Ty-Mawr blog

Timber-frame and Whimberry Pie

A busy but productive bank holiday - Nigel, John and Marshon managed to put the timber-frame building up that was prepared by participants on the Summer School for the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment - almost everything went together! As time allows, we will stone tile roof this little building that was really designed to give some structural support to the 'leaning' granary but adds to the examples of building techniques on the Ty-Mawr site which now include plenty of original solid stone walls (with varying breathable finishes internally and externally), modern timber-frame build with our sheep's wool and wood wool board infill finished in a glaster self-coloured render, thatching, diminishing stone tile roof, reclaimed Welsh slate roof, limecrete and lime hemp floors and soon we hope to add an earth building. 

 

 

We had 12 visitors - so had lots of lovely windy walks including one very wet one whimberry picking on Mynydd Llangorse. The hill looks down across the valley of my ancestral home/farm so it is a special spot, one that we all really love. It is easy to imagine my great great grandmother on the same ridge doing the same timeless, satisfying activity looking forward to the resulting pie just like us. Our guests were from various parts of the world, the half Sicilians were really struggling with the weather, to make it worthwhile, we thought we would serve a traditional (warming!) Sunday roast with fabulous Welsh leg of lamb followed by a cobbler from all the berries, plums, apples and pears that the boys had been harvesting and lots of custard - it worked! They all left warm and happy.

The weekend started with a sad farewell as Cai finished Nursery - so the end of a daily routine lasting 5 and a half years for me - Cai picked the most beatiful bunch of flowers from the kitchen garden for his 'best girl' - Steph!

             

It concluded with a lovely morning kite flying and then saying good-bye to Issy who has been helpng with the boys and hospitality for the summer - she sails off with Cunard line - we are all broken-hearted but wish her all the best - and start interviewing for another 'angel' to help us all!

 Escape!

Summers are so busy and we are pleased to say that this has been our busiest ever on sales of lime, lime hemp, glaster, our Welsh wool insulation and our wood wool boards - everyone has worked so hard to make sure that we have been able to meet unprecedented demand. Page downloads on our website continue to grow with almost 34,000 on one day last Tuesday! Fantastic to see this level of interest in all of our materials!

However, it is hard to take any time at all off over the summer (not complaining!) but I have at least managed a few trips with the boys - one at the Wild Welsh Zoo which the boys absolutely loved. We had followed the programme last Autumn and the two older boys were really inspired by Steve the gibbons story of being let out of a cage for the first time and how Anna and her family built him a fabulous island so that he could swing in the trees for the first time ever. I think Steve must have known how excited the boys were to see him, he performed beautifully, swinging in the trees and showing off his new girlfriend while we stood watching in the pouring rain (which of course the boys didn't even notice!).  We were also keen to see our thatching friends - Alun and Dafydd's work on some new round houses in the park which look fantastic, we want one now for our chickens - perhaps we can pursuade them! It was really refreshing to see the attention paid to using local businesses, local crafts and foods, lovely helpful staff (especially the lady in the ticket office who suggested I have a pushchair for Cai and then produced one!), recylcing bins, biodregradeable coffee cups, loads of wonderful space and space hoppers! for families without too many commercial pressures, just great.

After a busy weekend with Ty-Mawr exhibiting at both the Green Man (fabulous if a little soggy) and Llandeilo show, we have some old friends over from Germany and Cirencester to try to make the most of what remains of the summer hols! We thought it a nice opportunity to head off to the World Heritage site just down the road in Blaenavon to which we have supplied lots of lime materials over the years to the various buildings and the canals. As you can see - it was a little fresh which had caused a technical hitch or two in Big Pit but even in horizontal rain, it really is an impressive visit.

            

                 Antje, Axel, Chris, Lucian, Hen, Harvey and Cai at Big Pit

Greenham Common and Morris Minors!

We've had a week of unlikely but very happy reunions!

On our double introduction/plastering day, we had a fantastic group of enthusiastic people from all over the country. One, long time customer, Sian, camped in our little orchard and whilst talking to others on the course over lunch about camping, learned that another lady was at the Greenham Common Women's Peace camp on the same day as her all those years ago, but not only were their paths crossing again here on the lime day, another gentleman, also on the course, was also there that same day - policing the event!

                                                

                  Sorry Sian - Mrs Guinea decided to keep Sian company camping

- lovely as she (he? we haven't had an egg in three years!) is - she/he is rather noisy!

Our second reunion was with an engineer from Dulas, he has been staying at Ty-Mawr this week whilst installing a monitoring system on our biomass boiler and heat recovery system (so that we can monitor our heat usage and assess what source of heat is contributing what at any given time) - more later - but we discovered that he lived in the same village as Nigel (40 something years ago) and went to the same primary school, so over supper, they started to recollect times spent together in their youth which mostly revolved around doing up old cars and bikes includings papering a Morris Minor with the Times - not quite sure why! But how lovely, misspent youths brought together again decades later whilst working on this pioneering project helping us to ensure that we are doing all we can to reduce our carbon footprint and collecting enough information and evidence to try to inspire others to do the same.

We all collapsed after a really busy week and a fantastic Thai meal (thanks Marcus!) and lovely bottle of wine (thanks Dave!) watching a film sent to us by a happy lime hemp customer - Saving Grace! - in front of the fire with one of the plastering tutors (Dave), Marcus and the three boys mostly sleeping with glowing red faces - heaven!

Sian was so surprised at her reunion, and Marcus his, I am starting to become less surprised, Ty-Mawr is a meeting place...a place where so frequently paths seem to cross.

We are looking forward to meeting our friends from the Green Man Festival this week as they visit to collect any 'old' paints that we have to use in Einstein's garden - it looked fabulous last year, and we are getting our little house ready to take and we have work to do for the local show! Henry has won the craft cup at the for three years out of four so is starting to work on exhibits - unfortunately Nigel used his best brown eggs this morning, that he had been carefully selecting this week, poor chap - still breakfast was great!

Landrover and Lake

As always, it was a great pleasure to have the SPAB Fellows - Phil, Phil, Tom and John, visit us at Ty-Mawr for a tour of the manufacturing site, training centre as well as the distribution warehouse. They also had a tour of the local area, rowed across the lake (and back!) after refreshments at the newly refurbished local pub on the other side of the lake!

               

SPAB Fellows with Nigel and Henry (and Paddy) in our 1954, Series 1 Landrover - heading off to the boat to row across the lake for supper on the Northern-side!

The Prince of Wales visiting the Summer School

Today, His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales called in to Ty-Mawr to meet each and every one of the 30 participants attending the Summer School organised by The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment. He visited them in each of their workshops so that everyone could show off their new found skills - timber-framing, oak peg making, plaster casting, lime plastering, thatching and drystone walling. The Prince joined in with the thatching workshop - click here for more information - and here for lots of pictures taken by the Brecon and Radnor Express - more to come soon! 

        

Bishop and Barns

As well as welcoming 30 participants on the Summer School organised by the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment today (July 26th), we also received a visit from The Rt. Rev’d John Davies, Bishop of Swansea and Brecon. The Bishop was shown around the house, training centre, demonstration house and plastering workshops and briefly joined each of the groups looking at decorative plasterwork, pointing with lime, thatching and building with lime.

He enjoyed the history of the various buildings and in particular - the big barn which Nigel calls 'his church' - a wonderful building to stop and reflect, to enjoy a sense of space and peace. The stone barn with large reclaimed oak beams (reclaimed when it was built from a former building) is untouched and tells us much about former residents as well as building principles.

Nigel said "that buildings like this are why we are doing what we are doing, too many have been lost as they have been seen as a good investment and converted to housing but there is something very special about a simple barn like this and we feel it is part of the reason why we are here - to care for it for future generations but it is not a museum, it has to work for its living and all sorts of things happen in here - Joyce and I got married in here, it is a wood work shop, it is a canteen, a wood store, a tool store, a recycling centre etc etc. It is a luxury though and one that is hard to justify but it is one we are determined to keep and to continue to enjoy as it is!".

              

                  

Nigel showing the Bishop some grafitti on the lime plaster from 1919 - little bits of history too often lost in our busy world!

Teeth and Ducks

In between the Royal Welsh Show finishing on the Friday and the Summer School starting on the Monday - life was very eventful at Ty-Mawr. Henry, now 10, had to have an emergency tooth extraction on Friday night (when we were trying to organise marquee, blow up balloons, mow grass etc) in readiness for my brothers wedding on our lawn at Ty-Mawr on the Saturday. Despite the preparation being rather eventful, we all had a fabulous day - a moving service followed by a dog and duck display, a wonderful meal (thank you Charlotte Roskill!), much talking, drinking, catching up with family and friends and sitting admiring the view, followed by a fabulous swing band from Haverfordwest and fireworks and lanterns all around the gardens. Henry made his debut perfomance on drums and electric guitar at 2am (assisted? by his mother!). 

The bride and groom left last night on a 2 day honeymoon, as returning to work on Thursday!  Bless you both, thank you for a lovely day and for bringing so many wonderful people to Ty-Mawr - we hope you are enjoying where ever you are (I suspect it might have something to do with sheep - sorry Freya!!!!).

                     

Bride and Groom - Deri and Freya - part of the dog and duck display with Meirion Owen and the Quack Pack!

Royal Welsh

From the 19th-22nd July, Ty-Mawr was exhibiting at the Royal Welsh Show which had some of the highest attendance figures - more than 230,870 people passed through the Llanelwedd turnstiles ─ the fourth highest figure in the 47 years since the society set down permanent roots in Builth Wells.

On the Wednesday, Ty-Mawr held a wool reception as part of the Campaign for Wool - see below - attracting visitors from CADW, the Prince's Regeneration Trust, the Wool Marketing Board, conservation officers, architects and local contractors etc - all interested in the sheep's wool insulation product and how to promote and use natural building materials in today's buildings as well as old buildings.

As always, the Royal Welsh is part of the highlight of our year for the whole family and I am very proud to say that this year my parents and brother won the all Wales flock competition with their Texel flock and of course, the highlight for the three boys was the fabulous JCB 'dancing digger' display, with the giant vegetable display coming a close second. Henry bought one of the prize winning leeks as well as one of the longest carrots and parsnips - gives us quite something to aim for!

                  

Issy and the boys watching the dancing diggers - life really doesn't get much better for a little chap!

                   

Henry (with the leek) got carried away with his pocket money in the giant vegetable section auction on the last night!! Our extended Royal Welsh family - who's parents also exhibit at the Royal Welsh - seemed impressed!

 

                     

Demonstration house arriving back at Ty-Mawr - next week it will be thatched as part of the Summer School for the Prince's Foundation

Wool and Windows!

On Monday 28th June, we travelled West to the launch in Wales of the Campaign for Wool. The news that HRH The Prince of Wales has officially become Patron of the Campaign for Wool was described as ‘the best thing that has happened to the wool industry for years’ by Ian Hartley CEO of the British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) giving the industry a much needed boost.

The Prince announced his official commitment to the sheep farmer and wool industry at the gathering of the farming, wool, textile, building and retail sectors at the National Woollen Museum in Llandysul,(Dyfed).

We were introduced to the Prince along with Christine Armstrong from Second Nature UK Ltd who manufactures our Welsh Wool Insulation and Douglas Kent from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. We spoke of our concern about the need to use approrpiate 'breathable' insulation materials in old buildings and the urgent requirement to raise awareness of why this is important to health and longevity of these buildings.

               

As well as talking all things wool, we were really pleased after so many years to meet Howies who are long time customers and of course great pioneers of rethinking clothing with care for the environment and also to meet new inspiring companies like Makepiece who deserve a look - absolutely stunning!

Back at the farm, our ceilngs in the attic are down (they have been trying for longer than we have owned Ty-Mawr) and the windows are out for the shutes to take it all away! We have a lovely new helper with the boys and house for the summer - Issy - who has bravely battled in her first week with dust like you have never seen (she's been very polite!) - I keep promising that things can only get better, well less dusty anyway!

The boys, Nigel and I managed to do some planting in the front borders of some new shrubs and flowers to add a bit more structure and colour (especially before my brother's wedding here in a few weeks time and the Summer School), unfortunately the chickens have decided to rearrange most of them so we have been doing some replanting this week and playing - find the shrub! The boys had great fun choosing the plants - "theme - hot" from our nearest neighbour Beacons Nurseries which is located in an 18th century walled kitchen garden in the grounds of Treberfydd House, they had some free strawberry plants to come away with - yet more fruit to harvest!!

Energy Efficiency, Exhibitions and Sunshine

June has been full of training days, CPDS and exhibitions including a day on Energy Efficiency in Old Buildings that we ran in Dinefwr for the Tywi Afon Yr Oesoedd project - click here for Radio interview about the day - we had some interesting sessions on air tightness, ventilation, breathing buildings, thermal mass - some of the people involved then came camping for the weekend so we could continue discussions around a camp fire while our children and theirs rushed around collecting sticks and cooking marshmallows. We also had some very good organic Welsh lamb from a friend/customer - thanks Kate!

                        

Yesterday, the 25th June, we exhibited at Coed D'arcy, a local materials and skills event organised by the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, and ran a lime hemp plastering demonstration with some young, local guys who are involved in a wonderful project called Positive Directions. They did a demonstration for The Prince of Wales as he toured the exhibition, much to their delight, he stopped to talk to them about what they are doing. Hopefully, the group will visit us at Ty-Mawr to see how the products are made and used and we will maintain contact - they couldn't have been a nicer group.

The Prince spoke of his enthusiasm for natural materials, locally procured and he then launched the Sustainable Supply Chain that His Foundation for the Built Environment have been co-ordinating. It was quite a moving moment in our lives, after 16 years of trying to make these materials valid and credible and so often being rejected for a whole variety of reasons/concerns, it was truly wonderful to hear what was being said and to feel the enthusiam and support for businesses like ours who were attending the event. We so look forward to seeing the work unfold and the networks build and very much look forward to being part of that and to see the progress over the next 25 years at Coed D'arcy (4,000 home development near Neath) - you can only but admire the ambition and resolve of those involved to make a project like this one happen. It was also lovely to catch up with so many familiar faces too - people who have been working at raising the profile of these materials for years and years and I think it is amazing to see that they are still every bit as passionate and committed after all this time!

                                            

Back to the farm and the boys, more campers to play with whist Henry and Cai (above) and I try to get on top of the garden and start harvesting the mountains of red and black currants and make some jelly and pies. Nigel is trying to unpack after the exhibition before doing more limecrete floors - this time in the big barn - and then get organised for a big day here on Tuesday for those caring for Churches and Chapels in mid Wales - a day funded by GLASU - an organisation who have believed in us and supported and encouraged us for years (it is thanks to them the limecrete floor got on its way to being a fully tested and approved and (specified now) system!

New Recruits!

After being short staffed for almost a month, we were very pleased to be joined this week - 14th June - by Bravin Bowker (Business Development Manager) and Greig Wilkinson (Product and Sales Adviser). As a business, we are completely inundated with information requests receiving 60-100 calls per day, with 5 of us usually on phones, the hits on the website are between 20-30,000 most days with 4-5,000 page downloads. I received between 20-47 emails per day from people wanting advice, quotations and orders, so we in the Brecon unit are pleased to have more support and really look forward to working with them both!

It is a very interesting time for the industry, the interest is growing, hopefully people will have the heart to carry that interest through to actual projects and certainly the team in Brecon could not work harder or be more supportive of people to help them feel confident in the products and systems that we make and sell to tey to ensure successful projects that will help to spread the word!

Diggers, dumpers and ducks

June 9th - Mike Page returns with diggers and dumpers, it is an exciting place for small boys at the moment, to excavate the footings for our 'supporting' lean-to timber-frame building on the west elevation of the granary block. John Munro, ex-Ty-Mawr product support, is returning to build the structure over the summer as part of the Summer School in July for the Prince's Foundation. John constructed our timber-framed exhibition house that we took out to Washington D.C. last year as part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall. This year he will be sharing his carpentry skills as part of the Summer School along with lime plasterers, thatchers and dry stone wallers.

Whilst here, Mike is also resurfacing the production yard and excavating a small pond for our latest additions - Laurel and Hardy - our new ducks - although the geese - Hissy and Missy - are not at all popular with the boys after enjoying a day in (and destroying) the paddling pool whilst the boys were at school!

                           

Andy Brown, Production Assistant, managed to escape the production yard for long enough to finish mounting the plaque on the north side of the Training Centre commemorating its opening last year by Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall. It looks wonderful, designed by Rory Young and carved in Forest of Dean stone, perfectly complementing the beautiful local sandstone, earthy yellow ochre and burnt umber limewash and grey oak of the surrounding buildings.

                                       

                                   Rory Young, Stone Carver and Conservator (next to his

                                   commemorative plaque for the Royal Visit) now in situ on the

                                         northern elevation of the Training Centre, July 2010.

Greener Homes and Rugby

Whilst Paul Ireland (Product and Sales Adviser), Ross and Mark (guest plasterers) held fort at the Greener Homes show in Builth Wells, where they were demonstrating our lime hemp plaster on the exhibition house, Nigel, the boys and I escaped to Cardiff to watch Wales play South Africa in the Millenium stadium (for the first time as a family - yes we even took Cai now 3, he absolutely loved it!). An amazing game, although we lost, it was so close and such an exciting game to watch, we celebrated with a beer and pizza in the Bay - thanks Tarq and Ann - a very lovely birthday present for us all!

The exhibtion house now gets cleaned up ready for the Royal Welsh show in July.

May Bank Holiday

A very welcome day off after shows, courses and of course this is our very busy time with sales and manufacturing (thankfully after a hard winter being the coldest for 30 years - so pleased the phones are ringing and mills churning!). Friends arrived in style in 'Jester' amongst the buttercups (glorious this year) in our front field for breakfast - champagne and sausage sandwiches all round (almost made up for the lack of lie-in again!). We headed off to Hay Festival to the very wonderful Gifford's Circus before rushing back to catch up with gardening, lighting the biomass boiler and looking after campers.

                            

Nigel, the three boys (with bikes), two cousins and two dogs headed off across the lake in our (little) boat to my parents farm on the other side of the lake to help (well sort of!) with shearing - see Ty-Newydd shearing day! My best childhood memories are of shearing day and harvesting, so lovely that the boys get the opportunity to be part of these important days (and social events!) in the rural calendar. It makes me feel that whatever we can do to promote our Welsh wool insulation is vital, if it helps in any way to sustain this way of life - I wouldn't change it for anything.

Laying our first Hempcrete Floor!

In May, The Limecrete Company arrived with the Big Green Limecreting Machine (much to the delight of the three boys!) to trial mixes and laying techniques for our hempcrete floor. We are doubling the size of our plastering workshops to improve the facilities for our courses and enable us to cope with bigger groups - we have 30 for one week in July (The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment).

A busy weekend with many visitors dropping in to see how it was going - and a few rolling up their sleeves to help out. We will be monitoring progress and of course updating the website with our results.