| Arch braces |
Curved timbers ostensibly rising from the walls to support the cross tie beams of a roof, but largely employed for their visual effect creating arches.
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| Arris |
The sharp angle where two worked faces of the same timber meet.
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| Birdsmouth |
A carpenter’s term where a right-angled notch is cut on the bottom of a sloping timber to allow it to rest on a horizontal timber.
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| Collar |
A timbers in a roof truss, parallel to and above the tie beam, tying together the principal rafters of the roof.
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| Cusping |
Within a timber framed panel, decorative round carvings meeting at points |
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Hammer beam/
False hammer beam
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A device found in the larger medieval roofs, designed to allow shorter major timbers to span the space. This was a sign of high gentry status and was simulated by the ‘false hammer beam roof’which is without the vertical hammer post.
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| Louvre |
A timber ventilator on the ridge of a roof, usually to let out smoke. Sometimes spelt louver. |
| Plate |
A horizontal timber placed on top or within a wall to carry the roof structure. |
| Post |
In medieval timber construction, a vertical timber. In a roof, a king post supports the ridge beam; a crown post rises centrally from the tie beam and supports the collar; a queen-post is similar, but are equally spaced away from the centre, and are used instead of a crown post.
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| Purlin |
Horizontal timbers spanning between trusses in a roof, carrying the common rafters |
| Scarf |
A means of joining timbers end to end to make a longer piece of the same cross section.
Bridled scarf is where the upper face of one timber is formed with a tenon, entering in a mortice on the top face of its joining timber and pegged through from the side. There are many variations of scarfed joints.
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| Soffit |
The underside of a feature.
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| Tie beam |
The major horizontal timbers spanning the space at the top of the walls, usually defining structural ‘bays’. |
| Waney |
The edge of any timber where the removed sapwood has prevented the timber from being properly squared up.
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| Wind braces |
Straight or curved flat timbers in the angles between the principal rafters of a roof and the purlins, to provide rigidity, especially under pressure from the wind.
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