We have two cruck frames in the
main house. You will have seen one of them, the old cruck in the About
Crucks page. All the plans, and drawings and diagrams we have made
can also be found in the Plans and Maps page.
The Old cruck was originally the
centre part of a medieval hall which, when recovered, was smoke blacked
from the fire that would have burnt in the hearth in the centre of
the room. It is about 500 years old. It now occupies the middle of
our drawing room. The pictures of this operation are in Gallery Stage
2. The remainder of the building from which the old cruck was recovered
was re-erected and now forms The Barn (our garage). There are three
crucks in this building. See later in the Extras page and Gallery.
The second cruck is new. It was
made from an oak tree felled for a road improvement scheme. The conversion
of this curved tree covered in bark to a cruck frame of the correct
size was an interesting operation. The trunk was taken to the local
sawmill and put on a conveyor to be sliced through lengthways. Each
slice took 40 minutes to complete. Three slices were made, the first
to take away the top layer of bark, the second through the middle
and the last through the bottom layer of the bark. The two centre
sections (blades) were delivered
in this form to us with the bark still on them! We set about them
with chain saws etc. to make this new cruck which is now the centre
frame in our two-bay sitting room. To see some photographs of this
operation, go to Gallery Getting There.