EARLY TIMBERED BUILDINGS
OF THE HUDDERSFIELD DISTRICT
BY JAMES WALTON B.Sc., F.S.A.

CRUCK-TRUSSED BUILDINGS - CRUCK-TRUSSED BUILDINGS WITH FRAMED WALLS

All the cruck-trussed buildings so far discussed have extended tie-beams carrying the wall-plates and originally supporting flimsy wattle-and-daub screen walls. A group of three cruck-trussed buildings, Thorpe House Farm Barn, Little Thorpe cottages and Linthwaite Hall barn, represent a very different tradition. In these cases stout timber-framed walls are secured to the cruck trusses by mortising the extended tie-beam into sturdy upright wall-posts which are further held in position by one or more spurs. Similar constructions have been noted by Fox and Raglan in Monmouthshire which, they conclude, represent the intrusion of the framed-trust constructions into the earlier cruck tradition. This appears to be the case also in these three local examples for in other features too they represent a more advanced construction. They may not, however, in actual date be later than the buildings already discussed. Being in more lowland areas and consequently nearer to framed-truss buildings it is natural that they would absorb new ideas whilst in the more remote moorland margins above New Mill and Hepworth the older methods would continue until much later.

LINTHWAITE HALL BARN
Linthwaite Hall Barn, which was unfortunately damaged by fire a few years ago, was undoubtedly the finest cruck-trussed barn in the district and one of the best in the country. It was a complete timbered building encased in stone but preserving all its original features. It is a five-bayed structure with six almost identical cruck-trusses each of which had two collar-beams. Normally the wall-plates were carried by the free ends of the tie-beams; here, however, they were supported by stout upright wall-posts, measuring 11ins. By 4ins. In cross-section, into the tops of which the ends of the tie-beams were mortised. This construction lifted the rafters slightly and a blocking-piece had to be inserted between the cruck and the rafter in order to carry the lower purlin. The same feature is noticeable in the cottage at Carr House Farm where it was inserted where the walls were raised.

Wind-braces – curved-braces stretching from the crucks to the purlins – may be seen in almost all our cruck-trussed buildings but they are particularly well developed at Linthwaite. There they stretch from the blocking-pieces to both the upper and lower purlins.

The crucks themselves are more massive than those noted previously, measuring 1ft. 10ins. By 11ins. At the base. Each pair with its tie-beam is marked with a figure to indicate its position, the marks being on the same side as the tie-beam. The cuts are usually made on the tie-beam near the halving and on the cruck nearby, but similar marks are also made on the cruck, collar-beam and blocking-piece.

The crucks, which all show lever holes, were notched a foot or so above the base to accommodate the feet of the stout upright wall-posts. At a height of 7ft. 8ins. Above ground level a brestsumer, 11ins. by 8ins., is mortised at its ends into the wall-posts; thus dividing the wall into an upper and lower part. The space between the brestsumer and wall-plate is divided into three roughly equal panels by a pair of upright posts, 9ins. By 4ins., producing the characteristic “post-and-pan” wall-filling of the timber-framed building. Each panel was further subdivided by upright studs into three parts, measuring 18ins. From the center of one stud to the center of the next. These studs, which have been removed, were mortised into the underside of the wall-plate and slotted into a groove in the top of the brestsumer.

The main studs were grooved at the sides; oak laths were sprung into these grooves and interwoven through the secondary studs, thus forming a wattle panel infilling which was smeared with daub or plaster. The mortise holes of these early frameworks were bored at each end with an auger and the wood between was chopped away with a twivil.

The space below the brestsumer was similarly divided into panels by three posts which were probably mortised into a sill resting on a low ground-wall. Such ground-walls were a common feature of most timbered buildings and the north gable at Linthwaite rests on a sturdy stepped buttress of dressed stone.

When the timbered walls were encased in stone an outshut was added by extending the principal rafters; these are curved at the ends and scarfed to wooden corbels springing out from near the top of the wall.

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