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