one-day course wattle & daub

venue: Old Hall, Suffolk

For thousands of years people have built the walls of their houses from the natural materials found nearby. Course tutor Richard King will talk about the history of this traditional and extremely natural style of building, and you can have a go yourself.

Wattle walls are made from woven sticks harvested locally, then split, prepared and cut to length. Vertical staves are fitted between the timber frames of the wall, then wattles are cut to length and woven between the wall staves.

Then the walls are made solid and weatherproof with a daub of soil, straw and other natural materials inside and out. A tough long-lasting wall can be made this way. The daub goes on in two coats. The first daub mix is a base layer of soil, clay and straw. The second mix is the same but with horse hair and a small amount of lime to make a weatherproof skin coat.

This practical course will give you the confidence to have a go for yourself and preserve this ancient craft - with emphasis on:

• safe use of a bill hook for preparing sticks
• weaving a wattle wall
• two types of daub mix for different applications

finished wattle & daub panel on the open-air workshop at Old Hall; the final coat contains horse-hair and a small amount of lime

mixing the daub can give you the opportunity of practicing your salsa dancing skills too