In August 2005 a gentleman called Loz Simpson, a Sculptor contacted me and told me he had been commissioned by Stockport Borough Council regarding the production of a model of the "living museum" which is Staircase House in Stockport. Loz asked if I would be interested in helping to produce this model by using wood veneer on the outside of the plywood carcasses of the parts which would make up the model and because much of the original building was timber framed it would be necessary to work in relief rather than the inlaid method that we normally use. I agreed to help and made a few sample pieces so that Loz could show to the people for whom he was working. These sample pieces were well received and my work really began and I will try to give you some idea about the task.

Staircase house started life in 1460 as a Cruck barn which was built on the top of a small hill in what is now called Stockport. This barn housed a family and their cattle. It is believed that this family lived in this barn for perhaps the next 100 years and in that time they became more affluent so they enlarged the barn into a two storied house. Apparently when people built houses or barns they looked around for any other buildings that were being dismantled and bought the old pieces of wool and used them in the construction of their own building, which is why timber framed buildings haven't all got neat straight pieces of wood in their make up Wood from the original Cruck barn can still be seen in the museum.

Gradually over the following centuries pieces of roof were removed and used to provide space for what became a "jetted wing". Further buildings were attached to the originals one being a barn warehouse, another timber framed building where the walls between the timbers were made as had all the others, using wattle and daub and to give the daub a reddish colour animal blood was mixed with the mud and straw

A box framed building was attached and over the years further extensions were attached and because of the contours of the hill on which it stood these extensions grew to be three storeys high.

Over the centuries it appears that the house changed hands a few times and each of the new owners placed their own mark on it and when wattle and daub went out of fashion a stone wing was built plus a further single story barn using the old methods.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries brick buildings became the fashion and further extensions were made and in one of these extensions was a very elaborately carved staircase from which the building gets its name. Unfortunately this was partly destroyed in a fire but has been restored by English Heritage who have been involved with making this museum available to us today.

Loz supplied me with detailed drawings of each of the building that we can see and some that we can't see because they are now hidden within other extensions but they are so detailed that I had to make sure that the total thickness of veneer that I used on each of the faces of each building was 6mm. otherwise the model would not fit together. He even told me that this roof should have twelve rows of tiles, that roof should have sixteen rows of tiles, the doors should have hinges . Fortunately he didn't ask for the windows to open or have curtains.

Altogether the model which I finished in February this year, consisted of thirteen separate units most of which had to have four coated sides. It was very challenging but very interesting.

Staircase House is located in Market Street, Stockport and when visitors go in they are given a hand set which explains where you are in the building - and in the basement there is a CD ROM which shows the development of the actual building. This is very well done, but to anyone visually impaired, useless. For example, how do you tell a blind person that the house they are in is a timber framed building, or is made of brick, or whatever. The model that I have helped to make is to be used, using numbers in braille located in the bottom of each piece and that will correspond to a slot in the stand which has been made to accommodate the whole model and by running their fingers over the raised veneer timbers they will be able to get some idea of what the outside of the building is like and be able to fit the building together themselves.

It is also going to be taken to local schools and institutions for further people to be able to understand.

I feel very proud to have been asked to get involved in this project and to have made new friends in Loz Simpson and his family and having been to STAIRCASE HOUSE, I am amazed at how he could ever have worked out how everything went together. Well done Loz.!!

If you ever get the chance, go and have a look for yourself, it’s very interesting.

Roy Murton,

Chairman Redbridge Marquetry Group.