Anchor Beams with Needles. An East Anglian Mystery

Abstract

In central north Essex and central south Suffolk there are a number of houses dating from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries with a form of anchor beam where, unlike those in Denmark and a number of north European countries, the protruding end is not reduced to a tenon that goes through a post, but passes through the wall undiminished with a long wedge, called here a needle, through its protruding end. These anchor beams are not attached to a post or stud but are supported by a rail. Most appear to be sixteenth or, more likely, seventeenth century, and in most cases are used either to insert a floor into an open hall of a medieval house, or of a transitional house built with an open hall heated by a chimney, or simply to remove the need for tiebeams blocking access on the first floor of low buildings. Some do act as anchor beams holding up the side walls. Apart from a few outliers, the list descriptions in the Historic England National Heritage List for England (NHLE) suggests these beams are mostly confined to north Essex and south Suffolk.