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Abstract
This paper discusses the subject of carpenters’ assembly marks, where they are placed on a building and, when they are recorded and understood, how they can help in the analysis and interpretation of a structure. The different forms of assembly mark are explained along with the methods by which they were made with a view to bringing a degree of standardisation to the descriptions used by those engaged in recording buildings.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Dr Jayne Rimmer for her valuable advice in guiding this article through to publication and for the observations made by referees. Unless otherwise stated in the text, all figures are copyright of the author.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
NOTES
Notes
1 That is, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Radnorshire and Monmouthshire.
2 Most regional studies and those that deal with individual buildings tend to omit a detailed record of the assembly marks, so this observation is based on the limited data available.
3 Clark, “The West Range,” 43–56.
4 Wallsgrove, “Carpenters’ Marks”, 9–11.
5 Pacey, “Some Carpenters’ Marks in Arabic Numerals”, 69–71.
6 Ibid., 70.
7 Pacey, Medieval Architectural Drawing.
8 Ibid., 96.
9 Ibid., 105–6. Here Pacey adopts the spelling of race-knife as ‘rase-knife’, explaining that it comes from the same root as ‘erase’ and ‘razor’.
10 Ibid., 108.
11 Ibid., 110.
12 Ibid., 115.
13 Hewett, English Cathedral and Monastic Carpentry, 110 and 122.
14 Harris, Discovering Timber-framed Buildings, 15.
15 Brunskill, Timber Building in Britain, 34 and 108.
16 Ibid., 34.
17 Morriss, The Archaeology of Buildings, 68–9.
18 Miles, “Arabic Assembly Marks on Frames,” 112–13.
19 Alcock and Miles, The Medieval Peasant House in Midland England, 82.
20 Charles, Conservation of Timber Buildings, 65.
21 Ibid., 201 and 204.
22 Roberts, Hampshire Houses 1250–1700, 103.
23 Steane and Ayres, Traditional Buildings in the Oxford Region.
24 Ibid., 133.
25 Alcock et al., Recording Timber-framed Buildings.
26 Ibid., fig. 23b.
27 Such as West, The Timber-framed House in England, 60–1. Also Brown, Timber-framed Buildings of England, 38–9.
28 Pacey, Medieval Architectural Drawing, 116.
29 Scott, “Brentwood Marking”, 22–3.
30 Watkin, “Cellular (Brentwood) Marking over the Border”, 27.
31 Clark, “Cellular Markings at The Cottage, Newnham Murren”, 337–8.
32 John McCann, pers. comm., letter dated 6 January 2014.
33 Historic Buildings in Essex 3: No. 1 Hutton Hall Cottages, Hutton, Essex. Heatley Cottage, Shenfield, Essex, c. 1700. Frieze Hall, South Weald, Essex. Appletree Cottage, Epping, Essex. Late seventeenth century. Historic Buildings in Essex 5: 21–5 (Odds) London Road, Sevenoaks, Kent. Late seventeenth century [only example from a roof structure]. Brookes Farm, Stisted, Essex. Historic Buildings in Essex 7: Baytree Farmhouse, Stisted, Essex. Sixteenth century. The Priory, Leatherhead, Surrey. Mid-seventeenth century. Historic Buildings in Essex 10: Pentrego, Meifod, Montgomeryshire. Late seventeenth century. Lower Prestwood Farm, Ifield, Sussex. Late eighteenth century.
34 The Hyde, Stoke Bliss, has been sampled for tree-ring dating. The primary structure (fourteenth/fifteenth century) failed to date, but the smaller of the two inserted floors gave a date of 1567/8. The larger inserted floor failed to date. The assumption was made that both floors were of the same date; however, subsequent research has shown that the undated floor is radically different in character and very probably a seventeenth-century insertion. See Bridge, “The Tree-ring Dating of Buildings at The Hyde, Stoke Bliss, Worcestershire.” Also James, “The Hyde, Stoke Bliss, Worcestershire.”
35 Re-used cruck blades in Bridge House, Eardisley, have marked lap joints. Another example is in the cruck barn at Upper Tedney, Whitbourne.
36 There is concise coverage of this subject in Harris, Discovering Timber-framed Buildings, 15.
37 Also noted by Pacey, “Some Carpenters’ Marks in Arabic Numerals,” 69.
38 Charles, Conservation of Timber Buildings, 65.
39 This point was noted by Linda Hall in Roberts, Hampshire Houses 1250–1700, 103.
40 An example where 30 is marked as three overlapping ‘X’s is illustrated in Harris, Discovering Timber-framed Buildings, 15.
41 Clark, “The West Range,” 45.
42 Replacement timber has resulted in the loss of the last few numbers — the original total would have been 38.
43 Charles, Conservation of Timber Buildings, 65.
44 Bridge, “The Tree-ring Dating of Buildings at The Hyde, Stoke Bliss, Worcestershire.” Also James, “The Barn, The Hyde, Stoke Bliss, Worcestershire.”
45 Charles, Conservation of Timber Buildings, 65.
46 Miles and Marshall, “Arabic Assembly Marks.” This short article notes that Arabic numbers were also found on timbers dated 1222 where they were primarily truss identifiers. See also Miles and Worthington “Tree-ring dates” 79, for information concerning Salisbury Cathedral tree-ring dating.
47 Miles, “Arabic Assembly Marks on Frames,” 112–13.
48 For a comparative list of number forms, including those from St Helen’s, Abingdon, see Buxton, “A Medieval Base Cruck Hall at Westcourt Farmhouse, Shalbourne,” 203–7.
49 Pacey, “Some Carpenters’ Marks in Arabic Numerals,” 69–71.
50 Pacey, Medieval Architectural Drawing, 197.
51 Milne, Timber Building Techniques in London c.900–1400, 32–5. Arnold Pacey also notes this in his Medieval Architectural Drawing, 106.
52 Arnold, Howard and Litton, Tree-Ring Analysis of Timber from 25 The Cloisters (Denton's Common), Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire. Figure 5.
53 James, “The Old Priory, Titley, Herefordshire.”
54 Clark, “The West Range,” 44, fig. 1.
55 Harris, “An Axe and a Hammer,” 112–13.
56 Pacey, Medieval Architectural Drawing, fig. 4.13.
57 Hewett, English Cathedral and Monastic Carpentry, figs 110 and 117.
58 Wallsgrove, “Carpenters’ Marks,” 9–11.
59 Clark, “The West Range,” 44–5. A modern screw auger with a centre point could produce a circular mark, but these were not available in the fifteenth century. An auger of that period would have been a shell auger or one with a spoon bit — neither capable of cutting a circle.
60 Arnold Pacey quotes this date. Pacey, “Some Carpenters’ Marks in Arabic Numerals,” 69.
61 Ibid., 70, shows clear race-knife use for Arabic numbers.
62 Wallsgrove, “Carpenters’ Marks,” 9–11.
63 For illustrations of the twibill (or twybill), see Mercer, Ancient Carpenters’ Tools, figs 159 and 249. Also Walker, Woodworking Tools, 17(a), illustrates a long twibill showing the way in which the blades are at different angles, one for clearing the ends of a mortice, the other for the sides.
64 Thompson and Turner, “The Mortice Axe — an Elusive Tool?” and Price, “More on the Mortice Axe and Family.” Also Russell, “The Bisaigue, a French Carpentry Tool.”
65 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.
66 In a Westminster account of 1532 there is a reference ‘for chaulke lyne for carpenters’. Saltzman, Building in England Down to 1540, 344. There are many references to the use of chalk applied to a string that is stretched tight above a surface and ‘snapped’ onto it to leave a chalk line. Some of these are quoted in an anonymous short article entitled “And more on lines ….” The Mortice & Tenon 4 (July 1996). Reprinted in The Mortice & Tenon, Numbers 1–10 (Carpenters’ Fellowship Publishing, 2015): 59.
67 James, “The Throne, Hereford Street, Weobley.”
68 This is a different reading to that which was set out by J. T. Smith in a single-page (unpublished) report dated 2 June 1986 that he made for the owners following a visit with a group of students. He concluded that the three component parts of the main building were of different dates.
69 James, “Reports of Sectional Recorders, Buildings, 2013,” 130–44.
70 Lloyd, “The Wiltshire Dendrochronology Project 2009–2011,” 62–73.
71 Timbers on the northern side of a building will tend to suffer less from the damaging effects of sunlight.
72 Hill, “The Unmistakable Fashion of the Time?” 28–36.
73 Alcock and Miles, “An Early Fifteenth-century Warwickshire Cruck House using Joggled Halvings,” 19–27.
74 Baylock, Bowhill, 143–4.
75 Pacey, “Some Carpenters’ Marks in Arabic Numerals,” 70. Also Miller, Historic Houses in Lancashire.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Duncan James
Duncan James, Independent Researcher