Held at:	Library of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club
Reference:	F.C. Morgan Collection
Source:	“Timber Buildings in Herefordshire with Cruck Trusses”
Title:	Photographs of the Cruck Buildings of Ewyas Lacy
Place name:	Ewyas Lacy
Date:	1931-1937

Description:

 

The report of the Historical Monuments Commission for Herefordshire published in three volumes from 1931 to 1933, brought cruck buildings to the attention of F.C. Morgan who made a photographic survey and record of 140 Herefordshire examples. Those located in the Hundred of Ewyas Lacy are reproduced here.

 

Cruck construction is an ancient way of making timber framed buildings which has been traced back to the 12^th century. Its main feature is the use of a series of frames made in the shape of an inverted ‘V’ along the length of the building. Each frame consists of a pair of ‘crucks’; these being large blades of timber often originally cut from the trunk of a single tree. The crucks take the weight of the roof and also serve to support the walls of the building. They can be set upon pad stones or in a later development onto a low wall or frame where they are known as base crucks. They are distributed over much of Western Britain particularly on higher ground with many classic examples being in Herefordshire. N.W. Alcock in a paper of 1964 considered that this form of construction had Celtic origins.

 

Diagram showing the construction of a Two Bay Cruck Building

 

 

Craswall Middle Blackhill Court Farm Barn   Llanveynoe Black Daren Farm Daren Farm Barn Great Turnant Longtown Belpha Celyn Great Bilbo Old Court Ty Marw Welsh Hunthouse (Middle Hunthouse)

Michaelchchurch Escley Lower House Farm Oldhay Farm Old Kate’s Barn Pen-y-Park Farm Quaker’s Farm Newton Cwarelau Upper Gwylodydd Rowlestone Lower Mill Walterstone Court Farm

Observations:

Fredrick Charles Morgan, M.A., F.S.A., F.L.A. 1878-1978.
From 1926 was Librarian and Curator of the Art Gallery and Museum for the City of Hereford. He was a leading member of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club. He was Editor of the Transactions, and their Secretary from 1945 to 1958, he was President of the Club in 1937 and again in 1951. His paper on the Cruck Buildings of Herefordshire was published in the 1938. Transactions. Three bound and cased volumes of photographs, the basis of this paper, are in the Library of the Club.