Published: Thursday, 11th September, 2008 12:00
Retro: Flint house enigma
By David Cliffe, Reading Central Library
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BEFORE embarking on this week’s mystery scene, perhaps I should say that the well in the photograph published on the Retro page on June 26 has been identified.
It was the Cherry Tree Well, Bunce’s Lane, Burghfield Common. In fact, the cherry tree itself appears in the photograph, in front of the thatched cottage. My thanks must go to the gentleman who telephoned to let me know about this.
The same photographer, Harold Augustine Giles, has set us this week’s poser as well.
In a roundabout way, perhaps we should be grateful that he was so bad about writing down the subjects of his postcards on the back, because of the interest these articles have created!
The house looks very neat, and very substantial, but where was it? The postcard was in the same envelope as postcards of Goring and Goring Heath, taken in the 1930s.
It is unusual in as much as it appears to be built of flint – or at least, the front of it which we can see. The flints are knapped so precisely that they can be laid in courses, like bricks.
If you peer at the original postcard through a magnifying glass, you can see that all the exposed surfaces appear to be more or less square, with none of the 'headers’ and 'stretchers’ which can be seen in the brick garden wall, laid in Flemish bond.
There are brick quoins, and three courses of bricks at first floor level and the window and door arches are in brick.
Perhaps it’s a farmhouse – there appear to be single-storey farm buildings to the left. The house looks incredibly trim, with the grass verge neatly cut, and a row of bedding plants evenly spaced, in front of the garden wall. This wall, with its stone balls and pedestals, looks newer than the house.
Please get in touch if you recognise the house – or if you are lucky enough to live in it!
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