The Buildings
Eastwood's coal output grew from half a million tonnes in 1848 to sixteen million by 1900, and the mine owners Barber and Walker housed their workers in about 300 terraced cottages on Princes Street, Victoria Street, Albert Street, Scargill Street and Wellington Street. Known as The Buildings, they were laid out in a grid around shared yards, are among the earliest company housing in the country, and were saved from demolition by a council scheme. D. H. Lawrence was born at 8a Victoria Street in 1885, now the D. H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum. Cottages from that period would have been finished with lime plaster on laths overhead and lime plaster on the solid brick walls.
Boarding an old terrace sensibly
That matters when something needs replacing. A cracked or sagging ceiling in a 19th-century cottage can be boarded over or stripped back to the joists, and both work well. Walls are a different matter. Solid brick finished in lime lets moisture escape, and covering it with board on adhesive dabs can trap damp, especially on outside walls. For walls in older cottages we usually look at repairing the existing plaster before suggesting board. The Buildings sit inside Eastwood's conservation area, designated in 1977, and 36 to 39 Scargill Walk and 8a Victoria Street are among its ten Grade II listed buildings. In a listed home, interior changes can need consent.
Nottingham Road and Church Street
The conservation area has two other zones. Nottingham Road has Victorian red brick shops of two and three storeys with slate roofs. On upper floors under a roof, a leak can soak a ceiling quickly, and water-damaged board or lath has to be cut back to sound material before new board goes in. Church Street has detached houses in their own grounds behind walls and trees, where a large ceiling or a stairwell can be a sizeable boarding job that needs a proper working platform over the stairs. Not every Eastwood job involves an old house, of course: extensions, loft rooms and bathroom refits all need boarding too, and the same board choices apply anywhere.
Contact us
Eastwood is about eight miles west-north-west of our base in Mapperley, and Nottingham Road leads onto the A610, so it is an easy run for us. Call 07877 353120 or send photos through the enquiry form, and mention whether the house is listed or in the conservation area, as that shapes the plan. We cover the whole town, out towards Giltbrook, seven days a week, 7am to 5pm.
