Cruck Workshop

Jack Sobon will be leading our fourth Cruck Framing workshop from August 1-5 at Heartwood (www.heartwoodschool.com) in western Massachusetts. I know this is an early notice but this course will fill up fast. At last count I believe we have around 20 cruck frames here in Berkshire County, making it the highest concentration outside of the Welsh borderlands!

Hi Will,

I think that you just made a fairly significant point above and I wonder if you can provide a list of these crucks including location, builder, year of build, number of bays, use, etc.

From a building research point of view it is usually a matter of some academic speculation as to why and how a particular building style arose in the landscape and here we should be able to provide at least one (or more ?) definitive reason behind this apparent Bershire phenomenon. This would make for a good article.

On a minor point I think that you will find that the highest cruck concentration acolade probably belongs to Sheffield, Derbyshire, England (inc. imediate surroundings).

Regards

Ken Hume

Don't hold me to it; but it's probably because Will Beemer and the Heartwood school cruck classes made them.....that and Jack Sobon making them...

Hi Jim,

We only have about 100 or so crucks here in Hampshire, England with most of these being built between 1390 - 1425. I sometimes wonder whether or not these cruck frames might also have been built by a similar small group of builders who were experienced in this technique.

Regards

Ken Hume

Hi Ken,

Interesting that crucks were built in Hampshire for basically the working life of a man, maybe two generations if the individuals were short lived. It is also interesting when they were built, after the plague epidemic of the mid 14th century. I wonder if cruck construction was transferred to the area when a craftsman moved there from an area where crucks were more prevalent.

BTW, there is a cruck raising taking place in Ontario this week.

Reid Harding

Hi Reid,

The earliest cruck that I have been inside (this winter) is less than 20 miles north of me in guess where - [Olde] Berkshire. This has now been dendro dated to 1299 and is hence a very early example with cruck blades of staggering size and the best thing is that folks still live in it - 712 years of family service !!!

Good luck with the Ontario raising. Some digi pics would be nice.

Regards

Ken Hume

As Jim points out, the crucks in Berkshire County (US) are due to the influence of Jack Sobon, who lives about 30 minutes from Heartwood and works with us occasionally, and it has trickled down to other timber framers in the area. I'll talk to Jack about doing an inventory for the area.
Oh, and we have crooked trees, for some reason. Geomagnetic flux? No, just a hilly region where Eastern White Pines grow from hillsides with the right curve and girth to meet the requirements of a well-scaled cruck.
Thanks for the clarification on cruck distribution in England, Ken. I have B. Bunker's book "Cruck Buildings" that covers Derbyshire and Yorkshire but have only directly seen some over by Wales.
Would love to get Alcock's book but can't find it.
The cruck this summer will be 16'x20', 2-bays,(3 crucks) and used as studio and art workshop. None of the crucks I know of are used as barns or utility build.ings; they are lived or worked in and all built since 1975

Hi Will,

I just sent you a pdf copy of the Cruck Catalogue to keep you going till you can lay your hands on a paper copy.

The book by Betty Bunker referenced above features typical "rude" crucks that could once be found in and around Sheffield, Derbyshire.

Are you planning to put "eyes" in your cruck ?

Regards

Ken Hume

Ken,
I'm not familiar with the "eyes" term. Please explain. Windows?

Hi Will,

Please refer to Betty Bunker's Cruck book - Chapter II - building number 16 - Little Common Cruck House then if you dare turn the page and read page number 24.

Are we being watched !!!

There is a famous house in border country known locally as "The Eyes of Ruthin"

Regards

Ken Hume

I feel as if I am desperately missing something! Betty Bunker's Cruck book!! Is there a follow up book, Crucking With Betty Bunker?

Yikes! How did they sleep in there? Over here our tradition is to entomb our enemies in concrete, rather than our livestock in daub.
(For those of you not privy to Bunker, they found the eyes of an ox perfectly preserved in the walls of the cruck building, to keep watch on the threshold).
I think the "hex" signs on barns are of similar ilk, but that could open up a whole new thread here.
"Cruck Buildings" is by Betty Bunker, self published in Britain. I found it online, but it wasn't easy or cheap. Not even a date of publication in it; Ken may know. Great book, tho, if you're into crucks. Maps! showing locations for those who want to explore the countryside.

Hi Will,

The last reference mentioned in this book is 1968 but I believe that the publication date is circa 1972. The dates proposed by Bunker for the crucks are wildly wide of the mark with Sheffield University dendrodating efforts establishing that many of the featured buildings actually date from the late medieval period.

I bought my copy in a Nottingham second hand book shop many years ago for £7.00.

I have made a pdf of the cruck building concerned and so anyone wanting read about this needs only drop me a PM.

Regards

Ken Hume

Will, strange and eerie things like that used to happen all the time.

Back in the pagan days, every new building was consecrated by burying a live animal under the foundation (or rather, under the posts since there usually was no foundation). In some cases where the building was REALLY important, the animal would be substituted with a (supposedly) willing virgin (yikes!). This practice survived in some forms after Christianization (although 'officially' labeled as heresy, the Church really had little power over such matters during most of the Middle Ages) The ox's eyes may be a holdover from such a tradition (the tradition I speak of is Germanic, perhaps celtic cultures had something similar?). I have read before that the tradition survived in some cases in certain areas of Europe into the 19th century, including the burial of a virgin. Guess modernization isn't ALL bad...

So one day I was searching for a good picture of a cruck. I did a Google search and clicked on images.....

One of the first ones that popped up was this cruck:



It's a cross between a duck and a crock, I guess....

Hope it gives you a laugh.....

Jim Rogers

Interesting discussion. Just think what future craftsmen will think when they unearth the treasures left behind in late 1990's suburban developments.

What could be the meaning of cheap beer cans, cigarettes, naughty magazines, and graffiti about the sexual orientation of the company owner or boss? And throw in poor framing techniques, cheap materials, and questionable aesthetic choices and the future will have a treasure trove of insight into the values of consumer America (and elsewhere) as the wheels started to come off...

I think I'll stick with the ox eyes.

the ox eyes is fine...
It's buryin the virgin that scares me!
And i'd be more than a little uncomfortable with animal sacrifices too!

I'd suggest if you want to gain some insight into why people might have done such things back in the day, read some of Mercia Eliade's work on the eternal return. According to his theory, the sacrifice and ritual is a about more than just protection from ghosts or what have you.

But boy have we departed from the original topic! I suppose that's OK if the original purpose of this thread has been fulfilled...

My local bookstore found my copy of "Cruck buildings" for me. Came from the University of Sheffield. I guess they no longer felt it accurate enough to keep in their library. There is a cruck building 1.5 miles from me I found out today.

Looks like a T-Rex.

I think Mike has a point. I do place things in buildings, not the stuff Mike mentioned, coins with the right date on them, and one a written note, names, dates of progress, major events and such. No ox eyes, cats eyes maybe. One building had some granite work going on, the workers were cutting 2" holes for some reason, the plugs were laying around. I had a misplaced 2" bore hole, I caught myself after the first hole and stopped the mortice work. I still used the timber, just left it blank. We showed up and commenced to raise the building and found the granite plugs. It was so easy to stick a quarter in the hole and shove the plug in on top of it.

Dave, what is the date on the building? 1987?

Hello,

This is the kind of artifact I can appreciate.



Don Wagstaff

You're too much Jim. That cr-uck is slide show material; maybe you can bring it to the TTRAG Symposium.

Tim, I don't know the exact date of the Cruck building. It was designed by Jack for my neigbor, and built by Phil Newey. Jack just told me about it yesterday. I'll ask him next week when it was built. It has two cruck pairs, and is an addition to the main barn.

Joel already has the whole set of filler slides..... I gave them to him last conference....

Jim

Hi,

For all of you cruck frame afficionados I thought that you might be interested in doing a bit of pre workshop reading and I am pleased to announce that a new book on crucks has just been published by Michael Nevell from The University of Salford. This costs £8.95 plus postage and contains 123 colour photos and drawings inside this 120 page book.

Cahpter 1 can be downloaded from :-

http://usir.salford.ac.uk/11925/1/Newton_Hall_Chapter_1_text_Nevell_Nov_2010.pdf

and its worth doing this just to see the cover photo.

I'm now off to receive 18 Compagnons du Devoir who are coming to study our late 16th century granary in Bramley today. Zut alor !

Group photo ?

Regards

Ken Hume

Fourches? Did the French build cruck type buildings?

An end cruck, in the photo lower down in the link. Supporting the ridge and the gable end.

http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/cbaresrep/pdf/042/04205002.pdf

Hi Tim,

My knowledge of French framing is insufficient to answer your question with full confidence as to whether or not cruck constructon exists either in a localised fashion or on a more widespread basis in France.

Alcock et al (Merrion Jones) do make mention and provide examples of continental cruck construction in The Cruck Catalogue (your web reference is an extract from this book).

If you do not have a copy of this book then please PM me and I will send you a pdf file of the whole book (now out of print).

Regards

Ken Hume

Hi,

I received my copy of the Newton Hall Cruck Buildings book yesterday and I have now had a chance to read through this in some detail.

One of the major research findings outlined in this book is that in one of the cruck buildings the sills are made out of long rectangular strips of sandstone (a bit like New England granite foundation stones) into which mortices were cut to take the cruck blade foot tenons and grooves for wattle & daub. This is the first time that I have seen an example of a true marriage being made between timber and stone.

This book is a must for anyone engaged in archaeology / conservation and design as it pulls together all of these threads demonstrating how these techniques have become established and especially how timber frame conservation practice has only evolved over a fairly recent times (1960's onward).

One thing that I did notice in the sources bibliography is that cruck apex types are referred to as "Alcock type X Y Z" with a complete absence of mention or reference made to the typology system ascribed by Betty Bunker in her earlier 1970's study of cruck framed buildings in Derbyshire & South Yorkshire.

The gazetteer of 72 cruck building plans and cross sections demonstrates just how clinical modern efforts are in attempting to recreate this particular building artform which according to Nevell are much more rustic in nature i.e. demonstrating a requirement to work with nature rather than expend too much energy in attempting to regularise same.

Copies can be ordered directly from Brian Grimsditch at Salford University. [contact email address - b.grimsditch "at" salford.ac.uk]{change "at" to @ and no spaces}

Regards

Ken Hume

Any idea of pricing, Ken?


Number of pages, format, colour?

Illustrations?