Keepers cottage

tuffa

 

Tuffa is often found in woodland where  springs issue from limestone rock. The high levels of calcium carbonate in the water  precipitates around the twigs and leaves on the forest floor and hardens like the deposit in a house hold kettle. The result is a beautiful lace latticework of vegetation petrified by this process. Keepers Cottage was built in such a location so it was no wonder that the original builders applied this material to the building like icing on a cake. In 1998 I was asked by Alan Hardiman to continue this icing on the new extensions built for Antony Little. Local tuffa was no longer available but we tracked some down on the Welsh borders and with the help of Anthony Griffith, right, finished the job. I carved new keystones in Bath stone for the windows and door illustrating the characters from Kenneth Grahams Wind in the Willows.