About Crucks

Cruck frames are a very early and simple form of building a timber framed house. First one has to find a tree (or a very large branch) which has a natural curve. This curve must be in one direction only, i.e. it must not start curving upwards and then go off to the left or right; a banana shape one might say. The tree is then sliced down the middle to provide two similar pieces of wood of the same, but complementary, shape. By placing the ends on the ground (say) 20' apart and the other ends together (say) 20' in the air, an arch shaped structure is formed. This provides a frame which will support the roof and walls of a building.

To make a complete building, more trees of similar shape and size are required to make a number of cruck frames. For example, 5 cruck frames would make a four bay building. A large tree may provide 2 pairs of crucks. The two parts of a cruck frame are known as the blades. Various other timbers are added between the blades depending upon the position of the cruck frame within the building. For a gable, provision must be made to support the external wall (wattle and daub?), and for the centre of a large room (a hall for example), only timbers to strengthen and enhance the cruck are required.

Finding suitable trees from which to make crucks is not easy as there are a limited number which have grown over hundreds of years with an even curve. They were also much in demand for ship building (used the other way up!) For this reason the cruck frame method of construction gave way to the box frame which only required straight lengths of timber.

Click here to see a drawing of a cruck frame
This is a drawing of an old one that we will use.

Click here to see an example of a box frame

Back to Stage 2

Home page Stage 1 Stage 2 Getting There Extras Prize Winners! Contact

Galleries Stage 1 Stage 2 Getting There Extras Prize Winners! Long Views

Back to top of the page