Medieval Roofs with Base-Crucks and Short Principals

Abstract

SummaryThis paper examines, from two points of view, a collection of some ninety buildings with base-cruck trusses, and a further group of related buildings, particularly those whose roof trusses incorporate short principals. Examination of the social status of the buildings shows that they belonged to a remarkably homogeneous section of feudal society, and their distribution can be explained largely in terms of the social connections of a class, with some further influence of local schools of carpentry. The typological development of base-crucks and short principals is traced from their twelfth- or thirteenth-century origins to a fifteenth-century devolution into various local sub-types.