Pillars of the Earth

In the TV miniseries Pillars of the Earth they show the timber framing on top of the church cathedral. Somewhere around 50' off the ground. Does anyone know how they attached the timber framing to the top of the stone walls of the church cathedral?

Sim

Hi Sim,

Yes ! - I have not seen the TV programme but a cathedral roof just sits there - no bolts required.

Depending on the roof configuration it will usually have an inner and outer wall plate with some stone infil between the two wall plates.

A book that you could check out if you require further details is "The Open Timber Roofs of the Middle Ages" by Raphael and J. Arthue Brandon.

Regards

Ken Hume

Here's an entertaining and terrifying article written by Sim (of SBE):

http://www.thisiscarpentry.com/2010/07/16/carpenters-of-steel/

Maybe that explains why he was wondering how the TF is attached.

Brad

Now, now Brad...

In Pillars of the Earth the church cathedral groin vault ceiling fall and killed a lot of the pilgrams. They fixed that problem, but then they added flying buttress's to fix wind load movement on the roof structure. So flying buttress's keep the top of the church cathedral from swaying in the wind, but if the roof framing timbers weren't attached to the outside walls, what keeps the roof framing from flying off the building in high winds? Weight of the roofing material?

Sim

Good fortune!

With a doubled plate like Ken mentioned, the movement is limited by the fact that there are stones locking both plates in place.

Other than that, a cathedral's roof is tremendously heavy. Consider the complex framing many of them have using large sized timbers, and then consider the fact that many are then covered with slate, tile, or metal of some sort (tin, lead, and copper were all used at various points in time in various regions)

SO I would wager that the weight of the system is certainly a major factor.