Ken, The Deerfield and Sherley barns are similar in that thay have tall posts which tenon into the rafters and have interupted tie beams. The Wilton barn has a single tie resting on top of four posts.

Will, I have heard that the distribution of common purlin roof systems is similar to the distribution of connected farm complexes. If you have the book Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn, look at page 20 (second edition). Connected buildings only occure in part of New England with the highest concentration in Maine.

Don, The Deerfield barn has a major purlin tenoned into the rafters. This major purlin carries the minor raftrers and is braced to the rafters.

Everyone, To add some information about the barns I posted images of; The Wilton barn is missing the lowest purlin in the images. It was a 2x8 spiked onto the ends of the ties. Also, the wall nailers were nailed onto the braces rather than being mortised into the posts.

Tim made a comment that there were "two barns" in Sherley. Technically it was just a two bay addition to the main barn but the addition was a complete frame unlike the two other barns which the two bay additions were attached to the last bent of the original barn without adding more posts.


I'll make a coment about the structural aspect of the barns with posts going all the way up to the rafters...Being interior posts which carry more floor load and roof load than the outside posts, you need to be sure the footings are sized properly to carry these posts. In the Deerfield barn these posts had settled several inches, and since the posts were pinned to the rafters,they pulled the rafters down in the middle creating a sag of perhaps four inches in the roof. Otherwise, it is a strong design.

Jack Sobon made a good comment in his joinery book about these "interupted plate" barns; once you get two bents up and braced, they are stable. Probably stable enough to help pull the remainder of the bents up with a block and tackle.

Don, good news about the barn tour shaping up. I'll call soon.

Jim


The closer you look the more you see.
"Heavy timber framing is not a lost art" Fred Hodgson, 1909