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25. Cottage, Lode, Cambridgeshire |
Upper Floor and Jetty Construction
In a timber-framed building the construction of the upper floors comprises floor joists spanned either across the building or along the building from bay to bay. When the span was too great, one or sometimes two bridging-beams were introduced to reduce it, with the joists jointed into them. (26) At first these floors were ‘lodged’ – that is, the joists were not fixed to the framing at all, relying solely on their own weight and gravity to hold them in position, in addition to which they usually spanned a short distance. When the span was of some length, the joists were usually supported on a longitudinal bridging – beam which itself could be supported by a ‘samson post’ with bolsters and braces. Most of these floors are to be found within masonry walls – for instance, at Little Chesterford Manor, Essex, but at 39-43 The Causeway, Steventon, Oxfordshire (13), there is a rare example of a lodged floor within a timber-framed house, the ends of the joists being supported on side girths. However, by about 1300 the floor joists were jointed to the bridging-beam, at first by a simple mortice-and-tenon placed centrally in the depth of the joist. Improvements in these
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A. thirteenth-fourteenth century; B. fourteenth century; C. & D. fifteenth century; E. sixteenth century; F. seventeenth-eighteenth century.