Sunday 18 January 2015

On Yer Arris

Castle work is an ever eternal spring of new vocabulary. My builder Andy kept talking about the arris when we discussed fireplace installation.  As I did not wish to reveal my ignorance after several weeks of feigned understanding on my behalf, a recent trip to Wikipedia proved rewarding. An arris is the "sharp edge caused by the intersection of two surfaces". Of course, all internal and eternal corners are thus arrises, but round some of the fireplaces at Balintore there are funny surfaces at 45 degrees, which yield noteworthy and challenging angles or arrises.

The fireplace below has just been installed to replace an original marble one that has long since been ripped out. You may recognise the fireplace from an earlier blog post where I picked it up close to Ascot.  You can see that the mantle shelf juts out into free space on the left side, and embeds itself into the wall on the right - weird? Well, the marks on the walls indicate that this is entirely as it was originally, and that the reclaimed fireplace is exactly the same size as the original.



reclaimed fireplace installed in Balintore bedroom

None-the-less I was left with some residual arris guilt, in the sense that although we had adhered to conservation practice, the spatial arrangement wasn't entirely satisfactory. Cut to the Downton Abbey Christmas episode which I have just watched. What jumped out at me is a rather sad admission. In one of the bedrooms there is also a fireplace installed on unfortunate arrises. Can you see they have given the wall a little kick on the right hand side of the fireplace so that the fireplace does not cut into the wall as at Balintore.


fireplace in Downton Abbey bedroom

Anyhow, who would have thought that Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, would have absolved my arris guilt?  Thanks to Barrie and Andy for the installation work. I merely helped lug the bits about!


4 comments:

  1. Hi David, I am really interesting in your restoration at balintore castle. My family lived in the farm burnside for years. Irene

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    1. Hi Irene, thanks for your comment and your interest. Are you still local? You must come and visit. David

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  2. hi david ,my cousin and I came to see the castle a couple of years ago and still talk about it .poor you having been thru the mill with your back .I hope your better and take it easy would love to see the place and I bet we wouldnt recognise it with all the work you have done .hopefully when the better weather comes round we can pop in for a sneek around and we will bring muffins all the best catherine and violet xxxx

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    1. I recall your visit well - it was fun! Thanks to the back operation, I am fully mobile again which is a huge relief. I'm even more cautious about lifting things. Please pop around in the better weather - connect up with me on Facebook (I am MrBalintore) to make the arrangements. Best wishes, David

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