THE SPARRENDACH
The Sparrendach is a roof in which a continuous sequence
of coupled rafters of relatively light scantling discharge the
load and thrust of the roof at close intervals and in equal
increments upon the walls or beams on which the rafters
were footed. The most widely known house type employing
this system is the Lower Saxon farmhouse. A closely related
variant of this roof is common in the south and southeast of
England. Zippelius has advanced some cogent arguments
in favor of the assumption that the roofs of the Iron Age
houses of the type of Ezinge, Leens, and Fochteloo belonged
to the family of the Sparrendach,[200]
and this suggests the
possibility that both the German and English variant of
this roof may have a common root in the Continental
homelands of the Saxons and their neighbors, the Frisians.
The earliest surviving domestic roof of this construction
type is, to the best of my knowledge, that of the aisled
Infirmary Hall of St. Mary's in Chichester, Sussex, which
dates from the close of the thirteenth century (figs. 341343).[201]
Although this hospital was a private foundation, its
layout follows a pattern that had been established in the
Anglo-Norman monasteries of the two preceding centuries.[202]
It consists of an oblong Infirmary Hall, originally
of six bays but now reduced to four bays, with its entrance
in the middle of the western gable wall. The eastern gable
wall opens into a masonry chapel with richly molded
Early English arches. The Hall itself is 45 feet wide, 43
feet high (clear inner measurements), and originally had a
length of 120 feet. Its roof is sustained by two rows of
wooden posts, framed together, at a height of 21 feet,
lengthwise by means of arcade plates and crosswise by
means of tie beams. The arcade plates are tenoned into a
recess in the head of the principal posts, and the tie beams
are locked into the arcade plates by means of dovetail
joints (fig. 356). The angles between the posts and their
superincumbent long and cross beams are strengthened by a
magnificent set of three-way double bracing struts of
heavy scantling which reduce the free span of the latter to
only a fraction of their total length. The rafters rise in two
flights, at the same angle, first from the wall plates to the
arcade plates, then from the arcade plates to the ridge of
the hall; those of the main roof are restrained from moving
longitudinally by a center purlin pegged into collar beams
and sustained by king posts rising from the center of each
alternate tie beam (figs. 341-342).
St. Mary's Hospital was founded as a temporary home
for the sick and the infirm who were tended by a privately
endowed community of thirteen permanent attendants
under the guidance of a prior and warden. Its elongated
shape is determined by its use as a building for attending
to the needs of a considerable number of people, including
wandering pilgrims and paupers who sought refuge for a
night only.[203]
The contemporary palace and manor halls
were shorter. A typical example of the latter with a classical
Sparrendach was the manor hall of Nurstead Court, Kent
(figs. 344-346). Judging by its architectural style, this hall
must have been built during the period when the manor of
Nurstede was in possession of the Gravensend family and
its construction is generally ascribed to Stephen de Gravensend,
who inherited the manor from his father in 1303,
became Bishop of London in 1318, and died in 1338.[204]
The
hall remained essentially unaltered until around 1837 when
in response to a need for greater comfort in living one half
of it was demolished to make room for a double-storied
structure built in the prevailing taste of the period. The
other half, likewise, was subdivided into several levels and
a variety of rooms, but here the newly inserted walls and
ceilings were suspended in the original frame of timber,
which is intact although no single part of it can be seen in
its entire height. From these remaining parts of the original
fabric and several extraordinary sets of drawings made just
before the hall was altered, by the superb architectural
draftsmen Edward Blore, William Twopeny, and Ambrose
Poynter, the original design of the hall can be reconstructed.
The hall was 34 feet wide and 79 feet long externally.
Its walls were built in flint and rose to a height of 11½ feet
With its ridge the roof reached a height of 36 feet. It was
hipped on both ends and had small triangular gables at the
peak of each hip. The supporting frame of the roof consisted
of three powerful trusses, resting on wooden columns
with molded bases and capitals and arched braces, rising
from the top of the capitals lengthwise to the arcade
plates and crosswise to the tie beams. The latter met in the
center, forming forcefully pointed arches. The tie beams
(like the other principal members, richly molded) are of
unusually heavy scantling and have sharp and elegant
camber. The roof itself is a classical example of the southern
and southeastern English Sparrendach: a continuous sequence
of paired rafters with collar beams pegged to a
center purlin by crown posts that rise from the middle of
each tie beam.
The westernmost bay of the hall was of two stories,
screened off against the two center bays on the ground
floor by timber screens; higher up, by a wall of plaster
reaching all the way up to the ridge of the roof. This end
served as the private quarters for the lord of the manor. The
opposite end of the hall was screened off in a similar manner
by a low timber screen with three doorways; the middle one
opened into a passage that led outside; the two outer ones,
into two rooms which could either have served as quarters
for the servants or as buttery and pantry. The kitchen was in
a separate building to the north of the hall and could be
reached from the latter through a door in the northern long
wall.
The hall of the manor of Nurstead is one of the last
examples of the traditional open hall where the lord and the
servants still lived and ate under the same roof in opposite
ends of the building—an arrangement that is very similar
to, although not identical in all details with that of the
House for Distinguished Guests of the Plan of St. Gall
(fig. 396). The two center bays of the hall were communal
space, which on festive occasions was the stage for banquets
with the open fire burning in the middle of the center
floor, as can be inferred from the smoke blackened beams
and rafters.
At the very same time England had already developed a
new plan, which provided for two double-storied cross
wings at the end of the hall, one of which served as the
private dwelling of the lord and his family; the other, as
quarters for the servants (including space for kitchen,
buttery, and pantry.) A typical example of this new arrangement
is the manor hall of Little Chesterford, Essex, a
plan and perspective reconstruction of which are shown in
figures 347-348. The hall has been ascribed by its earlier
students to about 1275[205]
and by J. T. Smith to about
1320-30.[206]
One of its aisles has been dismantled. Originally
the hall was 27 feet wide and 37 feet long. It was of three
bays with the one near the entrance serving as a narrow
screen-bay. The walls were timber framed, but all other
details were very similar to those of the hall of Nurstead
Court—less forceful and elegant, yet still of genuine refinement.
In the fourteenth century the English lowlands must
have been dotted with countless variants of this type of
hall.[207]
