Wooden latches and bolts

timber-framed buildings, however, all door fittings, with the exception of hinges, were made of wood until the eighteenth century, and even then the iron fitments would be restricted to doors of important rooms.

Wooden latches (71), precursors of the later iron thumb latch, were a common feature. They could be worked from the outside by a string tied to the latch and passing through a hole in the door or by a wooden peg attached to the latch and passing through a slot to the outside. These latches were made secure by the insertion of a peg or the like into the staple, thus preventing the latch being raised. Wooden bars placed across the inside of the door, and wooden bolts, were also common features to enable the door to be secured from the inside.

Windows

Early windows were unglazed even in superior houses, and they remained so in all but the largest houses until the end of the sixteenth century, when for the first time the manufacture of glass became more widespread, but it was probably the following century before it was used universally. In place of glass, oiled paper or the horn of cattle, obtained by peeling or shaving thin slices from the horn, as well as lattices of wood, wickerwork and even reeds were all employed, but oiled cloth, preferably linen stiffened by a wooden lattice arranged in a diamond pattern and fitted to each opening, was the most common. Consequently, prior to the use of glass, windows, being a source of draught, were usually kept to a minimum and were generally situated away from the prevailing winds.

In most cases these early unglazed windows were fitted with some form of battened wooden shutters (72) to afford some protection from the elements and to provide some security. Hinged shutters, fitted

Wooden latches and bolts

72. Window shutters

either externally or internally, were frequently used on larger houses, especially on the large windows to the open hall, but it seems that horizontally sliding shutters, fitted internally, were most commonly provided in smaller houses, obviating the necessity of expensive iron hinges. However, in most cases, as the whole complex was easily removed, little evidence remains apart from the peg holes by which the grooved runners were fixed to the framing. Vertical sliding shutters were less common and were perhaps of a slightly later date. In the reconstructed Bayleaf Farmhouse at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, three differing forms of shutters were used including an unusual form in which the shutter slides up and down in vertical grooves. These vertical sliding shutters occur in the solar wing of the house, which seems to have been added at a later date.

In the fifteenth century, windows in the important rooms of a timber-framed house of any significance had some form of tracery, often of Gothic design, in their heads. Although in some of the important houses these may have been glazed, the majority were not, there being no evidence of a glazing rebate or fillet, with the tracery carved on the inside as well as the outside. Later, with the increased use of glass, the pierced tracery was replaced by a small depressed arch which was usually plain except for a hollow chamfer with small sunk or pierced spandrels. Occasionally the arch retained the last vestige of Gothic tracery and was cusped. In all these cases, the moulding was only on the outside, the inner face being flat with any glazing carried up behind it.

In most timber-framed houses, however, the window would have been square-headed and was usually situated at high level either beneath the first-floor bressummer or at eaves level. Unglazed windows were divided by plain square mullions (73), set diagonally, about six inches or slightly wider apart, with each light usually sub-divided vertically by a slender intermediate bar. These early unglazed windows can still be found in many timber-framed houses, although in nearly all cases they have been blocked in. However, as early glass lattices required no structural preparation, other than the provision of vertical bars to which they could be tied, it is often difficult to decide if such a window was originally glazed or not. Where the window was covered with oiled cloth, a slightly different arrangement occurred. The win­dow was fully framed as for an unglazed window but the square mullions were not set diagonally. Externally, around each light, was a rebate to which the cloth, probably stiffened with a diamond-patterned lattice, was fitted. The cloth was supported internally by a smaller intermediate vertical member similar to that used for unglazed win­dows.

A similar arrangement was also provided when glass was introduced.

Wooden latches and bolts

section of typical diagonal mullion

medieval mullioned window

Wooden latches and bolts

late 16th-century mullioned window

early 17th-century window rebated for glass or oil cloth

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section of typical mullion with hollow chamfered corners

Updated: 1st October 2014 — 12:06 pm