V.11.3
HOUSE FOR COOPERS & WHEELWRIGHTS
The workshops and sleeping quarters of the Coopers and
Wheelwrights are installed in a rectangular building, 90
feet long and 35 feet wide (fig. 422), connected to the
Granary of the Brewers. Its axis runs from south to north,
and it is located midway between the Monks' Cellar and the
House for Horses and Oxen, both of which are dependent
on its services. That it is part of the installations that come
under the supervision of the Chamberlain is expressed in
the superscribed hexameter:
Hic habet fr̄m̄ semper uota minister
Here let him who administers to [the needs] of the
brothers discharge his responsibilities
The house is subdivided by a median cross partition into
two equal halves each of a surface area of 27½ feet by 35
feet, one designated as the "hall of the coopers," (tunnariorum
domus), the other as the "hall of the wheelwrights" (tornari-
orum). Their sleeping quarters (famulorum cubi) are in an
aisle attached to the western side of the house, likewise
divided into two equal halves, each of which is capable of
bedding five workmen.
The craft of the coopers needs no further comment. The
product of their handiwork is proudly displayed on the
Plan itself in the form of two impressive rows of barrels
shown in the ground plan of the Monks' Cellar (fig. 225).
These show them capable of producing the staves and
hoops for casks 15 feet long and with a central diameter
of 10 feet. They also made wooden tubs, pails, churns,
and other even-staved vessels for holding liquids used in
bathing, laundering, cooking, and cheese making; or for
storing salted meats and other pickled staples; and likewise,
of course, the barrels used in transportation. Their
work required heat for the proper steaming and bending
of the staves (fig. 423).
The work of the tornarii, who occupy the other workshop
in this building, must have been closely related to that of
the tornatores in the Great Collective Workshop. The terms
are interchangeable, both relating to the same skill, i.e., the
manufacture of wooden tools or pieces of equipment that
had to be fashioned on the turner's lathe. Because the floor
space of the tornarii (27½ feet by 35 feet) is more than twice
that allotted to the tornatores (12½ feet by 32½ feet)—and
also because of its proximity to the house in which the
draft animals are stabled—I would designate the [domus]
tornariorum as the hall of the wheelwrights, whose craft,
like that of their neighbors, the coopers, depends on special
care and skill. They are the makers of the carts and wagons
needed to haul in the harvest of grain and hay (fig. 424),
to carry to the frozen fields fertilizing waste, and to bring
in supplies obtained from the outlying estates. They are
the makers of the ploughs and yokes, and whatever other
wooden equipment is required in the harnessing of draft
animals—the makers, also, when special conditions demand,
of that proficient make of military transport,
which the Capitulare de villis describes in such vivid terms:
. . . war wagons, with canopies of hide so well sewn together that,
if the necessity arises to float them across rivers, they will make the
transit safely, with their entire load of flour, wine, shields, lances,
bows, arrows, and quivers, no water ever seeping inside.[438]
Although the workshops of the coopers and wheelwrights
are part of a long rectangular structure, which also
includes the Brewers' Granary, they do not appear to be of
identical design with the latter. The roof line of the workshops
of the coopers and wheelwrights runs from south to
north, in the center axis of these two workshops, to which
the bedrooms are attached as subordinate entities in the
west. The section that contains the Brewers' Granary, on
the other hand, looks as though its ridge might have run
from west to east, like the center portion of the House for
Horses and Oxen. We reconstructed it in the manner
shown in figure 425A-F.
