Hi Dave,
If you mention the name Betty Bunker to Jack that will get his attention. She produced rather a nice self published book - "Cruck Buildings" some time ago that features various rude crucks discovered and recorded by her in and around Derbyshire and North Yorkshire. Unfortunately this book is long out of print and is now exceedingly rare but Jack does have a copy !
Freddie Charles gives a good insight into cruck construction in his hardback book "Conservation of Timber Buildings" (ISBN 1-873394-17-9) where he includes some reprint material from his earlier paper made with Walter Horn re Leigh Court Barn and also from his softback book "Medieval cruck-building and its derivatives: A study of timber-framed construction based on buildings in Worcestershire" published in 1967 by The Society for Medieval Archaeology. Monographs; no.2 by F. W. B Charles. This too is also a rare book but can be found on Amazon at :-
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http://www.amazon.co.uk/Medieval-cruck-b...4882&sr=1-9>
Madge Moran included quite a large number of cruck building drawings in her 2003 opus on "Vernacular Buildings of Shropshire" (ISBN 1-873827-93-8). John Crook provides an excellent chapter on crucks in "Hampshire Houses 1250 - 1700 - their dating and development" edited by Edward Roberts (ISBN 1-85975 633 6) which also contains some information from the earlier "Medieval Hall Houses of the Winchester Area (ISBN 0-86135011-1) by Elizabeth Lewis et all. Nina Jennings provides more information on rude crucks in her "Clay Dabbins - vernacular buildings of the Solway Plain" (ISBN 1-873124-38-3) and Nat Alcock's "CBA Research Report No 42 - Cruck Construction - an introduction and catalogue" (ISBN 0589-9036) is probably the essential reference guide for those considering undertaking any reserch and especially recording of crucks anywhere in the UK & Ireland. This too is out of print but I think that it is available to download for free as a pdf.
For practical guidance on how to build crucks sadly very little is available and one can only really turn to two sources - one is Jack Sobon and the other is Henry Russell with both having published articles in Timber Framing and Mortice and Tenon on this subject. I look forward to being corrected on this last point.
I continue with my own researches into this form of timber framed building construction and have prepared many 3D cruck models of buildings that I have recorded however publication of this material is I think still a long way off !
Regards
Ken Hume
