Pages 148-150







Aisle-ties—In a timber-framed building, a tie beam between wall and aisle-post.

Alabaster—Soft whitish limestone with veins of colour.

Almuce—Fur cape with hood, worn by priests.

'Antique work'—Rennaissance ornament evoking the style of the ancients.


ArchButting—having one complete and one incomplete arc.

Depressed—struck from a centre or centres well below the line of the springing.

Flat—having a horizontal soffit.

Nodding—curved forward in advance of the plane of the springing.


Basin—An artificial pond for mooring boats.

Bay—The main vertical divisions of a building or feature defined by recurring structural members as in an arcade, a fenestrated elevation or a timber frame.

BeamAxial—in a ceiling, placed centrally on the main axis of the related structure.

Cross—in a ceiling, placed on the short axis of the related structure.

Dragon—in a ceiling, placed diagonally in a corner of a building to carry jetties (q.v.) on the adjacent sides.

Intersecting—in a ceiling, combined axial and cross beams.

Benefactor's table—Tablet or panel recording a benefaction.

Billet—In heraldry, upright rectangle.

Blind—Unpierced by any openings.

Bowtell—See Roll moulding.

Brace—Diagonal timber strengthening a framework.




Down—between a post and a lower horizontal member.

Passing—of considerable length, passing across other members in the roof truss.

Up—between a post and a higher horizontal member.

Bracket-moulding—Double ogee moulding.

Brattishing—Upstanding ornamental cresting, particularly of repetitive leaf form.

Break-front—An architectural composition in which the centre part projects forward.


Hollow—manufactured with centred voids.


White—white or whitish-yellow bricks made from gault or other clays.

Brick-workEnglish bond—a method of laying bricks so that alternate courses on the face of the wall are composed of headers or stretchers only.


Tumbled—in a gable, triangular areas of brickwork laid at right angles to the pitch.


Burin—Small prehistoric flint implement.

Buttress-es—Projecting support to a wall.


Clasping—clasping or encasing the angle.

Diagonal—projecting diagonally at the corner of a building.


Cap—A capital.



Water-leaf—enriched with broad tapering leaves of sinuous form.


Chalk marl—Argillaceous stratum just below the Lower White Chalk.

Chimney bay—Short structural bay enclosing a chimney stack.

Chip carving—Decoration of a surface formed by chiselling shallow depressions.

Cladding—The external covering of a timber-framed structure.

Clairvoyée—Structure designed to frame a particular view.

Clay bat—Large rectangular blocks of unfired clay, used for building.



Common field—Large unenclosed field divided into small strips and managed communally during the medieval and later periods.

Coprolite—Phosphatized nodules of clay and parts of extinct animals, dug for fertilizer in the 19th century.

Cotised—In heraldry, when a bend appears between two cotises i.e. diminutives of the bend.



Crosslet—having each main arm crossed by a smaller arm.

Flory—having arms headed with fleurs-de-lis.




Crown post—In a roof truss, a central post between tie beam and collar.

Cut-out panelling—Carved in low relief, the raised surface remaining flat.

Diamond mullion—Of square section, set diagonally.

Double depth—Of a house the plan of which consists of two parallel ranges of rooms.

Droveway—In the fens, a wide track giving access to enclosed lands.

Dutch gable—A gable wall with parapet having curvilinear profile.

Empark—To enclose land for a park.

Engaged shaft—A column partly attached in its circumference to an adjacent feature.

English bond—See Brick-work.


Erased—In heraldry, torn from body leaving jagged edge.

Field stones—Round glacial erratics, occurring in the Drift and collected from the surface as building material.

Fielded panel—A panel with bevelled margins.

Flemish bond—See Brick-work.

Flush dormer—A dormer window the front of which is flush with the wall face below.

'Flying' bressummer—Horizontal timber carrying deeply-projecting eaves in a 'Wealden' house.

Foil.—A leaf-shaped space defined by the cusping in an opening or panel.

Fret—In heraldry, an interlace of diagonal bars.



Gablet—A small gable in the upper part of a hipped roof.

Garderobe—A small room containing a latrine.

Gemel—In heraldry, diminutive of the bar, arranged in couples.

Half-hipped roof; Hipped gable—A roof the ends of which are gabled in the lower part and hipped in the upper.

Hall—In a medieval house, the principal room which was often open to the roof.

HeadFlat—having a lintel made up of voussoirs.

Four-centred—struck from four centres.

Hipped gable—See Half-hipped roof.

Hold-water base—A base having a concave moulding, or mouldings, in its upper surface.

Hollow chamfer—A shallow concave moulding.


Indent—Sinking, usually for a brass plate.

Indented quatrefoil—A quatrefoil with dart-like projections alternating with the lobes.



Jetty bressummer—the sole plate (q.v.) of the jettied upper storey which rests on the projecting joist-ends.

Jetty plate—the wall plate of the lower storey on which the jettied upper storey rests.

Jewelled—Prism-like decoration in relief.

Keel moulding—A moulding, a profile resembling the section through the hull and keel of a boat.

Key-block—Simulated keystone, often of wood.



Lancet—A tall narrow window with arched head.

Linear earthwork—A bank and ditch not returned round an enclosure.

Lode—local name for artificial watercourse.

Lombardic capitals—Letters based on medieval manuscript alphabets of N. Italy.

Loop light—Small slit window.



Lynchet—A scarp produced by ploughing.

Negative—formed by cutting into a slope.


Strip—a long narrow field bounded by lynchets usually following the contour of a hill.


Moat—A ditch partly or wholly surrounding an earthwork enclosure.

Mouchette—In window tracery, a curved dagger-shaped opening.

Mullet—In heraldry, star usually of five points.

Nail-head—Ornament, of pyramid form, resembling a nail head.


Offset—The ledge where one vertical plane of a wall sets back above another.

Omega ornament—Decoration consisting of two capital omegas conjoined at their heads.



Outshut—A subsidiary range parallel and contiguous to the main range of a building, and with a roof of single pitch.

Overdoor—Decorative panel above a doorway.

Overmantel—Decorative feature or panel above a fireplace surround.

Overthrow—Decorative panelling or ironwork spanning an opening.

Pall—In heraldry, robe decorated with three limbs arranged as letter Y.


Pargetting—Plasterwork with relief or incised decoration.




Plank-and-muntin—Timber wall construction consisting of vertical planks grooved into stout uprights.


PostHaunched—in timber-framed construction, a post with a bracket-like swelling on one face to carry a beam.

Porticus—In an Anglo-Saxon church, a lateral chapel.

PurlinClasped—one that is held in notches in the collar beam and the principal rafter.

Collar—in a trussed roof, a horizontal beam running longitudinally beneath the collar beams.

Staggered—one which does not align with its neighbour.

Ragulée—In heraldry, serrated or ragged.


Reeding—Decoration formed by parallel and adjacent convex mouldings.

Rere-dorter—Monastic latrine.



Riser—In earthworks, the steep face of a lynchet.

Rodden—Fenland name for an extinct natural watercourse.

Roll moulding—A prominent continuous convex moulding, also called a Bowtell.

Run-through panelling—Panelling having small plain panels framed by continuous rails and short muntins.

Sash windowHung—in which the movement of the glazed frames is vertical.

Sliding—in which the movement of the glazed frames is horizontal.

Scarf joint (see Fig. 4)—Bladed—halved vertically, with mortice and tenon joints.

Splayed—cut diagonally and pegged vertically.

Tabled—halved horizontally, with mortice and tenon joints.


Scoop wheel—Large paddle wheel used for raising water, in fen drainage.

Scramasax—Short, heavy, one-sided sword; also a dagger.

Scratching—Incised marking, often an inscription.


Service end or wing—In a medieval house, that part at one end of the hall, containing the butteries, larders etc.


Skeleton mill—A small windpump (q.v.) without cladding (q.v.).

Sole plate—In timber-framed construction, lowest horizontal member of a frame.

Spring-line—The line of a geological outcrop yielding springs.

Stages—Divisions of a structure marked by distinct horizontal features.

StaircaseClosed siring—with the raking supporting member(s) parallel-sided and housing the treads and risers.


Stand paten—A paten with a foot.

Stiff-leaf—See Capital.

Stop—I. Block, often shaped or carved, terminating a projecting moulding such as a string or label.


Mask—with a pointed profile and chamfered sides.

2. The feature, at the end of a chamfer or moulding, shaped to transfer the latter to a square section, hence stop-chamfered.

Bar and hollow—with half roll and concave stop.


Jewel and hollow—with pyramidal decoration on the chamfer, and concave stop.

Leaf—of foliate form.

Notched—with decorative cuts in the edges.

Run-out—dying out gradually.


Straight joint—An unbonded junction between two structures.


Strapwork—Decoration consisting of interlaced strap-like bands.

String, String-course—A projecting continuous horizontal course or moulding.

Strip—Long narrow field characteristic of open-field agriculture.

Studs—The common uprights in timber-framed walls.

Studwork—Timber framework consisting largely of studs.



'Town house'—A communal building similar to a guild hall.

TraceryFlowing—comprising compound curves.

Geometrical—comprising simple curves.

Net—see Reticulated.

Vertical—with predominantly vertical mullions.

Trippant—In heraldry, when a beast of chase is shown walking.

Truss—An open structural framework, especially of a roof.


Tumbled gables—See Brick-work.

Tusk—The jagged end of an unfinished or partly-demolished masonry or brick wall.

Underbuilt—Addition of a wall beneath a jetty (q.v.).

Wall-anchor—Metal holdfast, often shaped or decorative, used to secure ends of purlins or floor timbers to a masonry or brick wall.

Wall-post—An upright timber against, or partly in, a wall and forming part of a roof structure.

Wall-tie—Metal holdfast, used with a tie rod to strengthen a masonry or brick wall.

Water-leaf—See Capital.

Wave moulding—A compound comprising a convex curve between two concave curves.

Weathering—A sloping surface for casting off water.

Windpump—A device to raise water to an upper level by means of a wind-driven scoop wheel.