These Hollanders had no sympathy with our native British architecture; a Tudor palace was apparently no residence for a Dutchman!
King Henry VIII’s work dates from about 1529 to 1536, and again we find the names of the craftsmen engaged upon the work, universally English.
Before the hall of Henry VIII there was, of course, the old hall which preceded it, built by Cardinal Wolsey. Although we have no authentic particulars of this, it was clearly not so magnificent or so large a structure as the present hall; for one of the first works of King Henry VIII was to order the demolition of the old Cardinal’s hall in February, 1832. This
work was pressed forward with such expedition that a month later bricklayers were busy upon the foundations of the present hall. By November of the same year the walls were so far advanced that the stone corbals to carry the roof principals were being fixed in position, and at this time Master William Clement, master craftsman and King’s craftsman, was appointed master carpenter in complete charge of the work of the building of the great timber roof.
In May, 1533, carpenters were working late upon the roof, and in July of the same year the lead for the roof covering was purchased. Ceiling boards for the upper roof and for the timber vault were paid for in the autumn of this year. From October to December, carpenters were again working overtime, as we have records in the accounts of the purchase of “tallow candles for the men working in their own times and in their drinking times,
upon the Great Hall against the King’s coming. ”
In January, 1534, work is recorded as proceeding upon the louvre, which formerly stood over the hall in the third bay from the east, and this was finished during the summer months, so that the structural work of the roof, including the louvre, occupied roughly eighteen months to complete — a quite remarkable piece of rapid building for the time.
The hall is 106 feet long and 40 feet wide, divided into seven bays by six principals, with two additional principals against the end walls, making eight in all. The roof is of a very uncommon, if not unique, type, and, unlike most of the roofs of the period, the pitch is steep, but the upper part is trunkated in the manner of a mansard or curb roof.
A great deal — in fact, almost the whole — of the structural timbers, beautiful in themselves as to form and structure, are hidden by decorative coved boarding and tracery, which is the means by which the hall was ceiled. The principals of the roof are of the hammer beam type, namely, with no cross tie below the collar beam; this type arose out of the collar beam type and as a result of the original provision of thick Norman walls for buildings, which walls were fully
capable of supporting thrust from untied roof principals, the thrust originally being uniformly deposited at short intervals where each pair of rafters bore its due share of the weight. However, in later times, when the Gothic and Tudor builders built much more lightly but more compactly than the Normans, the system of attempting to concentrate the roof pressure, by purlins and principals, was followed. This involved some expedient of increasing the security, and the hammer beam roof was evolved, with an idea of balancing the truss or principal without putting too great a stress upon the walls. A weak point in the ordinary hammer beam truss, where failure usually manifests itself, is at the junction of the queen post, the collar, the principal rafter and the main trussed purlin. This is generally due in many cases to the
fact that the composite joints weaken the timbers and that the death watch beetle finds points of entry at these joints, when, by its depredations, it definitely weakens the timbers at the most dangerous and heavily stressed points of support. When this occurs, the principal rafters bend under the weight of the roof above the collar, and their feet either slide on the wall top, or push the wall head over, to the detriment of the stability of the structure as a whole.
The Great Hall roof at Hampton Court, intermediate in span between Westminster School, which is 34 feet 6 inches, and Westminster Hall, which is 69 feet, is also intermediate in its method of constructions, for it has a variation or partial use of the great arched rib or brace, which forms the most distinctive feature of Westminster Hall roof and to which that roof, in fact, owed its salvation.
At Westminster Hall the main curved rib, arch or brace is built up of three members, the two outer continuous and the middle one discontinuous. At Hampton Court this embryo member consists of one timber only, made up of curved pieces separated from one another by both hammer beams and queen posts.
At Westminster Hall this great curved brace, or arch, is the most conspicuous feature in any view of the roof; but at Hampton Court the discontinuous brace, or arch, is invisible, and its only practical advantage was that, when sound, it lowered the lateral thrust, transmitted to the walls from the upper portion of the roof. The roof is of quite complicated construction, and I shall again refer to it when dealing with the slides.
The accounts tell us that the timber used in the roof was bought from Dorking, Holmwood, Leatherhead, Banstead, Berewood and St. John’s Wood — the latter place being to-day the name of a doubtfully delectable suburb; scarcely a woodland where splendid indigenous pedunculate oak could be obtained.
Originally the coved ceiling boards and the filling THE GREAT HALL, HAMPTON COURT:
NO. 5 HAMMER POST, SOUTH.
King Henry VIII’s work dates from about 1529 to 1536, and again we find the names of the craftsmen engaged upon the work, universally English.
Before the hall of Henry VIII there was, of course, the old hall which preceded it, built by Cardinal Wolsey. Although we have no authentic particulars of this, it was clearly not so magnificent or so large a structure as the present hall; for one of the first works of King Henry VIII was to order the demolition of the old Cardinal’s hall in February, 1832. This
work was pressed forward with such expedition that a month later bricklayers were busy upon the foundations of the present hall. By November of the same year the walls were so far advanced that the stone corbals to carry the roof principals were being fixed in position, and at this time Master William Clement, master craftsman and King’s craftsman, was appointed master carpenter in complete charge of the work of the building of the great timber roof.
In May, 1533, carpenters were working late upon the roof, and in July of the same year the lead for the roof covering was purchased. Ceiling boards for the upper roof and for the timber vault were paid for in the autumn of this year. From October to December, carpenters were again working overtime, as we have records in the accounts of the purchase of “tallow candles for the men working in their own times and in their drinking times,
upon the Great Hall against the King’s coming. ”
In January, 1534, work is recorded as proceeding upon the louvre, which formerly stood over the hall in the third bay from the east, and this was finished during the summer months, so that the structural work of the roof, including the louvre, occupied roughly eighteen months to complete — a quite remarkable piece of rapid building for the time.
The hall is 106 feet long and 40 feet wide, divided into seven bays by six principals, with two additional principals against the end walls, making eight in all. The roof is of a very uncommon, if not unique, type, and, unlike most of the roofs of the period, the pitch is steep, but the upper part is trunkated in the manner of a mansard or curb roof.
A great deal — in fact, almost the whole — of the structural timbers, beautiful in themselves as to form and structure, are hidden by decorative coved boarding and tracery, which is the means by which the hall was ceiled. The principals of the roof are of the hammer beam type, namely, with no cross tie below the collar beam; this type arose out of the collar beam type and as a result of the original provision of thick Norman walls for buildings, which walls were fully
capable of supporting thrust from untied roof principals, the thrust originally being uniformly deposited at short intervals where each pair of rafters bore its due share of the weight. However, in later times, when the Gothic and Tudor builders built much more lightly but more compactly than the Normans, the system of attempting to concentrate the roof pressure, by purlins and principals, was followed. This involved some expedient of increasing the security, and the hammer beam roof was evolved, with an idea of balancing the truss or principal without putting too great a stress upon the walls. A weak point in the ordinary hammer beam truss, where failure usually manifests itself, is at the junction of the queen post, the collar, the principal rafter and the main trussed purlin. This is generally due in many cases to the
fact that the composite joints weaken the timbers and that the death watch beetle finds points of entry at these joints, when, by its depredations, it definitely weakens the timbers at the most dangerous and heavily stressed points of support. When this occurs, the principal rafters bend under the weight of the roof above the collar, and their feet either slide on the wall top, or push the wall head over, to the detriment of the stability of the structure as a whole.
The Great Hall roof at Hampton Court, intermediate in span between Westminster School, which is 34 feet 6 inches, and Westminster Hall, which is 69 feet, is also intermediate in its method of constructions, for it has a variation or partial use of the great arched rib or brace, which forms the most distinctive feature of Westminster Hall roof and to which that roof, in fact, owed its salvation.
At Westminster Hall the main curved rib, arch or brace is built up of three members, the two outer continuous and the middle one discontinuous. At Hampton Court this embryo member consists of one timber only, made up of curved pieces separated from one another by both hammer beams and queen posts.
At Westminster Hall this great curved brace, or arch, is the most conspicuous feature in any view of the roof; but at Hampton Court the discontinuous brace, or arch, is invisible, and its only practical advantage was that, when sound, it lowered the lateral thrust, transmitted to the walls from the upper portion of the roof. The roof is of quite complicated construction, and I shall again refer to it when dealing with the slides.
The accounts tell us that the timber used in the roof was bought from Dorking, Holmwood, Leatherhead, Banstead, Berewood and St. John’s Wood — the latter place being to-day the name of a doubtfully delectable suburb; scarcely a woodland where splendid indigenous pedunculate oak could be obtained.
Originally the coved ceiling boards and the filling THE GREAT HALL, HAMPTON COURT:
NO. 5 HAMMER POST, SOUTH.