Cruck

A simple timber-framed building, known from the 13th century onwards, that is easily constructed and most commonly used for barns, farm buildings, and dwellings. Curved timbers are part of the construction - the longitudinal supports take the form of a series of curved, triangular trusses, connected by purlins and provided with vertical in-filled walls.

A simple, easily constructed form of timber-framed building, well known from the 13th century onwards and most commonly used for barns, farm buildings and dwellings. The distinguishing feature of the cruck, as opposed to box-frame construction, is that the essential longitudinal supports take the form of a series of curved, triangular trusses, connected by purlins and provided with vertical in-filled walls. The main paired timbers are usually the identical halves of one tree trunk. Not only was this form of building easy to design and raise but it proved a very effective means of distributing the load of the roof through the walls down to the ground. True crucks have no break between the wall timbers and those of the roof, but there are many variations and adaptions of this particular idea, for example, what are known as base crucks, half crucks, raised crucks and upper crucks, all of which contain some element of the curved, paired truss.