1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



137 



THE TIMBER ROOFS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



Remarks on the Timber Ronfs of the Middle A^es, by Tho.mas 

 Morris, nad before the InUitute of Briiish jlrchitecls. 



( With an Engraving, Plate V., containing Roofs of He following 

 buildings.) 



Fig. 1. Westminster Hall.— 2. Nursted Court, Kent.— 3. Old Basing 

 Church. — 4. Guard Room, Lambeth. — 5. School House, Coven- 

 try.— 6. Hall Croydon Palace.— 7. Conway Castle.— 8. Eltham 

 Palace.— 3. Wolsey's Hall, Hampton Court.— 10. King's College 

 Chapel.— 11. Chapel, Croydon Palace.— 12. South Wraxall.— 13. 

 Westminster School. — 14. Crosby Hall. 



The timber roofs of the ancient regal and baronial halls, whicli 

 form so prominent and characteristic a feature of our national mediffival 

 architecture, merit, in an eminent degree, the attention of all to 

 whom the science of construction is an object of interest ; and although 

 other avocations have precluded the present writer from going into 

 the subject in that full and perfect manner which it is calculated to 

 repay, and which its importance fairly demands, he trusts he may be 

 able to furnish a few observations, to serve, perhaps, as a stock on 

 which the results of other and more successsul efforts may be at a 

 future season engrafted. So little, indeed, has yet been done towards 

 giving a connected form to the history and principles of English car- 

 pentry, that he who would shrink with conscious inability from at- 

 tempting so comprehensive a project, may yet hope to find not utterly 

 valueless such mere gleanings as the present. 



It will not be thought requisite to carry the subject back to that 

 remote period of Anglo-Saxon history when the carpenter (as well as 

 other artificers) was considered, if not a positive vegetable, at least 

 part of what we are accustomed to call the plant of an estate, trans- 

 ferable from owner to owner with the land, as we read that "when 

 the brother of Godwin gave to a monastery a certain manor, he in- 

 cluded its appendages ; that is, his overseer and ail his chattels, his 

 smith, carpenter, fisherman, miller, all these tenants, and all their 

 goods and chattels." 



The artificers of the early Saxons appear to have been for the most 

 part either monks or slaves — they were nothing more than sheer 

 necessity made them — they lived and died poor, unhonoured, and un- 

 improved ! " The habits of life were too uniform, its luxuries too 

 few; its property too small; its wants too numerous, and the spirit 

 of the great mass too servile and dull," says Mr. Sharon Turner, " to 

 have that collection of ingenious, active, respected and inventive men 

 who make and circulate our internal and external commerce with eager 

 but not illiberal competition ; or to have those accomplished artificers 

 and manufacturers, whose taste in execution equals that of the most 

 elegant fancy in its invention." 



" In the monastery," says the historian, " were to be found smiths, 

 carpenters, millers, illuminators, agriculturalists, and fishermen." The 

 carpenter was at that time the Irtom wyrhta (the tree or wood work- 

 man.) The Anglo-Saxon verb used in speaking of building is commonly 

 gelymbrian, " to make of wood," and it is known to every architec- 

 tural antiquary that many early churches were constructed of that 

 material — one at Greensted, in Essex, still remains. 



As we approach the time of the Norman conquest, matters became 

 ameliorated, and this was an advantage concomitant with the estab- 

 lishment of Christianity and the influx of Italian clergy. The most 

 durable materials were sought for and applied in ecclesiastical works, 

 and to our architects for several centuries previous to the date of any 

 large wooden roof, 



" The art was known, 

 By pointed arch and shafted stalk. 

 The arcades of an allayed walk, 



To emulate in stone." 



This art they practised with such admirable skill and effect, that 

 their works have been not unfrequently considered beyond the pale of 

 modern imitation. To these architects who had previously and pro- 

 gressively roofed our edifices with stone, from the simple adaptation 

 of the more Romanum in buildings of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman 

 dates, to the masterly example in the Chapter House at York, who 

 had clothed with so much invention and taste the bold framework of 

 mathematical deduction, are we indebted for the wooden wonder of 

 Westminster. The span of Gothic groined roofs seldom exceeded 

 35ft., ' while the Great Palatial Hall was double that width. Nome- 



1 The Chapter House at York is 57 ft. in diameter, but the building is octagonal, and 

 the points of support, therefore, more frequent, and the resistance to a pressure froui 

 within greater than in a continuous vault. The nave of York Cathedral lis also of the 

 great extent of ^8 ft. 



No. 80 — Vol. Vll.— April, 1814. 



rous obstacles to a stone roof must therefore have presented them- 

 selves ; the builder was thrown upon the resources of his art, but he 

 proved himself his craft's master, and a novel and elegant application 

 of that great element of lightness and beauty, the arch, was the conse- 

 quence. The former ponderous and friable material was exchanged 

 for one equally susceptible of the nicest equilibriation, and greatly 

 superior in tenacity and tractibility. It was one of the grandett in- 

 novations recorded in the annals of English art. 



TVestminsler Hall, Anno 1399.— (Fig. 1.) 



Our first consideration (in respect of dimensions if not of date) is 

 due to the roof of Westminster Hall, where the distance between the 

 sides is 08 ft., and the length 240 ft. This length is divided into 

 twelve bays, giving a distance of 20 ft. between the principals or 

 points of pressure and support. At these intervals an arch of great 

 strength and boldness is thrown from wall to wall, setting down on 

 stone corbels, and rising about five-eighths of the span. The curve, 

 from the springing to the vertex, is divided into three nearly equal 

 spaces, but the intermediate points are made to approximate some- 

 what more closely, in order to facilitate the disposition of the load ; 

 and additional stiffness and protection is afforded by the well-devised 

 framework within the arch. It will be seen that the uppermost (A 

 these points falls immediately under the middle of the rafter, where 

 the weight is collected by a massive purlin, and carried by an auxiliary 

 arch to the queen posts, and by them conveyed to the hammer beam, 

 a timber which possesses the property of a lever rather than a tie. 

 The point of intersection with the arch (Fig. 1*) is its fulcrum or cen- 

 tre of motion, and the force exerted at the inner end, which repre- 

 sents the weight of the upper half of the rafter, forms a well adjusted 

 counterpoise to the pressure on the pole plate or beam at the foot of 

 the rafter connected with the outer end of the hammer beam. These 

 forces combined follow the direction of the arch, which discharges 

 its load fairly on to the walls ; and the outward thrust is so perfectly 

 counteracted by the disposition of the parts, that the flying buttresses 

 of the exterior seem called for, rather as a set off to the casualties of 

 practice than any imperfection in the principle. This appears, indeed, 

 the light in which they were received by the builders, for there seems 

 to have been little attention to regularity even in their original dis- 

 position. 



This chfd'muvre was completed in the year 1399, when Richard II. 

 kept his Christmas at Westminster, and is said to have entertained 

 10,000 guests daily, but as that number could barely manage to stand 

 in the hall, it is clear the whole party did not dine together. This 

 was no doubt a circumstance of annoyance to the hospitable monarch 

 who is said to have exclaimed that it was but a " mere dressing room 

 in comparison with what he wished to have I" 



Eltham Palace, 1480 (Fig. 8.) 



To the decorated period Mr. Rickman has, I think, erroneously 

 attributed the roof at Eltham. Its characteristics are certainly those 

 of well developed perpendicular. It is a bad imitation of the West- 

 minster roof, the chief arch being an obtuse pointed segmental one, 

 which of course exerts a very considerable pressure against the upper 

 part of the walls, and the hammer beams and brackets are but ill cal- 

 culated for supporting any part of the load that may be thrown upon 

 them. Thedesignerseems to have taken little pains to obviate a lateral 

 strain, trusting,'in this respect, to the resistance afforded by the walls 

 and buttresses. The principal rafters are of large dimensions, and 

 are stiffened by horizontal struts under the purlins. The arched rib 

 relieves the hammer beam of much of the weight at its inner end, 

 and there are no longitudinal arches springing from them as in the 

 foregoing example. The clear span of this roof is 36 feet. 



On investigation, I find my previous surmise as to the date of this 

 roof supported, and its erection satisfactorily attributed to Edward IV. 

 The cognizances of that monarch are of frequent occurrence in the 

 masonry, and documentary evidence exists of his having at great cost 

 repaired his house at Eltham. His third daughter (Bridget) was born 

 here in 14S0, and in 1483 he celebrated Christmas in a most sump- 

 tuous style — 2000 persons being regaled daily at the festive board. 



Wolsey's Hall, Hampton Court, 1520.— (Fig. 9.) 

 The roof of the Great Hall at Hampton Court (temp. H. 8) covers 

 a space of 40 ft., (which is the same as at Christchurch, Oxford, and 

 Trinity College, Cambridge,) and is, perhaps, the most elaborate we 

 possess. 



As a scientific system of framing, it cannot enter into rivalry with 

 that at Westminster, which will be readily f -It, when we consider 

 that the admiration it attracts is directed to a mere casing and noi to 

 the actual skeleton. This gives it the character of a ceiling r.ither 

 than of a roof, but it is to the timbers that our attention must now be 



12 



