Winter
2006
December, January, February
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Volume
2, Issue 4
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Inside this issue:
| Dr.
Joe and Kevin Tour England's historic timber frames with the
guild |
1 |
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| Dr.
Joe hit the target in ax throwing competition |
1 |
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| Family
and Friends |
2 |
|
Raisings
& Events:
- Timber
Frame Guild tours historic timber frames of England
and Wales
- Dr
Joe’s team comes in 4th — throwing double
bladed axe
- Airport
Design Center, Building A, Fletcher, NC
- Event
Building for Banner Manor Corp, Boone, NC
- Custom
Cypress Trusses, Madison, FL
- Custom
Timber Frame home of EWP and Cypress, Lake keowee
area, SC
- Custom
timber frame addition, Highlands, NC
- Custom
Cypress sign for Highlands Pass Development
- Custom
EWP Trusses, Waynesville, NC
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| Contact
Tracy Bailey or Jo Bell at 828-369-5899 or by email at
info@cabincreektimberframes.com for more information.
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|
Cabin
Creek
Timber
Frames |
 |
|
| One
of the stops on the timber frame guilds tour of the UK
was the Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings
(www.avoncroft.org.uk) Dr. Joe participated with three
others in the axe throwing competition Their team
competed against timber framers from England among
others who take part in this competitively all the time.
They surprised themselves surprised by coming in fourth.
Not bad for a team that had never thrown a double bladed
axe before !!! |
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It’s
been busy here at Cabin Creek, I’m just now getting around
to sharing the tour that Kevin and the timber frame guild and I
took to England and Wales. It was held in conjunction with the
UK Carpenters Fellowship at Avoncroft Open Air Museum near
Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. My luggage was lost for a short
time...my camera caught up with me on day three.
The
first day our group was able to tour Worcester Cathedral, built
in stages from the 12th century on. The walls are stone, more
than 80 feet tall, but the roof structure is timber frame;
mostly oak, although portions are southern yellow pine, imported
from America , and built after the 17th century. The
workmanship, the size of the timbers, the ingenuity of the old
framers was a marvel. We toured old tithe barns and churches
built from 1200 on, some of which are essentially unchanged
other than some minor repairs, and we saw examples of ingenious
repair projects as well.
A fortuitous discovery was
that our Franklin, NC office’s roof structure is patterned
after “Wealden Hall”, a 15th century design found in
southeastern England, built by prosperous merchants and farmers.
We invite you to visit us at the office to take a look.
A
recurrent feature of the country churches was the use of
naturally curved oak timbers as headers over doorways or
windows. At times curved branches were left attached to posts.
With the branches let in to joining timbers as knee braces. |
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Some
of the houses date from the twelfth century. Framed of oak, the
timbers are usually painted black with white infill. The infill
is made of clay, horsehair, and wooden sticks (wattle). As these
structures have been lived in for 800 years, just imagine how
long today’s frames may last with SIPS, modern flashing,
and modern foundations.
One 15th century house sill had
settled about 18 inches, so that one end of a bedroom was 18
inches higher than the other, but was still lived in. On the
same farm/ church yard was a Yew tree dated to be 4000 years
old. This predates Stonehenge.
In essence: the old
timber framers were thoughtful, innovative, clever craftsmen.
-Dr. Joe-
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