Hi Jim,

I thought that you might like to see a logical progression of the failure of a tieing joint as per Thane's post after a period of 684 years in service :-

The main reason that this building is still standing is that there is another building butting hard up against the sidewall preventing any further movement.

It would appear once again that providing secondary lines of defence can head off catastrophic failure in a building.

To get a measure of scale please note that the cross brace is about 9" wide and 8" thick.



Regards

Ken Hume