Asbestos?

[Anon101]

My parents are doing DIY on an old house and when they stripped the wallpaper there's quite a few holes that look like this with fibres. They refuse to believe it's asbestos and say it's horse hairs. What do you think?

 

[Burnerman]

Horse hair mixed in with plaster was very popular many years ago! It actually bound the plaster mix very well.
John

 

[Munroast]

we had a property and a lot of the walls were like this with horse hair plaster. some of it two, three even four inches deep on the uneven walls, what a mess hacking it all off.

Someone told me after the event there is a danger of Anthrax from the stuff, I must have got lucky it didn't get me.