Above The building that has become the symbol of just how impressive crucks can be is Leigh Court Barn, in Worcestershire, now in the care of English Heritage. It was built by Pershore Abbey from timbers felled in 1344.

Cruck construction: an uncouth and rudimentary building technique?

Dr Nat Alcock is a pioneer of the study of medieval cruck-built structures. To honour his contribution and mark his 80th birthday in 2019, a new survey has just been published that charts our growing understanding of cruck construction. It also highlights the remaining areas of uncertainty and debate about the social status of these buildings, when and where crucks originated, and what their distribution means. Chris Catling reports.

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Current Archaeology

December 1, 2019

In his contribution to a new volume of essays on the history of cruck construction, the architectural historian Richard Suggett remembers an occasion on which his mentor, Peter Smith – the great authority on vernacular architecture in Wales – stood completely lost in thought while contemplating a Denbighshire cruck. After a while, Richard ventured to ask what Smith was thinking. He replied, though not unkindly, to the effect that ‘if I needed to ask, I probably would not understand the answer’. Peter Smith’s appreciation of the aesthetic appeal of this form of medieval timber architecture is all the more striking because cruck construction has long been viewed as a primitive bui

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