There aren’t many upsides to having a third of the walls and ceilings of our 100-year-old house stripped down and replastered. The worst downside comes every time you blow your nose. But amid the dust, soot and general carnage, what is fascinating is to see the interior of a genuine lath and plaster wall. First it highlights the durability of wood. The last time anyone saw those beams was 1894 and they look like they came from the timber yard yesterday. The only blemishes are rust marks from the thousands of nails used to attach the laths. And I know it’s a cliché to come over all dewy-eyed about olde worlde craftsmanship, but it is impressive. Even the knot-holes in the laths were lined up for neatness!
But this is not an invitation to wallow in good old days nostalgia because, as is shown by our feature on the Irish Joinery Awards – like our piece the other week on the UK Timber Industry Awards – both appreciation of timber’s performance and versatility, and those old craft skills are still alive and kicking. The Awards assessors didn’t mince their words about the lack of an entry good enough to win the commercial section. But this added weight to their praise of the winners in other categories which took wood to the edge visually and technically.
One thing our Victorian forebears didn’t have to worry about was pressure from green groups to ensure every last bit of timber was environmentally accredited from the roots up. Not that it’s a bad thing, of course. But there is a risk, particularly now the government is nailing its colours to the ‘sustainable timber’ mast, that anything that hasn’t got just the right eco-label will be shunned by specifiers and consumers when there isn’t enough of the accredited material to go round. It’s an area where a Victorian blend of principle and pragmatism is called for to ensure timber continues to be as widely used and appreciated in the century ahead as it was in the 19th and beyond.
