Oxfordshire Woodland Group

The recent building of the Harcourt Arboretum cruck barn has generated some interest in the approach taken by carpenters to layout and cut hip rafters.

The picture below was taken by Barbara Czoch and this illustrates how the Harcourt half hip roof was framed by Henry Russell (2013). The hip rafters were laid out and cut in the plane of the long wall roof with the half hip rafters cut with birdsmouths to meet up with the hip rafters.

An alternative but equally valid simple traditional approach was employed by Paul Russell (1991) when constructing the Library Barn at South Harting in West Sussex. The hip rafters were laid out in the same plane as the half hip roof with the long wall roof jack rafters cut with birdsmouths jointing into the hip rafters. I would apologise for the less than crisp scan of an old photograph (pre digital era) which still ably demonstrates the principal of simple cutting and nailing hip / half hip rafters. The mortices & tenons of the main frame were cut using a French Bisaigue.

As I (and hopefully others) come across different configurations employed then these will be added to this thread.

Ken Hume