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Abstract
The Manoir de la Haule at Aclou was described by Bans, Gaillard-Bans and Smith in 1995 as having a base-cruck hall.1 The roof has now been dated to 1360–1d, and study has shown that it is of short-principal rather than base-cruck form. The structure is described in detail and the historical evidence re-examined, suggesting a scenario for its construction. English and French parallels for the plan and structure of the house are considered; it is clear that the design of the house is English, but some details suggest the involvement of French carpenters in its construction.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank M. and Mme Deshayes for generously allowing the examination of the Manoir on several visits, and François Calame and Andy Hyde for facilitating the visits.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
Notes
1 Bans, Gaillard-Bans and Smith, “Le Manoir de Saint-Lô, Aclou.”
2 Bans, Gaillard-Bans and Smith, “Le Manoir de Saint-Lô, Aclou.” They named the house the Manoir de Saint-Lô, but it appears that it is better named as the Manoir de la Haule (see below).
3 The dating of the house and the barn was undertaken by Erhard Pressler (http://www.pressler.com.de, accessed 14 February 2018; unpublished reports). British tree-ring dates cited are taken from the Vernacular Architecture tree-ring database (http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/ archives/view/vag_dendro/) [accessed 1 June 2018].
4 Despite the present size of the village, it appears that Aclou had been the centre of a substantial fief, with 400 tenants’ names recorded (at an unspecified date) (de Glanville, Histoire du Prieuré de Saint-Lô, II, 220).
5 See Luce, Histoire de Bertrand du Guesclin, 472.
6 For 1397, see below; in 1862, the name is given as ‘la Ferme de la Haule’ in Delisle and Passy, Memoires et Notes de M. Auguste Le Prevost pour server a l’Histoire du Departement de l’Eure, vol. 1 (1862): 88. I am informed, however, that the name is no longer in use.
7 Although some of the studs have recently been replaced, earlier photographs confirm the same framing pattern. The vertical studs are too narrow for the framing to be described as close-studded, although this may have been in the carpenter’s mind; the combination of vertical studs and multiple diagonal bracing resembles most closely that at Lees Hall, Thornhill, though the latter is identified as sixteenth century ([Giles], Rural Houses of West Yorkshire, 11). I thank Bob Meeson for suggesting this parallel.
8 Thus, the cellar presumably also had an internal access, perhaps located in its north-east corner, which is not accessible.
9 A peg for such a tenon is visible on the south side of T2 but on T3, this area is obscured by torchis (daub).
10 Although the tenons themselves cannot be seen, a peg is visible on the outer side of the plate on the south side of T2.
11 A central beam carrying joists for the first floor ceiling is supported below the tiebeam on an inserted stud.
12 This term is not included in Alcock et al., Recording Timber-Framed Buildings, but is used by Hewett, English Historic Carpentry, 317–18 and elsewhere.
13 Only the first two joists are visible.
14 Although this reconstruction is undated, the truss is similar to T4, which is part of the 1475 work.
15 Apparently through a construction error, the collar does not rest on the collar purlin, but is supported on an upstand from the crown post, some 8in. (20cm) above the purlin.
16 The central post in this gable is dated to 1360d, but one of the other timbers (a bracket) is dated to 1694–8d.
17 The original inner and outer rafters survive on the south side.
18 On the south side and presumably also on the north.
19 The side of T2 and the adjoining walls appear sooted, so it is possible that this part of bay II may have functioned as a chimney before the present one was added against the east wall of bay III; if so, then the insertion of the ceiling must have preceded the 1475 reconstruction.
20 Not all the sample locations are clearly described in the table of results, and it was not possible to identify all the core sites.
21 No evidence can be seen for the stair position, suggesting that it was in the north-east part of the end bay, where the joists are concealed.
22 De Glanville, Histoire du Prieuré de Saint-Lô. The discussion of the documents relating to Aclou is in Vol. 2, 219–28, and is summarised in Bans, Gaillard-Bans and Smith, “Le Manoir de Saint-Lô, Aclou.”
23 The lease survives in a very early register of notarial records, Archives Seine-Maritime, 2E1/156, f. 141v. It is cited by de Glanville, Histoire du Prieuré de Saint-Lô, II, 226. I thank the staff of the Archives for identifying the modern reference and providing an image; it was known of but not seen by Bans, Gaillard-Bans and Smith, “Le Manoir de Saint-Lô, Aclou.” I also thank Liz Lewis, Clare Noble and especially Professor Linda Paterson for advising on the translation.
24 The Rouen notarial records survive from 1360 (with some gaps before 1400), but no overall index or comprehensive finding aid exists. The earliest volume, Archives Seine-Maritime, 2 E 1/150 (1360–3) is available online (http://www.archivesdepartementales76.net/category/rechercher/, accessed 1 June 2018; see “Tabellionage”). The pages (some damaged) covering most of 1360–1 have been searched for another lease to Aclou without success.
25 In the twelfth century, the priory was given an estate in Hambledon, Hampshire, and property in Winchester by Henry de Percy (between 1179 and 1194), and a rent of 10 marks a year from the manor of Ludford, Lincolnshire, by Henry’s brother Richard (after the death of Henry in 1194). Both Henry and his brother Jocelin were buried at Saint-Lô. See Farrer and Clay, Early Yorkshire Charters, 6 and 353; Cal. Charter Rolls, 1226–57, 248. These estates seem to have been lost by the fourteenth century.
26 Cited by Sumption, The Hundred Years War, 458. The original reference is Archives Nationales [France], Chancery, JJ 89, f. 296v (available online at: http://prhlt-kws.prhlt.upv.es/himanis/index.php/ui/show/chancery/177/590?feedback=1 [accessed 18 February 2018]). I thank Professor Michael Jones for helping to re-identify this document.
27 Impey, “Le Manoir des Vallees at Barneville-la-Bertran, Normandy,” 1–18.
28 Meirion-Jones, Jones and Guibal, “La résidence noble en Bretagne, Salles, chambres et tours,” 153. Le Téhel is considered to date from c. 1300 (G. Meirion-Jones, pers. comm.). Very recently, a soot-blackened roof has also been discovered at the Manoir de Caillaboeuf at Ercé-en-Lamée, Ille-et-Vilaine (Olivier Corentin to G. Meirion-Jones, pers. comm., July 2018).
29 See, for example, the houses described in Walker, “Baythorne Hall” and in Woodfield, “The Larger Medieval Houses of Northamptonshire.”
30 Épaud, De la charpente Romane à la charpente Gothique en Normandie, 269.
31 Épaud, De la charpente Romane à la charpente Gothique en Normandie, 575–80 and 569–73. St-Pierre-sur-Dives was reconstructed after war damage and the evidence for its original form comes from photographs; it is supposed to be of about the same date as Crouttes. It should be noted that the latter is some 50 years earlier than any English use of crown posts.
32 Hoffsummer, Roof Frames from the 11th to the 19th Century, 193.
33 Identification of a particular roof as having short principals or raised base crucks can be a matter of personal judgement, when the principals descent part-way down the walls and their feet are buried in masonry. In general, if the feet terminate less than a third of the way down the walls, the trusses are identified as short principals.
34 Bromham: Bailey, “The Development of Carpentry in Bedfordshire.” Kent: Pearson, Barnwell and Adams, A Gazetteer of Medieval Houses in Kent, 49 and 134. I thank Allan Adams for these two references.
35 Crook, “The Medieval Roof of Marwell Hall, Hampshire,” fig. 15. The date of Marwell, cited as 1291–1333, can be recalculated with current sapwood estimates as 1289–1321d, and the cluster of heartwood/sapwood boundary dates suggests a date close to 1300.
36 Épaud, De la charpente Romane à la charpente Gothique en Normandie, 192–213. They are seen in a modified form at Amiens Cathedral (1284–1305d) (ibid.), with examples at Livaye, Calvados (fourteenth century) and Masangé, Loir-et-Cher (1475–85d) included in Hoffsummer’s typology (Hoffsummer, Les charpentes du XIe au XIXe siècle, 139).
37 Roberts, Hampshire Houses 1250–1700, 4.
38 Munby, Sparks and Tatton-Brown, “Crown Posts and King-strut Roofs in South-east England.”
39 At Les Aix-d’Angillon, in an eighteenth-century market hall (Hoffsummer, Les charpentes du XIe au XIXe siècle, 181).
40 Hewett, English Historic Carpentry, 175 and pl. XI; Stanton’s Farm and barn, ibid., 135; drawing also in RCHM, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Essex.
41 It was the typical form of infill in medieval houses observed in the Mayenne region during the Vernacular Architecture Group visit in 2016.