VI. The Pilgrims' Hall, Winchester. Hammerbeams, Base Crucks and Aisle-Derivative Roof Structures

Abstract

The roof of the so called ‘Pilgrims’ Hall’, Winchester, now dated to c. 1308, has long been recognized as one of the earliest surviving examples of hammerbeam construction. It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that the complete medieval structure, of which the Pilgrims’ Hall forms rather less than half, has not previously been investigated in detail. In its original form it was a six bay building covered by a single roof, which, though of one constructional phase, employed a variety of principal truss types (fig. 1). The three bays at the north end of the complex have masonry walls: they comprise the actual Pilgrims’ Hall, whose most impressive feature is its pair of hammerbeam trusses (pl. XLa). The other three bays had timber framed walls, and were subdivided into a second, two bay hall with a central base cruck truss, and a single bay at the south end of the building. In this paper the term ‘Pilgrims’ Hall’ is used to denote only the three bay hammerbeam hall, while the entire original structure is referred to as the ‘Pilgrims’ range’.The roof and timber framing of the complex must surely rank with those few structures that, in the words of the late R. T. Mason, ‘stand out for their contribution to overall knowledge’. The outstanding significance of the Pilgrims' range in the study of early medieval carpentry is that it included four major ‘aisle-derivative’ roof truss types in a single building: a true aisled truss, a base cruck truss, two hammerbeam trusses, and at least one raised aisle truss. The existence of continuous longitudinal members (arcade plates, cornice plates and a central purlin) and the uniform upper roof structure throughout the length of the range show that the entire roof was erected in a single campaign.