was usually finished in white or black. Render was usually left natural or cream coloured (originally lime washed). Agricultural buildings were left naturally coloured
Chimneys - the ridge line was usually punctuated by simple rectangular stacks in brick or stone topped by clay chimney pots
Ironwork - mostly removed in World War II. Originally, many boundary frontages were designed to incorporate wrought iron railings and gates. The more refined the building the more likely that expensive ironwork was a feature, although even unassuming buildings would often have an iron gate. Ironwork was typically simple in form and in keeping with the style of building
Roof / wall junctions - typically unadorned with little or no eaves overhang or timber fascia. Usually the roof gable has no bargeboard
Boundary wall - irregular stone walls form edges to gardens and building boundaries, usually topped by a distinctive 'cock and hen' random stone capping, or occasionally stone copings with wrought iron railings above. The grander the building, the more elaborate the boundary treatment. The walls around St Mary's Church are topped with unusual black slag block copings, a by-product of the 18th century brass industry around Bristol
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