Villages for the Franco-Prussian War - Part 3: The First of the Village Houses.

The plan for the Lorraine village is to make the village church (completed) and eight or ten villages houses. This post shows the first three (well four really) pieces.

The typical Lorraine village, called village-rue, is made up mainly of byre houses all built in a row along the rue principale or "high street" that was generally the only street in the village. The village houses were joined each other so that a solid row of houses is formed along the road. A intersecting road might be similarly lined with row houses.

The Lorraine byre house was a farm house in which the living quarters on one side of the building, in two storeys, and storage farm machines or animals in the other. Walls were of stone and are either rendered or simply whitewashed. The lintels, jambs and sills of the windows and doors were typically local sandstone or limestone. Wooden shutters were fitted to windows.  A fuller description  of Lorraine houses can be found on John Boadle's blog (Link).

The first piece shown here is a byre house with the barn living quarters on the left and the barn on the right. Usually there would be a barn door front and back so that carts and wagons could be run through to a yard behind, but I have chosen not to do that in this case, but other models on the work desk will be built like that.

Front

The second piece is also a byre house.

Front

Back

The third piece is two smaller houses, perhaps workers houses, on a single base. I have to admit I would not like to live in that little house with the steps...it would be OK  on the uppe floor, but downstairs with just those two little windows would make it pretty dark and dingy...

Front

Back

The ends of these two blocks have been left smooth so that they can be positioned side by side. I have painted a few cracks and carved a few areas exposed stonework into the MDF to break up the visual smoothness of the surface.

This will  allow the street rows to be organised into different combinations.

The forms for several more buildings have been assembled ready for detailing to be applied.