"Frischermont Buildings" Topic

I'm struggling to find out what the chateau /farm on the eastern side of the Waterloo battlefield looked like.

1: There is a lithograph from the mid 19th century in Adkins' book.
2: There is this 1817 drawing.

They don't lithographs much like each other. There is also a Leven Miniatures model which looks very different with a noticeable tower.

Does anyone have any other information?

Found in Coppens's work a Frischermont's lithograph.

Caption says that it represents the building before its demolition in 1859

theminiaturespage.com‌

‌"TMP link

I hope this is helpful:
generalpicton.blogspot.com

This may have been the lithograph referred to – although captioned Frischermont Chateau after the battle, I believe this is in fact Frischermont village.

The text in Coppens' work says approx:
In 1815 the chateau had a feudal look, with a massive tower and buildings forming an irregular rectangle. The tower was square surmounted with a four-sided peaked roof. The upper part of the tower was decorated on each face by a medallion bust and a round turret at the four corners. No windows could be seen, only narrow loopholes. The main building and the tower dominated the steep-sided path that goes down to La Marache.

Thanks very much to all of you. These have been very helpful and from the photograph and the prints I can now see how it all fits together.

POE,

I agree with you that it is the village. I managed to see a copy of the original 1817 book on Friday but it didn't add anything to the title.

A very interesting point about that illustration is that it depicts two styles of roofing atop the same building. I'm not sure whether the grey on the church roof and steeple are slate, lead, or both in different places.

However, if I'm not mistaken, there are illustrations of La Haye Sainte that likewise depict the western stable as having a grey roof, while all the other buildings are roofed in quarry tile red. So this seems to have been a thing locally.

and what colour is a thatched roof after a year or two?

Pale grey, so the great barns of LHS and Hougomont may well have been so covered and therefore caught fire easily??

There is also a beautiful model of it in the Total Battle Miniatures ‘Hundred Days' range.

Actually, having checked, there are two TTB models, one in 6mm and one in 10mm.

@ deadhead

Well, that is a very good point. I would tend to suggest that on buildings as substantial as Hougoumont, the roofs would have been slate or tile. I say this because AIUI, the reason you went for thatch was that it was more expensive over time (you kept having to replace it), but cheap upfront. If you were short of the readies, this mattered. Tile was expensive upfront, but lasts about 200 years with minimal maintenance. If you could afford to build Hougoumont at all, you could afford a proper roof – although that would apply when it was built.

By 1815 who knows. The owner couldn't afford to keep it up and the tenant farmer he let it to didn't use any of the buildings. Who's to say what the roof would have been by then? If reroofed with thatch it would indeed look grey.

Photograph of Frischermont around 1880 (from a book in the collection of Victor Hugo)
link

Rest of photos (mainly Hougoumont): link

Interesting observations regarding tiles and thatch.

However, the Hougoumont restoration project elected to tile the great barn ( in red) and presumably researched their subject before proceeding.

Just an observation, but it is a fascinating subject.

When I researched Ligny there were references to thatched roofs in Ligny even though there was a slate quarry next to the Chateaux.

I went with a mix!

Best wishes,

Chris