For Adam

[stuckinthemud]

Rood Screen vaulting from St Savour’s Church, Dartmouth . Think they said late 15th century

 

[stuckinthemud]

The odd one out is from the inside of the choir where you can see the carved work is very different

 

[Adam W.]

Oh, wow!

Thanks for posting this, it's amazing.

 

[rob1693]

Wow what a beautiful building,

 

[whereistheceilidh]

I find that astounding just thinking about the hours/years of work & skill that went into the vaulting

 

[Adam W.]

I particularly like the way the vault wraps around the masonry.

 

[stuckinthemud]

Even up close and personal I can’t find a single join, I have no idea how the thing is put together, and that’s after, what, 500 years of wood movement?

 

[Jacob]

Even up close and personal I can’t find a single join, ....

Putty and paint?

 

[stuckinthemud]

Only Adam knows

 

[Adam W.]

Even up close and personal I can’t find a single join, I have no idea how the thing is put together, and that’s after, what, 500 years of wood movement?

Most of the joints for the ribs are hidden behind the bosses.

 

[Adam W.]

This English stuff was totally overlooked at that carving college I went to and they favoured Italian work instead.

We did one pierced frieze like the ones on the cornice and one of the vine leaves in the first year, which they thought were oak leaves instead.

Here are my efforts, I might finish the frieze off in the winter as part of my great tidy up. I got caught out by the Covid shutdown and had to abandon it.

 

[stuckinthemud]

Most of the joints for the ribs are hidden behind the bosses.

I get that the joints are behind the bosses, it’s the other end of the ribs, the base of each fan, that I don’t follow: how are they fastened together, how do they sit on the pillars? For instance, do they all sit in a socket, or, is the base of each fan carved from a solid piece and each rib spliced in?

 

[MikeJhn]

Even up close and personal I can’t find a single join, I have no idea how the thing is put together, and that’s after, what, 500 years of wood movement?

Probably due to the environment being stable, no heating and cooling.

 

[Adam W.]

I get that the joints are behind the bosses, it’s the other end of the ribs, the base of each fan, that I don’t follow: how are they fastened together, how do they sit on the pillars? For instance, do they all sit in a socket, or, is the base of each fan carved from a solid piece and each rib spliced in?

I think these are ones are sitting on a small ledge on the cylindrical wooden pillar and the pins fix the ribs to a spindle. Other varieties have a solid springer with ribs carved in to it and a socket which the ends of the ribs sit in. As the ribs are all one piece and shrinkage along their length is negligible, they won't fall out unless their ends of the pillar top rots away.

The top of the scarf forming the pointed ends of the ribs can just be seen on the pillar next to the masonry on your photo below.

There's also a huge timber frame inside the screen which everything hangs off. I've got a photo somewhere and I'll try to find it later.

Edit: They probably also have a very long tenons on the back side sitting in trenches cut in the spindle.

Edit: It has a bird in it too.........

 

[Adam W.]

Actually it has a whole flock of birds in it....what great details....amazing! They must have had a lot of fun carving it all.

There's a whole PhD about the birds carved in this one alone......Hmmmmm?

 

[stuckinthemud]

In my naivety I didn’t realise there was a supporting framework, but that does make total sense.

 

[Adam W.]

That central curved rib in the vault is sometimes larger than the others and acts like a brace for a cross beam, then there's a bressumer on top of them which the raking pierced frieze is attached to, and everything else hangs off the superstructure and the panels drop in rebates cut into the upper surface of the ribs.

 

[Cooper]

Actually it has a whole flock of birds in it....what great details....amazing! They must have had a lot of fun carving it all.

There's a whole PhD about the birds carved in this one alone......Hmmmmm?

I know it’s not wood carving but masonry. All the way around St Paul’s Cathedral there are carvings of pigeons most of them are quite unique. It’s almost as though the masons had a competition with a sense of humour. I noticed them when I went for a walk because I was early for a lunch with the Turners.