number and shape of the struts. These may comprise king-strutting, twin-angle strutting, curved angle-braces or queen-strutting. Apart from a few decorated examples, particularly in Lancashire, king-post roofs were plain and unpretentious. Generally the posts themselves were sturdy, usually about eight inches or more in section, compared with the more slender crown-post. The height of the […]

details of joints between purlin collar and rafter and known as a lower king-strut. This type of roof truss was soon superseded by the queen-strut roof with through-purlins clasped at the angles between principal rafter and collar. Occasionally a tenon was provided at the cut-back of the principal rafter engaging a mortice in the underside […]

cruciform sections are all to be found. Unfortunately none of these features or the length or number of braces has any dating significance, and many of the features can be found in buildings of similar age. In less exposed positions within the house, in barns and later in humbler buildings, crown-posts without decoration are to […]

Roof Types The roof of any building, and of a timber-framed one more perhaps than others, is archaeologically the most important feature, for it is generally the least altered part. There are a considerable variety of roof types (35), and R. A. Cordingley in his British Historical Roof Types and their Members: A Classification divides […]

The characteristic feature of a cruck building is that the weight of the roof, and often that of the walls as well, is carried on a series of transverse trusses, each formed of two inclined timbers which rise from the ground and meet at the apex, tied together by a collar or tie-beam to form […]