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" An insular architecture : "
Tutt, Patricia Adrienne
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1100474
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TLets632557
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| Main Entry
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Tutt, Patricia Adrienne
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| Title & Author
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An insular architecture :\ Tutt, Patricia Adrienne
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| College
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University of Liverpool
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| Date
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2012
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| student score
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2012
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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The Isle of Man is not part of the United Kingdom and its history does not match up with thehistories of any of the adjacent isles, large or small. It has been ruled by Viking, Scots and EnglishKings and Lords and, although finally vested in the English Crown in 1765 (in the Act of Revestment),it retains its own government and administration and is politically independent of the UnitedKingdom except in matters of foreign affairs and defence. IN 1406 Henry IV gifted the island as afeudatory estate to Sir John Stanley of Knowsley, Lancashire, and his heirs and it remained theirsuntil 1765, becoming a Crown dependency in 1828 when the all the feudatory rights were finallyextinguished. This period of over three hundred and fifty years, when the island was held byabsentee landlords, set the scene for the emerging vernacular architecture.Isolation is implicit in the development and continuity of any particular vernacular architecture andthis 'otherness' is particularly apparent on islands which have been large enough to sustain adistinctive vernacular, and appears to be most sharply rendered when insularity is reinforced bydistance, language difference, and cultural separation of the rural population from an introducedadministrative class. These criteria all apply in the Isle of Man, where there was also a uniquepattern of land distribution and tenure that influenced the distribution of farms, and led to theabsence of hamlets and farm clusters, and a lack of any good architectural precedent to act asstimulus or exemplars. The Stanleys rarely visited, stayed in their apartments in the castles whenthey did, and apart from the Bishop (a Stanley appointee) there were no other major landholdersbuilding manor houses, or high gentry building grand houses. These constraints have produced anaustere vernacular architecture that is superficially similar, but in reality marked by difference, tothat of the rest of the Atlantic zone of the British Isles where stone was a plentiful resource andtimber a scarce one.Whilst differences arise in the details of construction, the greatest degree of difference is exhibited bythe lack of significant variation in types and forms, there being markedly fewer types and variationsthan might be expected in a comparable area elsewhere. This can best be described as an absence ofvariation - in plan form, roof construction, wall decoration and elevational treatment; an absence orrarity of certain types and elements - hips, hall house types and central fireplaces; and limitedtechnological development of certain details, especially joinery features such as dormers.The differences are particularly manifest in several characteristics, including: the raising to twostoreys of even modest dwellings, and the consequent absence (with very rare exceptions) of theone-and-a-half storey dormered dwelling; the extensive and fastidious use of wheat straw ropes(suggane) secured to stone or brick pegs (bwhid suggane) set into the wall below the eaves, unlikethe rather ad-hoc and very localised way in which this technique was used elsewhere in the region;the use of gables (rather than hips) and the treatment of the gable and eaves verges in response tosevere weather conditions; and the extent to which quartz was and is used to decorate walls andgateposts.This paper describes the vernacular architecture and landscape of the Isle of Man, identifies thecharacteristics that make it unique, and discusses the causes of their evolution. In doing so,extensive use is made of new field work and archive material not previously publishe
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University of Liverpool
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