Hi,

All of the books mentioned are probably a good start point however as mentioned these tend to be about building survey and recording which is not entirely surprising since to discover how to build a cruck it's most probably essential to look back and see how crucks were built in centuries gone bye.

The most recent and by far the most comprehensive study made to date is by ALCOCK, N.W., MILES, D., 2013. The Medieval Peasant House in Midland England. Oxford : Oxbow Books. [ISBN 978-1-84217-506-4]. This book is not cheap but it does contain the most comprehensive set of cross sectional cruck drawings published to date. The build data for hundreds of crucks has been analysed and presented in various tabular forms that should help any designer or aspiring cruck builder to determine just how various less than perfect timbers can be joined together to form a traditional cruck frame. It also comes with a CDROM containing hundreds of recording reports not included in the book text.

I am building a 2 bay traditional cruck frame with a type "D" apex using full crucks. The design concept is based on surveys made of local vernacular buildings undertaken by Hume / Corbishley covering the late 1200's to mid 1400's time period. I confess that the design has evolved as building has proceeded due to having to overcome various issues that we discovered along the way and this is maybe one of the most important lessons in cruck building and might also tend to explain why there are so many design variants. The process to build a cruck frame can be followed on the Timber Framing section of The Oxfordshire Woodland Group Forum and also on The Group's Twitter pages.

If you require further advice then please contact trustees@oxfordshirewoodlandgroup.co.uk

Ken Hume

Last edited by Ken Hume; 07/29/18 06:57 AM.

Looking back to see the way ahead !