Crown-post roofs

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 be found. The heads, at the junction of the collar-purlin, also varied, generally taking the form of a jowl, sometimes, as at Tiptofts and Southchurch Hall, near Southend, and in several town houses in York, as a double jowl with the collar-purlin let in.

The crown-post roof belongs predominantly to the South-East and East Anglia, but it can be found on high-status medieval buildings in most parts of the country, particularly in towns. In York, for instance, almost all roof trusses erected from the early fourteenth to the early sixteenth century have a crown-post. Crown-post roofs first appeared in the thirteenth century (that at Manor Farm, Bourn, Cambridgeshire (37) in about 1260 and the large roof at St Mary’s Hospital, Chichester, West Sussex, built about 1280 being some of the earliest) and continued to be built until about 1500, after which their use declined rapidly,

their place being taken in the South-East and eastern England by side-purlin roofs. This generally occurred with the abandonment of the open hall; the roof, no longer requiring to be exposed, lost its decorative function, and at the same time there came a desire to utilize the roof space by forming an attic. The crown-post and collar-purlin were obviously a hindrance and by the middle of the sixteenth century had generally been replaced by a roof with side purlins (38). At first the side purlins were butted and mortice-and-tenoned into the principal rafter which formed part of a roof truss. Alternatively, instead of a mortice-and-tenoned joint to the principal rafter, a through splayed – scarf or a through halved-scarf joint was used. These roof-trusses comprised a tie-beam, two principal rafters and a collar-beam, the collar-beam generally being supported off the tie-beam by a central strut, similar to the crown-post but now devoid of its collar-purlins

wind-brace