Past Projects

Pembroke Cottage has stood by the side of a small country road next to Hartley Woods in Hampshire, England, for more than 500 years. Sometime around 1450, a two bay kitchen open hall was added. This addition, now 500+ years old, has a thatched clasped purlin roof sitting on a box frame.

In November 1996, a square rule facsimile of the two bay box frame addition to Pembroke Cottage was raised in Royalston, Massachusetts, as a joint venture between Royalston Oak Timber Frames and Hampshire Open Halls.

On Thursday, June 19, a one-day workshop was held at the completed Pembroke Cottage (II) in Royalston. The workshop was led by Ken Hume, proprietor of Hampshire Open Halls. Ken is a registered Canadian Professional Engineer and British Chartered Engineer. He performed the historical survey on the original cottage and designed the reconstruction.

The course participants toured the completed cottage and examined the framing, joinery, and enclosure system, while learning about the differences between the modern version and the original medieval cottage.

A video of the November 1996 raising of Pembroke Cottage (II) was shown, together with video footage from the Spring 1997 Welsh Woodland Workshop. In this workshop, another facsimile of Pembroke Cottage (III) was constructed in the woods with participants using traditional scribe rule methods of hewing, layout and fabrication for the hand assembly and raising of a true medieval-style building.

There were demonstrations on a computer of the different design conditions that should be considered in designing a timber frame. The performance of the Welsh Woodland Workshop (Pembroke III) frame was demonstrated using straight braces and tie beams and then alternatively curved and cambered scantlings.

Royalston Oak Timber Frames is situated on the edge of Tom Musco's second-generation New England White Pine and Red Oak woodland.