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We take the view that we are re-enactors constructing a replica of a building in which we can re-create our chosen period of history. Our philosophy in respect of building techniques is that we are not as numerous as those who would have worked on this building a thousand years ago. We have modern lives to lead and the hours we snatch to work on the site are precious to us. We have no problem with using power tools to replace hours of backbreaking toil and when we needed to dig post holes in the unyielding clay, we hired a mini digger with a clear conscience. The Health and Safety issues surrounding lifting the roof sections into place meant we hired in a crane and driver to replace the host of brawny backs that would have completed that task a millennium ago. Continuing H&S considerations mean that we all follow a simple Code of Practice - hard hats if there is anything going on above you, reflective waistcoats and steel-toed footwear are the minimum. The Society keeps a selection of hard hats and waistcoats at the site, but expects the members to supply their own boots.
Our site will inevitably become a focus for the exploration of ancient building techniques, but we are not examining those aspects of our ancestor’s lives at this stage of the project – all things in their season.
That said, the great majority of the many, many joints that hold the ten-inch thick timbers together were cut principally with hand tools. A Saxon labourer might have been surprised how long the chisels held their edge and how sharp the saw blades were, but their application would have been instantly apparent to him and he would have hitched up his tunic and got on with it with the rest of us without much surprise!
Before any part of the structure could be erected, each joint had to be “tried” by laying everything out horizontally to level and fitting the joints together
This is a long, boring and tedious process, but we never once regretted the time and trouble we took to make sure the joints we cut in the acidic green oak fitted together on the ground before re-assembling them twenty feet up in the air.
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| Last updated
10 November, 2008
. Article by Kim Siddorn 2008. Click here to return to the societies main page or the listing. © Regia Anglorum 2008. If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to e-mail us at webmaster@regia.org | |