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VI. The Pilgrims' Hall, Winchester. Hammerbeams, Base Crucks and Aisle-Derivative Roof Structures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

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Abstract

The roof of the so called ‘Pilgrims’ Hall’, Winchester, now dated to c. 1308, has long been recognized as one of the earliest surviving examples of hammerbeam construction. It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that the complete medieval structure, of which the Pilgrims’ Hall forms rather less than half, has not previously been investigated in detail. In its original form it was a six bay building covered by a single roof, which, though of one constructional phase, employed a variety of principal truss types (fig. 1). The three bays at the north end of the complex have masonry walls: they comprise the actual Pilgrims’ Hall, whose most impressive feature is its pair of hammerbeam trusses (pl. XLa). The other three bays had timber framed walls, and were subdivided into a second, two bay hall with a central base cruck truss, and a single bay at the south end of the building. In this paper the term ‘Pilgrims’ Hall’ is used to denote only the three bay hammerbeam hall, while the entire original structure is referred to as the ‘Pilgrims’ range’.

The roof and timber framing of the complex must surely rank with those few structures that, in the words of the late R. T. Mason, ‘stand out for their contribution to overall knowledge’. The outstanding significance of the Pilgrims' range in the study of early medieval carpentry is that it included four major ‘aisle-derivative’ roof truss types in a single building: a true aisled truss, a base cruck truss, two hammerbeam trusses, and at least one raised aisle truss. The existence of continuous longitudinal members (arcade plates, cornice plates and a central purlin) and the uniform upper roof structure throughout the length of the range show that the entire roof was erected in a single campaign.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1991

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References

Notes

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17 For example in photograph at NMR taken by O. G. S. Crawford in 1944 (ref. AA 53/7022).

18 The drawing, apparently intended for display, is done in pencil on a single large sheet of cartridge paper, and is signed ‘Flotsam’.

19 The wall appears to be contemporary with the boundary adjustments made when the southern half of Bay 4 was taken into the adjoining house (see note 16, above).

20 The photographs (author's collection) were taken by Winchester photographer A. Clements in 1931 as publicity for the newly opened Pilgrims’ School.

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28 NMR, 1959/34–8.

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41 Crook, op. cit. (note 12), 96–100.

42 Needless to say, samples obtained by coring of major timbers would be more satisfactory. However, there is no reason to suppose that the upper roof structure is significantly later than the main timbers of the complex.

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51 These are published in M. Wood, op. cit. (note 6), pl. 2; and Smith, op. cit. (note 44), 82, 84–6. A felling date of c. 1314 has been obtained for samples taken from the roof at Nurstead: see Howard, R. and others, ‘Tree-ring dating list No. 28’, Vernacular Architect. 19 (1988), 48.Google Scholar

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56 Ibid., 108.

57 Ibid., 129.

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60 Ibid., 87–9.

61 Smith, op. cit. (note 9), 140.

62 e.g. John Fletcher, in Fletcher and Crook op. cit. (note 13), who described the term as ‘totally misleading’.

63 J. Crook and C. R. J. Currie, forthcoming, ‘A classification system for base cracks’

64 Alcock, op. cit. (note 46)

65 Smith, op. cit. (note 9), 140.

66 Smith 1981, op. cit. (note 46), 8 and fig. 3. For the implications of this definition for base crack distribution see Alcock, N. W. and Barley, M. W., ‘Medieval roofs with base-cracks and short principals: additional evidence’, Antiq. J. 61 (1981), 322–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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70 Mason, op. cit. (note 1), 21.

71 OS Ref. SU 217508.

72 Pevsner, N. and Lloyd, D. W., Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (Buildings of England series) (London, 1967), 331.Google Scholar The compilers of the Hampshire Volume of the Victoria County History recognized, however, that the building incorporated medieval remains: ‘[Marwell Hall] retains, however, in its central portion, once the hall of an H-shaped house, a certain amount of old work’ (Page, W. (ed.), The Victoria County History of Hampshire (London, 1908), vol. III, 332.Google Scholar

73 The roof was recognized as a medieval base cruck by Mr Charles Wagner of the Hampshire Buildings Bureau. It is briefly described in Crook, J., ‘Marwell's medieval roof’, Hants Field Club Newsletter, New Ser., 8 (Autumn, 1987), 1517.Google Scholar

74 OS Ref. SU 604248. The roof structure, including the cornice mouldings, show several similarities with Marwell, and may perhaps be a less expensive version of the episcopal roof, built by a layman rather than a bishop.

75 Briefly mentioned in Emery, A., ‘Dartington Hall, Devonshire’, Archaeol. J. 115 (1958), 187CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and more fully in idem, Dartington Hall (London, 1970), 142–5.Google ScholarPubMed

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77 A. Hamilton Thompson and others ‘Dartington Hall’ (report of Royal Archaeological Institute summer meeting at Exeter, 22–30 July 1913), Archaeol. J. 70 (1913), 553–7: ‘… a large barn, divided into two floors, with a fine timber roof, which appears to be of the earlier part of the fourteenth century.’Google Scholar

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79 A. Emery (1958), 185–6 and (1970), 145 (see note 75). The late fourteenth-century date is supported by Alcock and Barley, op. cit. (note 67), 135–6.

80 The roof of the hall is known from drawings, e.g. those published by Emery (1958), op. cit. (note 75), pls. xxb and xxii.

81 E. H. D. Wilson and R. G. Gilson, ‘No. 15, Fore St., Taunton, The “Tudor Tavern”’, unpublished notes, (1978), Taunton Public Library, 1.

82 Harvey, op. cit. (note 8), 134.

83 Ibid., 135–6.

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86 Wood, op. cit. (note 6), 314–15.

87 Upton Court is now dated to shortly after the felling date of 1319–20. See Howard, R., Laxton, R. R., and Simpson, W. G., ‘Tree-ring dates, List 27’, Vernacular Architect., 19 (1988), 46.Google Scholar The building is fully discussed in Thornes, R. with Fradgley, N., ‘Upton Court, Slough: an early fourteenth-century open hall’, Archaeol. J. 145 (1988), 211–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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90 Ibid., 85–8.

91 Ibid., 83–4.

92 Smith, op. cit. (note 9), 127.

93 RCHM Inventory Salisbury I, 125.

94 Ibid., 98–9.

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101 e.g., op. cit. (note 50).

102 Mason, op. cit. (note 49), 58.

103 Op. cit. (note 100).

104 As, for example, in the late fifteenth-century ‘stables’ range in the Cathedral Close at Winchester.

105 Mason, op. cit. (note 49), 56–7.

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113 A conclusion drawn by Tudor-Craig, Pamela and Keen, Laurence in ‘A recently discovered Purbeck marble sculptured screen of the thirteenth century and the shrine of St Swithun’, Medieval Art and Architecture at Winchester Cathedral, Trans. Brit. Archaeol. Ass. 6 (1983), 68Google Scholar, in which they refer to the lists of royal bounty published in Taylor, A. J., ‘Royal Alms and oblations in the later 13th century’ in Emmison, F. and Stephens, R. (eds.), Tribute to an Antiquary; Essays presented to Marc Fitch by some of his Friends (London, 1976), 93125.Google Scholar

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115 J. Crook and K. Qualmann, Winchester Cathedral Close, Hants. Field Club Archaeol. Soc. Monograph (forthcoming).

116 Milner, op. cit. (note 2), 11, 99.

117 The square two storey building immediately south-east of the complex and linked to it since the eighteenth century is now shown to be of late sixteenth or even early seventeenth-century date on the evidence of its integral brick chimney (Crook and Qualmann, op. cit. (note 115).

118 Fletcher and Crook, op. cit. (note 13), 132. See also Alcock and Barley, op. cit. (note 67), 134–9 f°r a more detailed appraisal of the ‘social significance’ of base crucks; and, for a regional study, Tonks, J. W., ‘Social standing and base-crucks in Herefordshire’, Vernacular Architect. 1 (1970), 711.Google Scholar

119 TR, 1618, 3.

120 ‘Parliamentary Survey of the Possessions of the Dean and Chapter of Winchester, 1649’, MS, Winchester Cathedral Library (hereafter Survey), fol. 22.

121 CA, 1 December 1662.

122 Survey, fol. 2.

123 Ledger Books, MSS Winchester Cathedral Library, xil, fol. 33v.

124 Ibid., 153.

125 CA, 22 September, 1663.

126 CA, 26 November, 1739.