Hothouse Archaeology




The Walls
The walls on the north side of the structure were clearly built to withstand the cold winters on Mount Uniacke. They consist of two very thick dry stone walls built very close to each other.
"The wall on the back part of the house should be either laid over with stucco, or plastered with mortar and white-washed, to keep out the frost, which will penetrate through the walls, especially when it is attended with a strong wind" Miller, 1807: s.v. "Greenhouse"). Two plaster samples were recovered from the hothouse. One sample retains flakes of what might be whitewash or paint, as recommended by Miller. The walls would have been wooden, although no evidence was recovered to prove it.

Hothouse, north walls, 65kb.


The Floors
The floors of the hothouse were of two distinct types, one in the main hothouse area and one in the shed/utility area. The floor of the hothouse would have consisted of a wooden sub-floor which rested on wooden joists. The two stone features originally thought to be planting beds may actually have been piers to support the sub-floor. The raised floor would have provided an air-space to distribute heat below the floor and to provided insulation. This function is discussed further in the section on flues. Although two fragments of what are thought to be floor tiles were found, no decisive statement on the nature of the finished floor can be made.
The floor of the shed/utility area consists of a sub-floor of fieldstones and brick fragments up to thirty centimeters thick and almost level with the top of the hothouse sub-floor. This floor appears to have been dirt.

Hothouse and shed/utility area, looking south, 64kb.


The Fireplace
The 1992 excavations uncovered what is interpreted as the footing of a brick ash grate for a fireplace located in the shed/utility area. Its interior  measures one meter wide by twenty-seven centimeters high, by fifty-five centimeters deep. The fuel would have been stored in the shed and that is where the fireplace would have been fed. The heat would have been distributed through a flue system running from the fireplace along the north wall to at least the east wall.
Shawn Miner cleaning the flue wall, 62kb.



Evidence for the flue was found when a section of a small east-west running wall was uncovered. The forty centimeter high wall had a flat top covered by forty centimeters of collapse. Included in the collapse were deposits of a light, bubbly, clinker-like material, the result of heating solid fuel to a very high temperature. This residue is thought to be the result of burning peat in the fireplace, a fuel recommended by Millar if coal was less plentiful: "...when coals can be had reasonable, it is the best kind of fuel... The next best fuel for stoves (hothouses) is peat, where it can be procured good... There are some people who burn wood in their stoves, but this fuel requires much greater attendance than any other, therefore it is not proper for this purpose."
Hothouse, looking north at the flue wall's south face, 66kb.




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