Roofing Tuesday

One of the highlights of the lying in state of Queen Elizabeth II for me was learning about the hammer-beam roof of Westminster Hall, an intricate and fascinating piece of medieval roof support design which is essential when the span of the roof is wider than the maximum length of the wooden beams that you have or when a horizontal beam wouldn't be strong enough to support the weight of the roof etc. I understand that this may seem weird, but hey, there's only so much interest I can generate from looking at a box on a catafalque (which, like a lot of royal jargon, is a fancy word for something that really doesn't deliver much in the way of entertainment value). 

Coincidentally I visited the old town hall building in my town for the first time on Saturday, there was a craft fair going on and my Wife wanted to have a look around. Now, this particular building is an ornate Victorian centre piece in the middle of the town situated in a little square, it was built in 1860 but became somewhat symbolic once the council moved down the road to a modern building in 1972. I've lived in this town for nearly 30 years now and have walked by the building hundreds of times but I'd never ventured inside. The craft fair wasn't up to much if I'm honest but I was surprised to find a lovely example of a simple Hammer Beam roof in the main hall (see picture below)

I'm not sure that this design was entirely necessary in 1860 as the span isn't that large and they had cast iron back then, anyway, it does look pretty! You can see the outside of the building below..