Table of Scarfs in Evolutionary Sequence

The pages of this pdf contain extensive material – with diagrams – from the landmark study by Cecil Hewett, The Development Of Carpentry, 1200-1700: An Essex Study, Newton Abbot, England: David & Charles, 1969

This page reproduces the title page of Cecil Alec Hewett's study of early British carpentry:

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CARPENTRY, 1200-1700 :

An Essex Study

CECIL ALEC HEWETT

DAVID & CHARLES : NEWTON ABBOT

1969

Also appended on the final page is a fragment, "Polsoe Priory, Devonshire", an anonymous report of the discovery of "an early scarfed joint" that dates to the 12th century.

7153 4694 6

CONTENTS

List of Plates page 7 Glossary 9 Introduction 20 ONE The Carolingian Romanesque 22 TWO The Post-Romanesque Phase, c 125o 40 THREE The Thirteenth Century Summarised 55 © CECIL ALEC HEWETT 1969 FOUR The First Half of the Fourteenth Century 63 FIVE The Second Half of the Fourteenth Century 94 SIX The Fifteenth Century

SEVEN The Sixteenth Century 141 EIGHT The Seventeenth Century 154 Joints 168

Appendixes ONE Table of Scarfs, in Evolutionary Sequence 171 The Development of Scarfing 185 TWO Table of Tying Joints 188 Printed in Great Britain in eleven on thirteen point Imprint by The Development of Tying Joints 192 Latimer Trend & Company Limited Plymouth for David & Charles (Publishers) Limited THREE Table of Floor-Joist Joints 195 South Devon House Newton Abbot Devon The Development and Decline of Joist Joints 204

6 CONTENTS FOUR Table of Corner-Joints page 208 FIVE Examples of Decorative Treatment 211 SIX The Development of Mouldings and LIST OF PLATES Crown-Posts 224 Notes 226 Navestock Church page 17 Index 229 Bare-faced lap-dovetail joint at Navestock 18 Laindon Church 35 St Giles's Church, Mountnessing 36 Church of St Mary and St Edward, West Hanningfield 53 Tracery of trefoils at the Church of St Mary and St Edward, West Hanningfield 54 Tracery of cinque-foiled lights at Blackmore 54 The Barn, Prior's Hall, Widdington 71 A building at Church Farm, Fressingfield, Suffolk 72 The Barn, Ladylands, Good Easter 89 Church of St Peter and St Paul, Horndon-on-the Hill 90 The Monks' Barn, Netteswellbury o7 The Belfry, Ramsden Bellhouse io8 Church of St Mary, Bulphan 125 Church of St Margaret, Margaretting 126 The Belfry, Blackmore 143 Houchin's Farmhouse, Feering: Author's scale model in Science Museum, South Kensington 144 6 CONTENTS

FOUR Table of Corner-Joints page 208 FIVE Examples of Decorative Treatment 211 SIX The Development of Mouldings and LIST OF PLATES Crown-Posts 224 Notes 226 Navestock Church page I 7 Index 229 Bare-faced lap-dovetail joint at Navestock 18 Laindon Church 35 St Giles's Church, Mountnessing 36 Church of St Mary and St Edward, West Hanningfield 53 Tracery of trefoils at the Church of St Mary and St Edward, West Hanningfield 54 Tracery of cinque-foiled lights at Blackmore 54 The Barn, Prior's Hall, Widdington 71 A building at Church Farm, Fressingfield, Suffolk 72 The Barn, Ladylands, Good Easter 89 Church of St Peter and St Paul, Horndon-on-the Hill 90 The Monks' Barn, Netteswellbury 107 The Belfry, Ramsden Bellhouse Io8 Church of St Mary, Bulphan 125 Church of St Margaret, Margaretting 126 The Belfry, Blackmore 143 Houchin's Farmhouse, Feering: Author's scale model in Science Museum, South Kensington 144 APPENDIXES

ONE

TABLE OF SCARFS, IN EVOLUTIONARY SEQUENCE

Fig 71 Edge-halved scarf with of them combining re-used timbers square, vertical butts and two face- and all of them, apparently, belonging pegs. to the thirteenth century. Considered This scarf is used for the main-span as a scarf it can only be efficient in a top-plates in the Barley Barn at Cres- structure that submits it to neither sing Temple, in which there are four winding, nor lateral, nor extending examples which combine six lengths of stresses—the latter are absent from the timber. This joint is carbon dated to Cressing barn. It had, presumably, c 1 zoo, but may be considerably some eventual influence upon the earlier, in view of the 'plateaux' de- course of development of these joints, scribed in Fig 21 (p 56). Other ex- since edge-halving with complex butts amples of this joint are known, most was to become general later. 171 Fig 73 Stop-splayed scarf with some efficiency, and is fairly short in under-squinted and sallied butts, terms of the edge-depths of the four face-pegs and one face-key. timbers so jointed. I know of no keys, This is the joint used for the main- either face or edge, earlier than those I span top-plates of the great barn of of c '25o at Cressing ; yet those may not Great Coxwell in Berkshire, which be archetypal, and logically scarfs of seems to be of c '2oo-1235.34 This this type could have appeared shortly dating depends entirely upon the stone after that in Fig 72. corbels in the barn. It is a joint of

Fig 72 Stop-splayed scarf with outshot measurements are the same as under-squinted butts and eight those cited by H. H. Hale33 in his face-pegs. Doomsday of St Paul's, in which the This is the scarf used for the outshot measurements are quoted from a lease and mainspan top-plates in the surviv- of the eleventh century. ing barn at The Hall, Belchamp St It is a most interesting scarf, since it Paul's, Essex. The barn, in view of its clearly seeks to resist all stresses, but extreme antiquity, has been frequently the resistance is mainly given by the rebuilt and, at one time, early in the large number of face-pegs; while the seventeenth century, a few feet of new under-squinted butts combat both top-plate were inserted, with two `hogging' and 'sagging' tendencies. bladed-scarfs. The principal-posts are The probable period of use for this mainly of equal, or greater age, than scarf is between c AD moo and c AD the Barley Barn at Cressing ; since the 1 225 , in high quality works.

Fig 74 Through-splayed and floor of the stone 'wing' of Little tabled scarf with four face-pegs. Chesterford Manor House, Essex. It This joint was anciently known as is, in this instance, fully supported by the Trait-de-Jupiter, in view of its re- a post with a braced-transom upon its semblance to lightning. In the head; without such direct support this example, shown in the inset, the two joint would be unable to achieve its tables are not in-line. end. It offers direct mechanical objec- The joint was used for the bridging- tion to any extending stress to which joist in the early thirteenth-century it is subjected but is otherwise weak. 173 Fig 76 Stop-splayed and tabled scissor-bracing in the high-end frame scarf with under-squinted and performs no function; it may well be sallied (or taced) butts, and four vernacular post-Romanesque car- face-pegs. pentry. The scarf is quite good, but This scarf is used for main-span would have been vastly improved by top-plates of the house at Purton keying between the tables. In all re- Green, just inside Suffolk, at Stan- spects, compression, winding, exten- field. I consider that it dates from c sion, hogging and sagging, it is a sub- AD 1285—x295, since no notched-laps stantial improvement on the scarf at are used in the building. Belchamp Hall, but it is curiously in- Fig 75 Stop-splayed scarf with mous pressure. To this is added the Several features of the Purton complete without a key. Its use would under-squinted, square butts, security of the four face-pegs, 'to make Green building are difficult of ex- probably have been confined to about transverse key and four face-pegs assurance doubly sure'. It is a joint of planation and, indeed, some of the thirty years. This is the joint used for both out- great mechanical efficiency and, in the shot and main-span top-plates in the building cited, it eluded detection for Wheat Barn at Cressing Temple, seven years since it is so accurately cut which is carbon dated to c AD I 25 o as to be virtually invisible. The decay This, it is suggested, is a scarf be- of the key would, of course, destroy longing to the post-Romanesque phase this scarf. It is able to resist 'hogging' of English carpentry, where it is found and 'sagging' stresses very well, and in conjunction with the secret notched- can also resist 'winding' stress—such lap joint. It is mechanically an excel- as is common in a top-plate. The sole lent scarf, since the driving of its key disadvantage of these scarfs was the separates the twin-tables with a great lengths of oak which they neces- primary mechanical force and closes sarily used—at least two feet on each the under-squinted butts with enor- timbers' end.

Fig 77 Stop-splayed scarf with under-squinted square butts, four 174 175 face-pegs, and one face-key which the house in Sudbury, which I con- is twice edge-pegged. sider must date from the first half of A rare and complex scarf which can the fourteenth century. In view of the only be considered a recessive great lengths of valuable oak used example, since its length, measured in by these joints—about twelve feet of edge-depths, is extreme, and its timber for two joints three feet long— mechanical efficiency is low. A great it must either be recessive, and verna- number of man-hours were expended cular in origin; or earlier than on the cutting of these; two exist in ascribed.

Fig 79 Through-splayed scarf its date is uncertain. The greater part with four face-pegs and one face- of it was fully repaired in the early key. seventeenth century, when Kentish- This scarf is used for the main-span style shores were fitted to its posts; the top-plates of the barn at Fairstead oldest part has passing-braces and Hall, Essex. The barn is evidently of down-braced crown-posts, possibly of the fourteenth century at the latest, c AD 1330. but has been very much rebuilt and

Fig 78 Stop-splayed scarf with with sallied, under-squinted butts. It diminished, bridled-butts, two is relatively short in terms of edge- edge-pegs and one face-key. depths; and may have been used until This is the scarf used for the main- about the third quarter of the four- span top-plates of the barn at Wid- teenth century. I know of two dington. It is derived from the examples other than this one, neither splayed scarfs of preceding centuries, of which is keyed; I consider that this and is clearly able to offer greater Widdington example may date from resistance to lateral stresses than were c AD 1340. Fig 8o Edge-halved scarf with all the earlier scarfs excepting those sallied and bridled butts, two edge-pegs and one depth- or face- 176 key.

II This is the scarf for the main-span post. This indicates that the carpenter top-plates in the barn at Bradwell- had full confidence in its ability to re- juxta-Coggeshall Hall, Essex, and sist the normal stresses although it is dates from the first half, or the middle, evidently better adapted to resist of the fourteenth century. It is used at winding and lateral pressures, than Bradwell solely of necessity; that is, it either hogging or sagging. It is rela- seldom occurred over the head of a tively short in terms of edge-depths.

This seems to be a solitary example of the introduction of the 'fishing' principle into scarfing, in the fourteenth century. It is the top-plate scarf (main-span) of the building at Fressingfield, plate, p 72, which I consider must date from the two central quarters of the fourteenth century. Fig 82 Fished-scarf with face- It is not a good scarf, and requires a housed fish-piece and four edge- very stable position in a very stable pegs. building.

Fig 8z Scarf with squint-butts, in- Chamber, at Prittlewell, Essex (Fig line bridling, soffit-lip and three 29, p 8o), which dates from c AD edge-pegs. 1300. It is not a good scarf, but in both Fig 83 Stop-splayed scarf with This joint is used on the top-plates cases is used in a frame so stable that vertical, bridled-butts, four face- of building number three, in order of it has endured intact. A similar, but pegs and two edge-pegs. construction, on the Paycocke's site at not identical, scarf is used for the top- This scarf, carbon dated to c AD Coggeshall. It is rare, and the only plates of the second-floor of the White I 350, is used for the main-span top- dington (plate, p 71) after it had en- comparable joint of which I am aware Tower, London, which is supported plates of St Clere's Hall (Fig 32). It is tered into decline. It is less efficient in is on the top-plates of the Prior's on series of posts. an example of the scarf used at Wid- every way but has survived intact. 178 179 Fig 85 Edge-halved scarf with these posts. No other examples are sallied and bridled-butts, two edge- known to me, and why this joint was pegs and a central face-mortise. used in the same building as that This scarf is used for the outshot shown in Fig 84, is difficult to explain. top-plates of the barn at Netteswell- The relative efficiencies of the two bury farm. It is invariably placed over must be approximately equal, and the the outshot wall-posts, and the face- use of lavish funds and sustained mortise is to receive the top tenons of thought are indicated by their use.

Fig 84 Edge-halved scarf with scarf is known to exist on the front of bird's-mouthed bridled-butts, four a `wealden' house at Kersey in face-pegs and two edge-pegs. Suffolk. It is a very good joint, though This is the scarf used for the main- evidently most expensive to cut. As a span top-plates of the barn at Nettes- result of this, it was soon simplified; Fig 86 Edge-halved scarf with wellbury and that at Hall Farm, Black its use, therefore, was probably con- under-squinted, bridled-butts and Notley; both are believed to date from fined to the first half of the fifteenth two edge-pegs. could not, at the time of examination, the first quarter of the fifteenth cen- century. This is the joint used for the front be ascertained but they probably tury. One further example of this top-plate of the Old Rectory at Head- exist. This example dates from c AD corn, Kent. No similar examples are 1450. It is particularly strong against known at present; the use of face-pegs both hogging and sagging stresses.

Fig 87 Face-halved and bladed scarf with one blade housed, and Essex. It is well adapted to meet six edge-pegs. hogging, sagging, winding and com- This joint is clearly the form in pressive stresses. I know of no other which the face-halved scarfs were first examples of this joint and it could introduced; it is of great length and possibly be the innovation of this expensive to produce. This example scarfing-method. Probable date: c AD exists on the top-plates of the Granary I 44°. at Rookwood Hall, Abbess Roding,

Fig 89 Edge-halved scarf with the time of building, or a date very bridled-butts, four face-pegs and close to the opening of the fifteenth two edge-pegs. century. With variations in both This is the scarf used throughout length of halvings and in the number the barn at The Hall, Upminster, and distribution of the face-pegs, this Essex. In these cases it is of great is the principle scarf-joint of the length, which indicates either a fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. super-abundance of suitable timber at S

Fig 90 Edge-halved scarf with joint shown in Fig 89. It is contracted Fig 88 Edge-halved scarf with the joint at Headcorn (Fig 8i), but is bridled-butts, two face-pegs on in length, and is probably of equal effi- over-squinted, bridled-butts, four obviously very weak if subjected to halving's diagonals, and two edge- ciency; it would date from the close of face-pegs and two edge-pegs. hogging or sagging stresses. Its use is pegs on bridlings' diagonals. the fifteenth century and possibly con- This scarf is used for the top-plates probably confined to the first half of This scarf, used for the top-plates tinue in use until the general advoca- of the house at Olives Farm, near the fifteenth century. of the barn at Bretts Hall, Tend- tion of bladed scarfing. Roydon, Essex. It is complementary to ring, Essex, is a late example of the 182 183 Fig 93a Squint-butted scarf with secret bridle and two edge-pegs. I This is the scarf used for the ground-sills of the older barn at Cressing, in c AD 1200. It was also used, at the opening of the fifteenth century, for the sills of the barn at Essex. The building is dated AD 1623. Netteswellbury. It is not particularly The scarf is evidently adequate but, good for its purpose, since water may unlike the scarfs of Romanesque enter between the butts. Fig 9z Face-halved and bladed periods, it does not integrate the ends scarf with thick, central halvings- of the two timbers it combines. It is peg and four edge-pegs through the type-scarf of all the declining blades. years of carpentry for top-plate pur- This scarf is used for the top-plates poses, and examples continue until of the Granary, Cressing Temple, recent times. Fig 93b Face-lipped squint-butted scarf with secret bridle and two edge-pegs. This joint replaced that shown at 93a, the lip across the upper face being designed to prevent the entry of water into the bridle. It was calculated that neither of the butted ends would be able to subside under weight in- dependently of the other, since the squint-butt which was uppermost could not subside without the lower, while the tongue, or 'bit' of the bridle prevented the lower butt from subsid- ing. Sidewise alignment was equally well maintained. This joint was used medieval, and sub-medieval periods; for the purpose of ground-sills, or it obviously required no improve- plates, throughout the whole of the ment since it was never varied.

THE DEVELOPMENT carpentry. I have avoided certain OF SCARFING structures deliberately, such as the So far as Essex is concerned, there nave of Greensted - juxta - Ongar Fig 92 Face-halved and bladed introduced, but the only one of these is little evidence for a native school of church, since I can trace no coherent scarf with four edge-pegs. I have seen is on the top-plates of the carpentry which could have flourished course of development which would The scarf most generally found on Boardman House, Saugus, Massa- before the Conquest, and either have include these very early examples. the top-plates of buildings throughout chusetts, which is now dated to c pap been entirely superseded by—or Other than these, all the earliest car- the seventeenth century. Shortened 1686." mixed inextricably with—Norman pentry discussed shows strong, if not examples of this joint were evidently total, Norman influence and, as such, were exhausted. In my own view, sub- overlapping the ends of the pair to be applied to the exposition of this cate- merits the term Romanesque, since sequent developments frequently fell joined. It was, apparently, a period of gory's merits; but in general, and in the technology involved probably did short of the excellence of the Cressing much experiment, as witness the the majority of humble buildings such derive from Rome at the outset. One specimen, but radical changes were at curious scarf at Prittlewell, shown in as houses, only a plain form is to be exception to this generalisation could that time imminent. Fig 81, which relates closely to that in found with butts both square and well be provided by the 'reversed' The Widdington barn is, unfor- the White Tower and another in the vertical, plus a minimum of pegs. At barn, in Fig 43, p 112, since it appears tunately, not dated by anything other Paycocke's group. None of these Fig 87, the germ of a new scarfing to be a representative of a tradition so than its scarf-joint, and this joint variants were functionally adequate idea was introduced, and ascribing archaic that it might be a final example apparently bridges the gap between enough to be adopted as prototypes this joint to a date is most difficult, of an indigenous carpentry, older than the numerous splayed scarfs and the for the next category of scarfs to be but it is unlikely that it occurred be- Norman influences. It is tragic that equally numerous edge-halved scarfs exploited—those with edge-halvings fore the middle years of the fifteenth the barn did not contain an example of the Late Medieval period. This was that were parallel to the faces of the century. of a scarf, for had it done so, an alter- effected by 'tonguing' or 'bridling' the timbers. If correctly dated, these With the next certain date, AD 1623, native sequence for this joint could ends of the splays, which, as a result, scarfs were forecast by the barn at to which the granary inscription at have been deduced. became 'butts'—it being accepted Bradwell Hall containing the joint Cressing testifies; this new category of Taking c AD 1200 as the starting that a through-splayed timber has no shown in Fig 80. This is a joint much scarfs is, it seems, confirmed in use. date for this history, the scarfing cer- end that can be butted. As is shown in influenced by the Widdington speci- During the eighteenth century, these tainly begins with splayed scarfs, those the Fairsted scarf in Fig 79, the timber men, retaining the face-key and the were known to the building trade as having diminishing edge-halvings ; diminishes to a knife-edge which can edge-pegged and bridled butts; it had `bladings', as a result of which I have this was the category of scarfs exca- only be overlaid. The Purton Green been realised, though, that the bridled- suggested they be termed bladed-scarfs, vated in the Lake Villages at Glaston- scarf, in Fig 76, with its sallied, butts should use half the depth of to avoid chances of confusion with bury. These joints possibly derived under-squinted butts, must have available timber—the maximum pos- other halved varieties of the joint. from Roman culture, since they did achieved all that the Widdington sible quantity in a scarf—if they were They are, of course, face-halved apparently reach us via Europe. The scarf achieved so far as resisting to be fully effective. I think it prob- scarfs with 'tongued' or 'bladed' butts oldest scarf cited is undoubtedly that `winding' and lateral stresses were able that scarfs with splaying-halvings and a varying number of edge-pegs. shown in Fig 72, which is stop- concerned. But carpenters, being and bridled-butts were predominant Their peculiar merits are not visually splayed with eight face-pegs, while craftsmen of a high order, could not in the years between c AD 1325 and c apparent, but these were to supersede the same barn at Belchamp St Paul's repeat indefinitely any technique, AD 1375, when they would have been all other scarfs for the remainder of Hall has an even more archaic scarf on even if it were of proven value; they used invariably for works other than my period. The earliest buildings in its outshot top-plates, which is had to make a contribution to their Royal, or similarly grand undertak- New England show variations of this through-splayed and face-pegged. craft. It was this obsession that pre- ings, throughout Essex. scarf, and I have seen one in a barn These are in the category of scarfs vented perfected forms of joints from The wide variety of scarfs with dated AD 1823, at Asheldham in that were perfected between c AD continuing in use as recognised parallel edge-halvings, presaged by Essex. 1100, and c AD 1325. By AD 1225, at limits to the possibilities that existed. the Bradwell example, seem to have Scarfing, in the best sense, was Little Chesterford, a tabled example That the Widdington joint was an monopolised the thought of car- apparently exhausted by c AD 1700, exists but this is a poor joint if com- innovation is supported by the alter- penters from about the end of the when bladed joints were still in pared with later specimens. These natives found up to the next sure date, fourteenth century until about the end rural use. scarfs did not, in fact, achieve any c AD 1350, at St Clere's Hall. These of the sixteenth century; it must be The text-books for builders and merit for general purposes until they alternatives include an entirely dif- assumed, therefore, that in actual carpenters which abounded, during were stopped and under-squinted, ferent category of scarfs which intro- practice these were found most effi- the eighteenth century, show that tabled and keyed, as noted with regard duced the 'fish-piece', a third member cient relative to their cost of produc- iron plates and bolts were then intro- to the Cressing Wheat Barn; at this used to unite the first two, with the tion. The drawings from Fig 8o to duced to carpentry; the medieval point the possibilities of this scarf type object of avoiding timber-waste by Fig 86 give some idea of the ingenuity ethic that a carpenter or a mason 186 187 should solve all his problems in his thought that it did, and even specified own material was discredited. In my this in instructive text-books. I con- own view, timbers cannot be scarfed sider, therefore, that carpentry ter- with iron plates and nuts and bolts, as minated, and was forgotten, after the obviously this does not constitute end of the sub-Medieval period. carpentry; but the eighteenth century

TWO TABLE OF TYING JOINTS Cressing, and has been carbon dated to c AD 1250. It continued in use, in Essex, until at least the time of the building of the Blackmore belfry, in c 1485. With it, at Cressing, the principle of jowls was apparently ori- ginated, since no earlier examples are known at the time of writing. It is a fully efficient joint for the purpose, and is clearly derived from that in Fig 94. Fig 95 Lap-dovetail with entrant- The object of cutting entrant shoulders shoulders. was to avert the display of a gap, The tying joint of the post- should the lap partly withdraw after Romanesque period of carpentry. It many years of strain. This gap is an was used for both main-span and out- unsightly feature of old lap-dovetails shot tie-beams of the Wheat Barn at that have so withdrawn.

Fig 96 Lap-dovetail with housed shoulders. A tying joint which is used at the house at Purton Green, c AD 1290 or a few decades later, but I do not consider that it could be earlier. This is another joint which is designed to Fig 94 Bare-faced lap-dovetail and analysis, to c AD noo. This is a show no void, should it partially with entrant shoulder. highly efficient joint for the purpose, withdraw. It is fully efficient for its This was the tying joint used for the and in the barn it has only failed as a purpose, but was much improved at main-span of the roof to the Barley result of decay in the top-plates. No Southchurch Hall. Barn at Cressing and has been carbon other examples of this joint are known dated, by the very latest equipment at the present time. i88 Fig 98 Lap-dovetail joint. type of tying joint is seen throughout This tying joint is used for the the seventeenth-century buildings of Cressing Granary, and is also the New England, and it will normally be Fig 97 Lap-dovetail with over- beams that I have ever seen, but it tying joint which became invariable squinted shoulders. possesses one slightly archaic feature found in plates that have bladed for the remaining years of carpentry; scarfs. An interesting and very im- This is the tying joint used for the which assists in its dating; the `see— the tail has a 'set', or divergence- portant development, which is clearly soffit-cusped tie-beam at Southchurch or angles of divergence—given to the angle, of one-in-seven inches. This shown in the inset, is the moving of Hall (Fig 23). It is an excellent joint, `tail', at a. This degree of set con- moderate set had less tendency to the jowl-tenon to one side of the tail; which is today in perfect condition. In tinued to be used throughout ensuing damage the matrix, but it requires a in this position it does not detract Fig 97 it is shown arranged so that centuries until the middle of the high degree of accuracy of fit to from the central fibres of the tail, each component may be clearly seen. fifteenth century, when it was re- achieve the necessary unwithdrawable which happened in all earlier forms of This is the finest joint for the tie- duced. character desired of the joint. This this joint. 191 190 been augmented with fish-pieces, cut Hall, Fig 97, is a lap-dovetail with to a very similar joint that has a square over-squinted shoulders; evidently shoulder. designed with the same end in view. The Wheat Barn at Cressing is tied The 'set' of this 'tail' is archaic by with a joint that is the most logical comparison with those at Cressing, development possible from that at the and the jowl-tenons' mortises cut Barley Barn on the same site. This is a right through the fibres comprising lap-dovetail with entrant-shoulders, the narrow, root, portion of the lap— shown in both perspective and plan in the joint is, in this respect, a weak one. Fig 95. Some of these joints have The importance of the sequence so failed, but their failure seems to be far, is the fact that continuing perfec- attributable solely to the great age of tion was the aim of the craftsmen, the timbers in which they are worked. rather than immediate perfection It is interesting to see that, at c AD which could not long endure. rz5o, the 'set', or divergence-angle, of The tying joints during the years these joints is as subtle as shown in the between c AD xz8o, when Southchurch plan drawing; it was going to be some Hall may have been framed, and the centuries before 'tails' returned to opening of the seventeenth century such an effective 'set' as this. The ob- followed the type of dovetails noted at plate p 126 and was quite widely used ject of the entrant-shoulders can only Southchurch, but invariably with un- from about the middle of the four- have been to avoid showing gaps, compromising and square shoulders. teenth century onward. During the when, as was inevitable, the tails In buildings of either the fourteenth fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth withdrew slightly from their matrices; or the fifteenth centuries, it is com- centuries it was invariably used for the and for this purpose they have been mon to see gaps at the dovetails' tie-beams of gables, since the 'set' highly successful. These I regard as shoulders, caused by slight with- could be placed away from the ends of extremely fine joints and, as already drawal of the 'tails', but expense pre- the adjacent top-plates. The example noted with regard to the Rookwood sumably precluded the cutting of ela- Fig 99 Bare-faced lap-dovetail. drawn is from the barn at Thurrock's Granary and the Blackmore belfry, borate shoulders that obviated these This is the joint used for tie-beams Farm, Clavering, Essex, and is prob- they continued in use for superlative defects. As suggested previously, the throughout the belfry at Margaretting, ably of c AD 1400. structures until almost AD 1500. fourteenth century was evidently a The tying joints at the Purton Green time for the trying of new ideas, and THE DEVELOPMENT remains a fact that this method of house are very similar, in that they during this period some crown-post OF TYING JOINTS construction is the most archaic seen, also are cut to avoid shoulder-gaps roofs were framed without any tying The only primitive tying joint and I assume, therefore, that this barn when the tails slightly withdraw, as joints—they being calculated to stand among those cited, was that which stood at the end of a long and ancient they necessarily would during the like opened umbrellas. One such roof, formerly existed in one of the barns at tradition. So far as the range of this settling-down period of a timber which was built on a grand scale, Belchamp St Paul's Hall; here, in the work is concerned, tying joints begin frame constructed of green wood. The formerly covered the barn at Mal- totally 'reversed' barn, the top-plates with the Cressing Barley Barn, the shoulders in this case are housed (Fig brooks Farm, Mountnessing, Essex; were laid into trenches cut from the joint for which is shown in Fig 94. 96); a method equally effective and like the barn at Belchamp Hall, this upper faces of the tie-beams. Two This is an entrant-shouldered lap- possibly a little superior, since the has now been demolished. The tie- carbon 14 analyses produced closely dovetail which has proved amazingly length of effective 'set' to the joint's beams had only rebates at their ends, spaced dates, AD 1353 and AD 1413, efficient for its purpose. The barn has lap is enhanced a little by this means. were fitted between the top-plates, and so a really early ascription for the stood for 767 years and these joints The comparable joint at Southchurch and were capable only of maintaining building had to be abandoned, but it have not been replaced; a few have 19z M 193 the span constant against inward joint is illustrated in Fig 99 which pressure from outside. Since this barn shows the joint used to tie the main- was intact until demolished, it must span of the barn at `Thurrock's' in be assumed that its design and joints Clavering. As may be seen in the cir- THREE were correct, and functioned as de- cular inset to this drawing, the fibres signed. forming the root of the tail are con- Lap-dovetails were, however, the tinuous, and undamaged by the chop- TABLE OF FLOOR-JOIST JOINTS normal tying joint during the four- ping of the jowl-tenon's mortise; and teenth, fifteenth and sixteenth cen- it may well be that the joint was pre- turies, and were applied to numerous ferred for this reason. points in timber frames that might be The ultimate form for this tying- subjected to extension. One point in joint is shown in Fig 98, and this joint jettied house-frames to which they is taken from the granary at Cressing, were variously applied, was the cross- dated AD 1623. It has, in this case, been ing of ground-floor top-plates by the realised that the root of the tail should binding-joists of the jettying first- not be cut by the jowl-tenon mortise, floors. One example of this is shown in and this mortise has been chopped to Fig 58, p 142, which illustrates the one side accordingly; the complex of crossing of such a jetty-joist in the post, plate and beam therefore had house formerly known as `Makrons' in been almost perfected at this point. Ingatestone High Street. This house The final improvement, the use of a was certainly built late in the sixteenth pair of single tenons, one each side of century, and it is interesting to note the tail-root, has been seen in two that the dovetail illustrated has buildings which are not illustrated: housed-shoulders, similar to those of the post-mill at Aythorpe Roothing, the late thirteenth century at Purton and the barn—now demolished—at Green. It can evidently be assumed Cranes Farm, Basildon, and in the that a minority of discerning customers barn at Walkers Manor House, were prepared to pay for efficient Farnham, Essex. It is possible that jointing in their houses throughout tenons used in pairs were the method the history of carpentry. peculiar to a school of long duration, During these centuries many barns since these occur in the belfry at that were outshot on both sides, had Laindon of c AD 1300, the barn at to be reinforced at the points where Ladylands, Good Easter, of c AD Fig zoo Central tenon and mor- `rive', it is liable to tear close to the the outshot-tie-beams joined the 1400, as well as in the three structures tise, pegged. centre-line of its depth. Furthermore, backs of the principal-posts; at this just mentioned. This is the joint used to fit the the compression timber of the bridg- point, lap-dovetailed fish-pieces were Tying-joints can tell little, there- common-joists at Priory Place into the ing joist is cut away by the mortise; commonly applied. A minority of car- fore, concerning the date of a building, bridging-joists. It is considered that thus both timbers are substantially penters, like the man responsible for but they have varied considerably and this must date from c AD 1300, plus or weakened. This joint seems to have the Margaretting belfry, preferred the if these variations are carefully inter- minus a few years. It is, of course, been used until the middle years of lap-dovetail in bare-faced form, al- preted, with proper regard to all other basic, and has no claim to mechanical the fifteenth century, and occa- though this joint is rather difficult to features, they can help greatly to avoid efficiency, since the strength of the sionally appears concealed behind defend, structurally. Such a tying- an ascription that is outlandish. joist is effectively reduced to the expensive façades. strength of the tenon. Should the joist 194 195 Polsloe Priory, Devonshire AN EARLY SCARFED JOINT Mr. A. W. Clapham, the secretary of the Society of An- 2 feet 6 inches in the other. It is difficult to determine what tiquaries, has forwarded some correspondence he has received made this necessary, because the original length was not over with reference to an old wood screen in Polsloe Priory, about t8 feet, and there should have been no great difficulty in two miles north-east of Exeter, where a number of interesting obtaining single timbers of that size. discoveries have recently been made, including the foundations and a fragment of a twelfth-century church and a considerable portion of the building supposed to have been the guest house of the Priory attributed to the thirteenth or early fourteenth century. At the south end of the guest hall on the upper floor is an oak screen of five openings (Fig. 1), the centre three of ) which are flanked by two qf by of oak posts, which, in addition to sopporting the seree.n, helped originally to hold the roof timbers immediately above them. The interesting thing about these posts is that when they wes-e erected it was found necessary to lengthen them by i foot 3 inches in one case and ft.) (Fits 2) The joint of the two pieces that go to form each post is the most interesting thing about the screen, and is the earliest example of which we have record of a double splayed and halved scarf. It would be interesting to know if any member of the Institute has come across an earlier example, and if anyone can show when this scarf developed into its later and more perfect form, as shown in Fig. 2 (b), in which the feather ends are cut back to make a shoulder capable of hearing some of the weight. Mrs. Rose-Troup, who has drawn Mr. Clapham's attention to this work, writes that "an effort is being made to preserve this specimen of domestic architecture, which is particularly interesting, as there have only been three nunneries in the county (Devon)—Canonsleigh, Cornworthy and this one.... The destruction of the remains of the Priory is threatened ... in order to build cottages on the site, so an effort is being made to persuade the City Council of Exeter to purchase the land upon which the building stands to he used as a park in the somewhat crowded area of Pinhoe." Our thanks are due to Mr. A. W. Everett, of Exeter, who has been responsible for most of the excavation and research, and who made the drawings which (Ftc. t) are reproduced here.