Black & White Trail
1.9.21
Black & white buildings in Weobley, Dilwyn, Swainshill and Ludlow.
We wander through Herefordshire and Shropshire for a few days, along parts of the Black & White Village Trail.
I’d always assumed the older buildings were Tudor, and that’s how they’re generally referred to; but some date back to medieval times. Indeed many of these older half-timbered buildings are not black and white at all, but with the oak naturally weathered and the walls reflecting the colour of local clay. It was probably during the first Tudor Revival in the late Victorian period that there was a preference for the wood to be stained black and the walls whitewashed.
The next revival in 20th century suburban housebuilding - in areas like the one I grew up in - was now termed Mock Tudor or Tudorbethan. It turned what was once an attractive structural style of building into pastiche, with the distinctive half-timbered appearance applied purely as a decorative device to the finished building.
I’d always assumed the older buildings were Tudor, and that’s how they’re generally referred to; but some date back to medieval times. Indeed many of these older half-timbered buildings are not black and white at all, but with the oak naturally weathered and the walls reflecting the colour of local clay. It was probably during the first Tudor Revival in the late Victorian period that there was a preference for the wood to be stained black and the walls whitewashed.
The next revival in 20th century suburban housebuilding - in areas like the one I grew up in - was now termed Mock Tudor or Tudorbethan. It turned what was once an attractive structural style of building into pastiche, with the distinctive half-timbered appearance applied purely as a decorative device to the finished building.
The half-timbered thatched cottage of my mother’s pastoral dream in Cottagecore 27.7.20