Oxfordshire Woodland Group

Watlington Town Hall clock tower contains forelock bolts that were used to connect a post to a scarfed repair joint. This type of connector precedes the use of screwed type nuts and bolts (first ?) employed in the North transept roof at Wells Cathedral in as early as 1661 as remarked on pp 241 in English Historic Carpentry by C. A. Hewett.

HEWETT, C.A., 1980 English Historic Carpentry. Chichester : Phillimore.

It's interesting that both of these types of bolts are present in the same assembly ?

Possible reasons :-

The post would have been dry and hence not prone to further shrinkage whereas the scarfed in piece might have been made using non seasoned timber which would shrink across the grain and hence the carpenter recognised that future tightening of the bolts would be required.

The cost of a screwed bolt & nut might have been significant compared with blacksmith made forelock bolts.

The post strap and forelock bolts is an original fixing for the the clock tower above with the scarf plates and bolts being much later with the post strap re used in the new assembly.

For the attention of Jack Sobon (author),

We have revisted your book Hand Hewn :-

SOBON, J. 2019. Hand Hewn - The Traditions, Tools, and Enduring Beauty of Timber Framing. North Adams, MASS., USA : Storey Publishing.

- and note on page157 that you show what appears to be a forelock bolt assembly on the roof timber of The Congregational Church at Windsor, Mass.

We are intreagued by this finding as generally the use of forelock bolts fell into demise in England after the introduction of screwed bolt connections. Hewett explains on pages 260-261 of his book English Historic Carpentry that this presumption might not be quite correct.-

HEWETT, C. A., 1980. English Historic Carpentry. Chichester : Phillimore.

Regardless of this the history of The Congregational Church at Windsor, Mass reveals that :-

The first Congregational church was built in 1772 but subsequent churches were erected in 1779 (destroyed by fire) with a replacement built in 1790. This itself was replaced in 1823 and finally the present church was built in 1847.

This seems to imply that forelock bolts were still in use in New England in 1847 (?) which on UK observations appears to be a very late date for using this technique.

Author's reply (extract)

The first water powered "machine shop" built in Windsor, Mass. dates from about 1860. Up to that time, local blacksmiths provided all the ironwork necessary. While there were earlier machine shops and foundries operating in the valley communities that were served by railroads (which brought coal to fuel steam powered equipment), the hill towns of the Berkshire plateau had less sophisticated industries. Being 1000-1300 feet higher in elevation made it difficult to transport manufactured goods to these rural communities so they relied more upon simpler, local production methods. While a blacksmith can make threaded connections, the forelock bolt is much faster to make and thus more economical.

It's likely that forged iron work was common into the 1850's on rural New England timber trusses.

JAS