CONTEXT 181 : SEPTEMBER 2024 37 tar, playing a leading role in the development of the synthetic dye and drug industries. From this time, coal tar became something of a wonder material and was used extensively in many industries, including building construction. This was helped by its relatively low price and the fact that it was perceived as highly durable because it dried harder than wood tar.27 Nevertheless, the latter continued to be used and was not a niche product, appearing in a list of common building materials printed in The Builder from 1885 onwards. Wood tar had a more agreeable smell and was likely preferred for indoor work, such as laying parquet floors28 and damp proofing beneath plaster.29 However, it also continued to be used externally, particularly to colour the halftimber work of Tudor Revival architecture.30 Compositions of wood and coal tar were also common for flooring and roofs, suggesting they were valued for different properties.31 Few list entry descriptions specify the type of tar but it is likely that coal tar is used in most of the buildings identified due to its widespread adoption in the mid-19th century. When plotted on a map, the 1,129 buildings are mainly distributed across the south and east of England, with the greatest concentrations in the South East and East regions. The London metropolitan area stands out as an anomaly, due to the loss of timber-framed and clad buildings in the Great Fire, subsequent laws prohibiting their construction and the continual pressures of redevelopment. Overall, the data suggests that tarring was a diverse practice, encompassing various building types, ages and social classes. The substrate is the main factor dictating the use of tar, and the results thus conform to regional patterns for material use. Weatherboarding has by far the greatest representation, particularly for agricultural buildings and coal-tar coatings may recall an earlier tradition of using wood tar. The second largest group are tarred roofs, which are mainly slate, but with two paper examples in Oxfordshire. The concentration in the west country reflects the adaptation of an earlier repair technique called ‘slurrying’ or ‘grouting’, which prolonged the life of a failing slate roof by covering it with lime mortar. Brick is also prevalent and most of the results are 19th-century tower windmills, with coal-tar coatings likely employed to stop water leaking through the mortar joints of sloping walls. This may also reflect a regional trend, as coal tar is not used on windmills in the west of England. The last significant group is tarred plinths, which are commonly seen on timber-framed and earth buildings. These are underrepresented in the data and it may be because of their ubiquity that they are often not recorded during listing inspections. Some substrates have few results and are likewise underrepresented in the data. The most notable of these are earth buildings, with only four examples, despite the frequent use of tar coatings in East Anglia, particularly for agricultural and ancillary buildings.32 More serious is the complete omission of tarred timber frames, making it seem that the material was little used in the midlands and Welsh Marches. The black-and-white ‘Tudor’ look is pervasive in these regions, almost certainly originating in the 19th century, with coal tar used to coat the timbers. A contemporary source describes these buildings as being ‘horribly and unnaturally daubed over with the blackest of gas tar’.33 Once again, it seems that tarring has not been recorded because of its ubiquity and these examples show the limitations of a desk-based approach. Nevertheless, the listed building data offers valuable insights into tar usage across the country and highlights numerous avenues for further study. References Airaksinen, M. (1996) ‘Tar production in colonial North America’, Environment and History, Vol. 2, No. 1. Airs, M. (1998) ‘The strange history of paper roofs’, Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society, Vol. 42. Bell, W. (1971) The Great Fire of London in 1666, Greenwood Press, Westport. Cochrane, A. (1785) Account of the Qualities and Uses of Coal Tar and Coal Varnish, William Smellie, Edinburgh. Colvin, H. (1971) Building Accounts of King Henry III, Clarendon Press, Oxford. Erskine, A. (1981) The Accounts of the Fabric of Exeter Cathedral 1279–1353, Devon and Cornwall Record Society, Vol. 24. Fernie, E. and Whittingham, A. (1972) The Early Communar and Pitancer Rolls of Norwich Cathedral Priory with an Account of the Building of the Cloister, Norfolk Record Society, Vol. 41. Garrioch, D. (2016) ‘1666 and London’s fire history: a re-evaluation’. The Historical Journal, 59, 2. Hennius, A. (2018) ‘Viking age tar production and outland exploitation’, Antiquity, Vol. 92, Issue 365. Historic England (2015) Earth, Brick and Terracotta, Ashgate Publishing, Farnham. Kirby, D. (1974) ‘The Royal Navy’s quest for pitch and tar during the reign of Queen Anne’, Scandinavian Economic History Review, Vol. 22, No. 2. Knights, M. (1999) Norfolk Wood Tar Project Report, unpublished. Neve, R. (1736) The City and Country Purchaser’s and Bulder’s Dictionary: or, the Complete Builder’s Guide. Sprint, Brown, Osborn, Birt, Linton and Wilde, London. Salzman, L. (1952) Building in England Down to 1540: a documentary history. Oxford University Press. Schofield, J. (1991) ‘The construction of medieval and Tudor houses in London’, Construction History, Vol. 7. Smout, T., MacDonald, A. and Watson, F. (2004) A History of the Native Woodlands of Scotland, 1500–1920. Edinburgh University Press. Thomas, R. (2020) The Manufactured Gas Industry, Historic England Research Report Series, No. 182–2020. Thun, T., Stornes, J., Bartholin, T. and Svarva, H. (2016) ‘Dendrochronology brings new life to the stave churches’, in K. Bakken (ed.) Preserving the Stave Churches: craftsmanship and research, Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage. Belle Neilson is a historic buildings supervisor at Oxford Archaeology with an interest in workingclass domestic architecture and reconstructing the lives of the occupants. 27 The Sun, ‘Paints and coal-tar prepared for out door painting’, 18 Mar 1805 28 The Builder 1883, ‘Elm block floors’, Vol. 45 29 The Builder 1872, ‘Pitch as a protection against damp’, Vol. 30 30 The Builder 1888, ‘Residence at Sutton, Surrey’, Vol. 55 31 The Builder 1858, ‘Cement composition for roofing’, Vol. 16 32 Historic England 2015 33 Stratford-uponAvon Herald, ‘Anne Hathaway’s Cottage’, 11 Mar 1887
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