Pebbledash is a horrid creation made by builders who hate houses

It became popular here in England when the first housing boom started in the 1920s and builders were throwing houses up at a rate so fast that good brickwork suffered. Then house owners started using pebbledash to hide (like in Stu's case) bad brickwork as it was cheaper to chuck on some ugly render than fix the pointing. Then to the eternal and never ending shame of Britain some people actually thought this abomination looked nice and put it on their houses for the joy of it

Peddledash actually lowers the value of some homes, it is so hated here now. Thankfully.

The best pointing in the world isn't going to protect you from west coast of Scotland weather. It's functional where I live.

This thread has taken an unexpected turn.

Khamûl wrote:

The best pointing in the world isn't going to protect you from west coast of Scotland weather. It's functional where I live.

This thread has taken an unexpected turn.

I should clarify that my old convict-built house was actually excellently pointed by the convicts. It was the Italians in the Mid-1960s that rendered it. Australian Italians would render anything they could get their hands on in those days, basically, especially if they were adding an extension.

Khamûl wrote:

The best pointing in the world isn't going to protect you from west coast of Scotland weather. It's functional where I live.

This thread has taken an unexpected turn.

Definitely needed in your neck of the woods. What most people in the North West of England call cold is shorts and t-shirt weather up there.

You are correct. Project Northmoor to pebbledash.

Ian McKellen just tweeted, could someone in the US see if there is any info of note?

https://twitter.com/IanMcKellen/status/1337844437800521728

Nothing new in the article, seems to be a copy of the PR on the Project Northmoor website.

Thanks Trotter

I use a browser VPN to get round this website stupidity.

Given the very low number of YouTube viewings on these videos, I can't imagine the project is anything other than dead in the water.

Stu wrote:

Given the very low number of YouTube viewings on these videos, I can't imagine the project is anything other than dead in the water.

They now have 11.7% raised which is a 1.7% increase since the 7th iirc. SO even after that video of Julia Golding and the John Rhys-Davies video they increased very little.

They had that big spurge of donations from the hardcore few but then it has died a death.

Prancing Pony thoughts on the Project

Last week, we all learned about a fundraising effort by a company called Project Northmoor that hopes to purchase Tolkien’s former home in Oxford and turn it into a center hosting creative workshops. The appeal was made with the help of a few of the actors from Peter Jackson’s adaptations and quickly made the rounds on social media, stirring up no small amount of controversy.

Given our role in the Tolkien community, many have asked us our opinion about Project Northmoor. Over the last week, we have reviewed as much information as is available, considered the statement of our friends at The Tolkien Society and the opinions of other voices in the Tolkien fandom, and discussed our thoughts, hopes, and concerns. With that, here is the official statement of The Prancing Pony Podcast on Project Northmoor.

While the idea of a creative center in Tolkien’s former home has some appeal, we have serious concerns about a number of factors surrounding the project:

- There is no involvement or connection with the Tolkien Estate;
- The people promoting the project are not Tolkien scholars or researchers, and have no history of any connection with the Tolkien community;
- The board of trustees at The Tolkien Society unanimously determined that the project would not help achieve their objective of educating the public in, and promoting research into, the life and works of Tolkien;
- The project talks of “saving” Tolkien’s old home at 20 Northmoor, but it is already a protected property, and is in no danger of being “lost”;
- The center cannot become a museum, nor will it be open to the public in any way;
- The center will only be available to those who attend (and pay for) the events hosted at the center, including (apparently) a B&B accommodation;
- There has been a concerning lack of transparency from the project, and their answers to some questions have changed over the last week;
- There are legitimate questions regarding how donations are being handled, including the question of whether donations can, or will, be refunded if the project does not meet its stated goal in time.

Due to the religious affiliations of some of the project organizers, we’ve seen the online conversation about the project spiraling all too often into personal attacks between those Tolkien fans who share Tolkien’s beliefs and worldview, and those who do not. This is deeply troubling to us, and appears to be creating concerning rifts in the fandom which we want no part of. To be clear, our concerns regarding this project are not based on any religious affiliation; we take the project at its word when it says that it intends to welcome people of all faiths (or no faith), and the slate of celebrity supporters involved suggests this will be the case. But there are enough concerns outside of this one to withhold our support for the project for now — both as individuals, and on behalf of the podcast.

We know some will choose to support the project, and we are not making a recommendation at this time one way or the other. We would counsel those of you who are considering supporting the project to please do your research first and make sure you donate using a method that ensures you can get a refund if the project does not meet its goal.

We will continue to encourage discussion about the project and will share information as we discover it. Please keep in mind that we don’t have any more access to information than you do, and will learn about it from the same online sources as most of you. Finally, when you discuss the project in our social media channels, we kindly ask that you keep it civil; we do not want to see personal attacks against the project and its backers and supporters, nor against those who question it.


https://www.reddit.com/r/prancingponyp ... ent_on_project_northmoor/

Update to statement

Folks, we have had something brought to our attention that changes one point of our concerns. In our statement, we said that, "The people promoting the project are not Tolkien scholars or researchers, and have no history of any connection with the Tolkien community", but as it turns out, there is one Tolkien researcher involved: Joseph Loconte, author of A Hobbit, A Wardrobe, and a Great War. Loconte also won the 2017 Tolkien Society Award for best article for "How J.R.R. Tolkien Found Mordor on the Western Front”.

His presence alone does not change our conclusion, but it does mean that our statement was unknowingly inaccurate at the time we made it. We apologize for the oversight, and thank you for your understanding.