The hand cut roof project at Orchard Barn presented by Sarah Partridge

The making of a traditional clasp purlin oak roof for Orchard Barn by students

Sarah Partridge, MA Education Orchard Barn

Environmental Educationwww.orchardbarn.org.uk

Orchard Barn, Ringshall, Suffolk in 2007 – it’s 1940 tin roof saved the 17th century timber frame from the worst of the weather. This

photo was taken before 22 students on timber frame repairs courses in 2009 repaired the frame, and 22 more students

constructed a new roof frame in 2010.

The Orchard Barn restoration project is run by OBee Community Interest Company

Our aspirations for the clasp purlin roof project were to:-• Make best use of locally sourced, small

dimension trees and coppice material – all used as green as possible

• Provide training on live building project• Build community alongside building• Use traditional construction techniques and

mostly hand tools

We set out to reconstruct a roof frame the same pitch as the original 17th Orchard Barn. We planned to use local Oak for the rafters, Sweet Chestnut for the battens and Oak for the shingles. This presentation only shows the frame construction. This photo shows the repaired

frame partly clad with oak weatherboard milled from small dimension oak trees from an adjacent parish.

We chose these trees from ancient woodland that needed thinning in

Battisford. They were about 50 years old and were transported the 4 miles from where they grew by the farmer using a

tractor and trailer.

Orchard Barn’s car park became a medieval timber conversion yard for 2 months! This photo shows Dave helping Rick Lewis from

Traditional Oak Carpentry to winch an oak log onto the tressles. Rick is our main man when it comes to teaching traditional

carpentry.

Hand conversion of small dimension trees gives you more timber from your

trees as you can go with the grain. Orchard Barn has a growing number of

2-handled cross cut saws which are quick and efficient to use.

Andy Davison gets good and quick results from his Lucas Mill. There is a place for both approaches at Orchard

Barn. However machinery is noisy, dusty and the result is smaller timber from

your trees and more sawdust.

One tree yields two rafters. We used them opposite each other to form a truss.

Truss being fitted to the hand hewn collar before erecting. Each rafter is

pegged at the apex, collar, purlin and wall

plate.

The green oak clamps round the seasoned oak

peg as it dries. Simple but effective traditional technique.

Ben uses an auger to make the peg

hole

This is a square peg in a round hole!On the right is the original tye beam.

Two training weeks into the roof construction and two bays have gone up. We’re half way there as the barn is four

bays long.

The original pitch/new roof is steeper than

the tin roof.

The end of the third training

week. Note the cut out section in collars for

later fitting of purlins.

Our hand cut roof complete with purlins. Note rafters

pegged to purlins, and shapely collars.

‘Learning from the past how to build a greener future’ at orchardbarn.org.uk

Finally we ‘topped out’ the new frame using Oak, Apple and Elm branches toasted with local cyder.