A Romanesque Roof at Odda's Chapel, Deerhurst, Gloucestershire?

Abstract

SummaryTimbers removed from the nave of the chapel in 1965, together with earlier photographs and traces in the surviving masonry, provide evidence of a rafter roof with a tie-beam, and probably a king-post and raking struts, at each couple. Later alterations to it are discussed in the light of what is known or can be deduced about the late- and post-medieval development of the farmhouse to which the chapel is attached. The alterations resulted in a roof largely seventeenth-century in form. It is shown, however, that the earlier timbers cannot be satisfactorily explained as post-medieval intrusions. The earlier design is compared with eleventh- and twelfth-century roofs known in north-west Europe. It was probably that of the original roof of 1056.