The aim of this site is to aid research into British medieval architecture in wood.

Academic papers are offered alongside detailed information on the 'Devizes Heads'.

We offer the viewer an insight into certain elements of British medieval architecture, mainly focusing on timber-frame construction methods in central southern England. In particular we will explore, through digital technologies, the joints employed by medieval carpenters to frame a house and their chrono-typologies. The study of which is based on solid dates derived from dendrochronological investigations (tree-ring dating) and the influences of the 'Black Death'. We will also report on the medieval corbel heads from Devizes (Wiltshire), employing virtual technologies to explore the techniques of their manufacture.

Richard is presently actively involved in surveying timber-framed properties in Hampshire between AD1130 and 1530. He has found many interesting joints and he is in the process of writing his thesis and modelling the joints. As a result this website is constantly evolving and updated. Not all the data can be published here until after the thesis is submitted, be he is more than happy to talk with any interested parties regarding his work. Please feel free to email Richard with questions and sugestions.

The role of the house (or dwelling) in society is a theme which transcends the period boundaries.  Approximately 108 timber-framed medieval buildings survive in Hampshire. These have been dendrochronologically dated to between 1244 and 1530 AD. As part of my doctoral reserarch, an extensive  survey has been carried out on these buildings to record the different types of joints used in their construction; these joints have then been grouped, by type, to provide a chronology. Although my project is heavily informed by scientific dating methods theory is also an important component. Once my chrono-typologies have been produced and cross- referenced with regard to Hewett’s Essex data, the effects, if any, of the Black Death (1348-50) on carpentry techniques and technologies can be analysed.

The project utilises digital technologies to collect, collate, manage, query and ultimately disseminate data relevant to the study of timber joints. Such technologies include:
•       Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
•       Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
•       Database Management Systems (DBMS)
•       3D modelling

The 3D modelling provides a means to explore how joints interact with each other, whilst also forming a visual database. This database can be disseminated through various mobile devices, supplying researchers with a real-time, portable, dating aid, for comparison in the field. The combination of GPS and GIS enable the data to be analysed spatially to understand how the buildings work within a landscape context. This then permits the answering of the question "building on fear" by applying theory to the science and asks the question: are the houses being built to protect the occupier from war, famine and plague or are they just projecting status and society?

The Open Hall

The open hall was an important aspect of late medieval society, forming the central space within a house, where social interactions took place around a fire (Quiney 1999, 28). Though these early origins, for the development of the open hall, are based on ambiguous documentary evidence, such as Bede, Beowulf and Chaucer, Quiney shows that, archaeologically, the higher levels of society were using open halls from the early Saxon period (6thC) and at lower levels of society, just before the Norman conquest (11thC) (Quiney 1999, 29). Johnson suggests that the idea of an open hall being open to the ceiling, in order to accommodate the central hearth, to provide a means for the smoke to rise and dissipate through the thatch, as being an inadequate postulation and that it related more to the social structure of the time (Johnson 1993a, 53). This social structure was articulated in the late medieval domestic plan by employing the main structural posts of the timber frame to provide clear divisions of space (Gardiner 2000,159). Johnson puts forward a clear and convincing argument regarding the absence of fireplaces, within the late medieval middling classes, by informing the reader that both knowledge and technology were available to the carpenter, yet they did not employ fireplaces till the 16th century (Johnson 1993a, 53). Though the term ‘feudal’ is often used to describe the social structure of the late medieval period, Johnson suggests patriarchal is better suited to describe a system of “good governance and public rule” which he takes from Mertes’ book, The English Noble Household 1250-1600: Good Governance and Politic Rule (Mertes 1988).

Harris describes the houses, as being designed and prefabricated by the carpenters, in their workshops and yards, prior to transportation to site (Harris 1978, 15). To facilitate the deconstruction of the prefabricated walls and the mitigation of any errors during their final erection on site, the carpenter used a modified Roman numeric system, with which he inscribed the frames and joints (Harris 1978, 15). During the course of this research other methods have been found that incorporate numbers of an Arabic appearance.

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