AFTER FIVE CENTURIES

Evening Star, Issue 18259, 26 April 1923, Page 4

AFTER FIVE CENTURIES

SHOEING- U? WESTMINSTER HALL. WONDERFUL WORK OF OLD BUILDERS. “A FOREST OF TIMBERS.” An unforgettable hour I bare been privileged to spend in the roof of Westminster Hall (writes 'Walter G. i loll, in the ‘Daily Telegraph’)- It is an experience that can conic rarely, to .move about in this forest of timbers, and to realise their immensity, in intimate touch with the work of the mediaeval carpenters who made this wondrous structure. The roof has covered the wide span of the historic hall lor 525 years, and to-day wo could not do such work. Not that men are lacking, or indeed skill, but England no longer could produce the oak for It. Lost in the heights where I ranged' about GOlt above the floor, are immense baulks of timber that giant trees alone could have provided. “ The hammer-posts have a crosssection of 3ft 2Jin by 25in, and these are 21ft in length. The wall posts, of little less dimensions, stand 20ft upright. The collar-beams stretch out a length of 40ft. The Royal forests were ranged to find oaks of sufficient scantling; those chosen had been growing, increasing in girth, fully five centuries. The logs were cut in large parts in “ the wood of Petlewodc,” on tiie Sussex Weald, but some timber was brought to Westminster from the King’s Park at Odiharn, from the Abbot of St. Alban’s wood at Bernam, and from Kingston-on-Thames. THE ROOF MAKERS. Hugh Horland, King Richard ll.’s master-carpenter, made this roof. It is not, of course, the first. The hall is older than the Plantagenct’s day. King William Rufus built it, in the rears 1097-9, and in the last year, at Whitsuntide, the Red Kinj» “ kept his Court for the first time in Ids new Palace of Westminster.” It was most interesting to know that in the work that has been going on in the roof for the last ten years many parts of Rufus’s masonry have been uncovered in the great north and south _ walls. These are in main substance his. In various places have been found parts of the Norman arcade left in the great thickness of the walls to give access to the original windows, running the full length of the hall. Rubble idling has been thrown in to strengthen the structure, but here and there one may still tread this concealed passage made by the first Norman builders. KING RICHARD’S CONCEPTION.

What roof then covered Westminster Hull can only bo conjectured, but without doubt it had vortical supports from the floor. They would divide the lia.ll into hays, A roof so wido as to unite these walla in one span was beyond the skill of tho building crafts in Rufus’s nee. It stood fulfilling its purpose for just throe centuries. Then King Richard 11., whose Court and reign never lucked ideas of magnificence, decided that for tho great hall which was tho central structure of his palace, and the focussing point of his life, tho chamber of his State, there should bo an open roof built. The hall floor should he left unobstructed by piers or pillars, the eyo being free to range over its vast area, and to look up past, the winged angels and the tracery which gives richness to the design, till distance seemed lost at tho ridge beam. WITHOUT TIE BEAMS.

The new problem sot to Hugh Herland, the master-carpenter, was to construct a roof which should stretch across this wide space of 68ft and vet be made without tie beams. The hammer-beam design was adopted, and wonderfully he did his work. It is his majestic roof that stands to-day, and now for centuries longer will stand. It has not actually the widest span of any timber roof in tho world, but of its kind there had been none other to approach it. , vSir Frank Baines, the Director of His Majesty’s Office of Works and Buildings, to whoso skill and resource the preservation of the steel reinforcement of the roof is due, has well said of it:

“ The Westminster Hall roof is unquestionably not only the most beautiful, but 1 probably the most scientifically constructed timber roof oi groat dimensions ever constructed, and the fact that it is standing to-day is evidence of the extraordinary skill in design, and the outstanding scientific quality of the theory underlying that design.” It, was undertaken and completed in the years 1391-L Long as is a life of over five centuries, the giant oaks were so well selected that each might still ho bearing its burden but for the destructive activities of a tiny little beetle. AGED ROOF RETAINED. Ten years’ labor in making the roof of Westminster Hall safe has now been completed. The dimensions _of the problem for which a, solution was sought must first bo understood. The roof has a length of 240 ft, and has thirteen trusses, dividing it into twelve hays. Any idea of rebuilding the roof as*designed was set aside as undesirable —and it was, in fact, impracticable—and the decision was made that every timber that could still bo retained should keep its place, and that the load should bo borne by a stool reinforcement, concealed so far ns was possible. The concealment is. indeed, so successful that, as seen from the floor, no change whatever is visible in the roof. It is still the same glorious forest of timber as in King Richard IL’s day. A keen eye, scanning ft ho detail" laboriously, may by cbanco pick out a stout steel rod thrusting its length among the tracery, but even so it is necessary first to know where to look. Ihe illusion is complete. But the engineer who has seen the elaborate drawings for the steel construction, or, as I have done, has been up amongst it, will know that the si eel carries all the greater strain, and that the timber, relieved from its crushing burden, should now stand good for another live centuries. _ It has been treated with insecticide applied under pressure to servo that end. STEEL REINFORCEMENT. Avoiding ns far as possible, it may be said that steel plates now reinforce the old upper and lower principal rafters, from the wallhead to the xidgo-beam. The horizontal cross-timbers half-way up the r oof tbo collar-beam, as this member is termed—have also a strong _ steel reinforcement; and in this case it has boon possible entirely to conceal the ■icw work, as the old collar-beams were made in two separate parts, and the steel has been tucked away between.