I agree whole heartedly that this forum could be put to much greater use and what better if "the archive" were opened to let us see some of the recorded frames and thus help illustrate the points that you make above. With posts such as yours maybe the peepers could be turned into contributors. Don has done a great job in encouraging us to examine and discuss this very interesting subject.
The outcome of this topic goes a long way to explaining (to me) why Ted Benson (NH) made use of the interrupted wall plate CG framing style illustrated in his first book. I never could quite understand why he did this when Jack Sobon's (western Mass.) books clearly exhibit a definite preference for continous wall plates. It now seems from your discourse above that this style of framing would appear to be both limited in range and date - just like our experience with some specific framing styles here in England.
By the way, SussexOak is none other than Joe Thompson - the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum lead Carpenter. Joe teaches the "timber framing from scratch" courses held at the museum and also lectures on the Bournemouth University Masters in Timber Building Conservation course also held at the museum under course Director - Richard Harris.
