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Abstract
Little direct evidence remains for the original 1090s roof structure of Westminster Hall. The prevailing view has been that, until its replacement in the 1390s, the interior must have been divided by aisles to support the very wide span of the roof. This view was challenged by Roland Harris and Daniel Miles in 2013, with a proposal for a clear-spanning roof structure, which would be quite exceptional for the period. This article uses evidence from both Westminster and comparable buildings to explore the feasibility of alternative structural forms in some detail, with reconstruction drawings. Significant problems are encountered with all of the alternative forms, leading to a strong affirmation of the theory proposed by Harris and Miles. The Norman hall at Westminster was planned and roofed without internal arcades or piers, whether of timber or masonry. Westminster Hall thus played no part in the development of the English aisled hall.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This article is heavily indebted to the previous research of Roland Harris and Dan Miles. Both have kindly commented on an earlier draft, and allowed reuse of their reconstruction drawing of the original roof. Robert Ovens has provided vital assistance in producing the drawings. I am also grateful for detailed advice on many points from: Nat Alcock, John McCormack, Lynn Courtenay, Mark Gardiner, Pierre Garrigou Grandchamp, Bob Meeson and John Walker. The two anonymous peer reviewers also made very valuable comments.
Notes
1 RCHM, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in London, II: West London (London 1925), 121.
2 J. Harvey, The Master Builders: Architecture in the Middle Ages (London 1971), 104.
3 R. B. Harris and D. Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster Hall and its Roof’, in Westminster II. The Art, Architecture and Archaeology of the Royal Palace, ed. W. Rodwell and T. Tatton-Brown, BAA Trans., xxxix (London 2015), II, 22–71; presented at the BAA summer conference of 2013 in London.
4 S. Smirke, ‘Second Letter from Sydney Smirke on the architectural history of Westminster Hall’, Archaeologia, 26 (1836), 415–21, at 415–16.
5 S. Smirke, ‘A further Account of the original Architecture of Westminster Hall’, Archaeologia, 26 (1838), 135–39, at 136.
6 W. R. Lethaby, ‘The Palace of Westminster in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’, Archaeologia, 60 (1906), 131–48, at 136.
7 W. Harvey, ‘Westminster Hall Roofs, Old and New’, The Builder, 121 (1921), 374–75. Also reproduced in G. Waddell, ‘The Design of the Westminster Hall Roof’, Architectural History, 42 (1999), 47–67, at 55.
8 RCHM, West London, 121; M. Wood, The English Medieval House (London 1965), 38.
9 R. Allen Brown, H. M. Colvin and A. J. Taylor, The History of the King’s Works: Vol 1, The Middle Ages (London 1963), 46.
10 L. T. Courtenay, ‘The Westminster Hall Roof and Its 14th-Century Sources’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 43 (1984), 295–309, at 301.
11 M. Thompson, The Medieval Hall: The Basis of Secular Domestic Life, 600–1600 AD (Aldershot 1995), 84.
12 R. Stalley, Early Medieval Architecture (Oxford 1999), 99.
13 E. Fernie, The Architecture of Norman England (Oxford 2000), 85.
14 R. Beech, ‘The Hammer-beam Roof of Westminster Hall and the Structural Rationale of Hugh Herland’, Architectural History, 59 (2016), 25–61, at 27.
15 C. Wilson, ‘Rulers, Artificers and Shoppers: Richard II’s Remodelling of Westminster Hall, 1393–99’, in The Regal Image of Richard II and the Wilton Diptych, ed. D. Gordon, L. Monnas and C. Elam (London 1997), 33–60, at 43.
16 Harris and Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster’, 43–44.
17 RCHM, West London, 122; King’s Works, 46; Fernie, Architecture of Norman England, 86.
18 Lethaby, ‘The Palace of Westminster’, 136–37; Harvey, ‘Westminster Hall Roofs’.
19 J. Walker, ‘Late-Twelfth and Early-Thirteenth-Century Aisled Buildings: A Comparison’, Vernacular Architecture, 30 (1999), 21–53.
20 N. Hill, ‘The Twelfth-century Aisled Hall of Leicester Castle: A Re-assessment’, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, 93 (2019), 123–67. This draws on previous research: N. W. Alcock and R. J. Buckley, ‘Leicester Castle: The Great Hall’, Med. Archaeol., 31 (1987), 73–79.
21 S. R. Jones and J. T. Smith, ‘The Great Hall of the Bishop’s Palace at Hereford’, Med. Archaeol., 4 (1960), 69–80; C. A. Ralegh Radford, E. M. Jope and J. W. Tonkin, ‘The Great Hall of the Bishop’s Palace at Hereford’, Med. Archaeol., 17 (1973), 78–86; J. Blair, ‘The 12th-Century Bishop’s Palace at Hereford’, Med. Archaeol., 31 (1987), 59–72. For tree-ring dating, see D. Haddon-Reece, D. H. Miles and J. T. Munby, ‘List 32: Tree-ring Dates from the Ancient Monuments Laboratory’, Vernacular Architecture, 20 (1989), 46–49, at 46.
22 Harris and Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster’, 46.
23 D. Stenning, ‘The Cressing Barns and the Early Development of Barns in South-east England’, in Cressing Temple: A Templar Hospitaller Manor in Essex and its Buildings, ed. D. D. Andrews (Needham Market 2020), 60–63; P. Hofsummer, M. van Ruymbeke and R. Touzé, ‘Typologie de la charpente’, in Les charpentes aux XI au XII siècle: Grand Ouest de la France, ed. P. Hofsummer (Turnhout 2011), 110–11; F. W. B. Charles, The Great Barn of Bredon (Oxford 1997), 48; E. Impey, The Great Barn of 1425–27 at Harmondsworth, Middlesex (Swindon 2017), 22.
24 One case of a hall with composite aisle posts was discovered recently: J. Walker and N. Alcock, ‘The Carpentry of a Twelfth-century Aisled Hall: Burmington Manor, Warwickshire’, Vernacular Architecture, 48 (2017), 68–71. However, this is a very much smaller building, so the structural weakness is not significant.
25 G. Milne, Timber Building Techniques in London c.900–1400 (London 1992), 82–85.
26 C. A. Hewett, English Historic Carpentry (London 1980), 56.
27 Hill, ‘The Twelfth-century Aisled Hall of Leicester Castle’.
28 Harris and Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster’, 25.
29 Fernie, Architecture of Norman England, 85.
30 Timber aisle posts supporting tie-beams may have been intended at the late-12th-century hospital of Saint-Jean in Angers (France), but stone piers and vaulting were substituted during construction. See J. Hunot, ‘L’hôpital Saint-Jean d’Angers: un ensemble de charpentes du XII siècle’, in Les charpentes, 279–94.
31 Wilson, ‘Rulers, Artificers and Shoppers’, 280.
32 Smirke, ‘Second Letter’, 415–16.
33 N. Holder, Westminster Hall South Steps, Palace of Westminster: An archaeological post-excavation assessment, Museum of London Archaeological Service report (2008), 35.
34 Harris and Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster’, 25–26.
35 D. Whipp and E. Platts, ‘Westminster Hall Excavation’, London Archaeologist, 2/14 (spring 1976), 351–55.
36 B. Barber, N. Holder and C. Phillpotts, ‘Excavations at Cromwell Green and Westminster Hall 2005–6: Further Evidence for the Development of the Medieval and Post-medieval Palace of Westminster’, Transactions of London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, 64 (2013), 109–41.
37 Smirke, ‘A further Account of the original Architecture’, 136.
38 Harris and Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster’, 26.
39 Wilson, ‘Rulers, Artificers and Shoppers’, 280.
40 Harris and Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster’, 25.
41 N. Hill, ‘Hall and Chambers: Oakham Castle Reconsidered’, Antiq. J., 93 (2013), 163–216, at 213.
42 For Buckler’s original drawing, see Harris and Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster’, fig. 4.
43 Harris and Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster’, 26.
44 W. G. Simpson and C. D. Litton, ‘Dendrochronology in Cathedrals’, in The Archaeology of Cathedrals, ed. T. Tatton-Brown and J. Munby (Oxford 1996), 183–209, at 190. See Harris and Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster’, fig 27.
45 Smirke, ‘A further Account of the original Architecture’, 136.
46 Hofsummer et al., ‘Typologie de la charpente’, 96.
47 Fernie, Architecture of Norman England, 260.
48 Hill, ‘Hall and Chambers: Oakham Castle Reconsidered’; T. B. James and A. M. Robinson, Clarendon Palace: the history and archaeology of a medieval palace (London, 1988), pl. XXV.
49 Smirke, ‘A further Account of the original Architecture’, 137–38.
50 Wilson, ‘Rulers, Artificers and Shoppers’, 33 and note 5 at 274–5; Harris and Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster’, 26.
51 King’s Works, 541; V. Jansen, ‘Henry III’s Palace at Westminster’, in Westminster II, 89–110, at 100–01.
52 King’s Works, 540.
53 Ibid., 543.
54 See, for example, D. Harrison, ‘Parliaments, MPs and the Buildings of Westminster in the Middle Ages’, in Westminster II, 135–51, at 138–39.
55 E. Impey, ‘The Great Hall at Caen and its Affinities with Westminster’, Westminster II, 72–88.
56 S. Smirke, ‘Remarks on the architectural history of Westminster Hall’, Archaeologia, 26 (1836), 406–14, at 410; Harris and Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster’, fig. 23.
57 King’s Works, 44; E. Fernie, Romanesque Architecture (London and New Haven 2014), 72 and 338.
58 Thompson, The Medieval Hall, 35–37.
59 E. E. Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au XVe siècle, 10 vols (Paris, 1854–68), II, 23–4.
60 The marble table at the west gable was noted in 1323: P. Binski, Westminster Abbey and the Plantagenets: Kingship and the Representation of Power 1200–1400 (London and New Haven 1995), 120 and 210.
61 Hofsummer et al., ‘Typologie de la charpente’, 96.
62 G. Coppack, Fountains Abbey (Stroud 2009), 68–71; see reconstruction drawing at T. Goldsmith, Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal (Swindon 2014), 20; site measurement by N. Hill.
63 X. Barral I Altet, The Romanesque: Towns, Cathedrals and Monasteries (Cologne 2001), 138.
64 W. Riedel, Eberbach Monastery (Munich 2013), 23.
65 M. Collins, P. Emery, C. Philpotts, M. Samuel and C. Thomas, ‘The King’s High Table at the Palace of Westminster’, Antiq. J., 92 (2012), 197–243, at 203.
66 Ibid., 207–11.
67 Harrison, ‘Parliaments, MPs and the Buildings of Westminster’, 139.
68 Harris states the width as 20.79 m, while noting that the north end wall is 280 mm shorter than the south wall: Harris and Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster’, 24.
69 Fernie, Architecture of Norman England, 89–193.
70 Fernie, Architecture of Norman England, 305.
71 N. Hill and M. Gardiner, ‘The English Medieval First-Floor Hall: Part 2 — The Evidence from the Eleventh to Early Thirteenth Century’, Archaeol. J., 175 (2018), 315–61.
72 Simpson and Litton, ‘Dendrochronology in Cathedrals’.
73 Fernie, Romanesque Architecture, 87.
74 Hill and Gardiner, ‘First-Floor Hall’, 330–33.
75 B. Fletcher, A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method, 7th edn (London 1924), 341.
76 Fernie, Architecture of Norman England, 129.
77 G. Coppack and P. Fergusson, Rievaulx Abbey (London 1994).
78 M. Hislop, Castle Builders: Approaches to Castle Design and Construction in the Middle Ages (Barnsley 2016), 249.
79 Fernie, Architecture of Norman England, 305.
80 Harrison, ‘Parliaments, MPs and the Buildings of Westminster’, 146.
81 Hislop, Castle Builders, 249.
82 J. Crook and R. B. Harris, ‘Reconstructing the Lesser Hall: an interim report from the Medieval Palace of Westminster Research Project’, Parliamentary History, 21 (2002), 22–61, at 40.
83 R. B. Harris, ‘The Structural History of the White Tower, 1066–1200’, in The White Tower, ed. E. Impey (New Haven and London, 2008), 28–93, at 85.
84 Fernie, Romanesque Architecture, 150–51.
85 Harris and Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster’.
86 Harris, ‘The Structural History of the White Tower’, 85.
87 Courtenay and Alcock, ‘Romanesque Roofs’, 122–67.
88 The identification of the church of Göteve in Västergötland (Sweden) as having a span of 10 m has been found to be the result of the original drawing having an incorrect scale, the correct span being 5 m (N. Alcock pers. comm.).
89 I am grateful to Bénédicte Fillion-Braguet for confirming the average width as 16.8 m.
90 L. Courtenay and N. Alcock, ‘Romanesque Roofs: The Nave of Jumièges Abbey and the Common-Tiebeam Tradition in Northern Europe’, Med. Archaeol., 59 (2015), 122–67, at 141.
91 Fernie, Architecture of Norman England, 305.
92 Courtenay and Alcock, ‘Romanesque Roofs’, 144.
93 Ibid.
94 Harris, ‘The Structural History of the White Tower’, 353; S. Aumard, C. Gaillard and S. Piotrowski, ‘Les “Hôtelleries Saint-Hugues” de l’abbaye de Cluny’, Bulletin du centre d’études mediévales d’Auxerre, 8 (2015), 1–14.
95 Fernie, Romanesque Architecture, 169.
96 E. Impey and J. McNeill, ‘The Great Hall of the Dukes of Normandy in the Castle at Caen’, Castles and the Anglo-Norman World, ed. J. A. Davies, A. Riley, J. Levesque and C. Lapiche (Oxford 2016), 101–32, at 104.
97 Courtenay and Alcock, ‘Romanesque Roofs’, 142.
98 Fernie, Romanesque Architecture, 69; F. Ostendorf, Die Gesichtes des Dachwerks (Leipzig and Berlin 1908), 103.
99 Fernie, Romanesque Architecture, 103.
100 K. J. Conant, Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture 800–1200 (New Haven and London 1993), 130.
101 E. Vergnolle, L’Art Roman en France (Paris 1994), 97.
102 M. Thompson, Medieval Bishops’ Houses in England and Wales (Aldershot 1998), 31–32.
103 Fernie, Romanesque Architecture, 69.
104 Ibid., 68.
105 Vergnolle, L’Art Roman en France, 97.
106 Hofsummer et al., ‘Typologie de la charpente’, 48 and 289–91.
107 Conant, Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture, 279; Fernie, Romanesque Architecture, 118.
108 Conant, Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture, 154–55; Fernie, Romanesque Architecture, 104–5.
109 J. Mesqui, Châteaux et Enceintes de la France Mediévale, 2 vols (Paris 1991–1993), II, 78.
110 H. E. Kubach, Romanesque Architecture (London 1988), 42–44; Vergnolle, L’Art Roman en France, 97–105.
111 Courtenay and Alcock, ‘Romanesque Roofs’, 160.
112 F. Épaud, De la charpente romane à la charpente gothique en Normandie (Caen 2007), 463–96.
113 See https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/professions/education/viking-knowledge/the-longships/findings-of-longships-from-the-viking-age/roskilde-6 (accessed 28 February 2021). I am grateful to Søren Nielsen of the Viking Ship Museum and to Nat Alcock for information on this.
114 J. Hill and A. Woodger, Excavations at 72–75 Cheapside/83–93 Queen Street, City of London (London 1999), 30–35. I am grateful to Mark Gardiner for bringing this to my attention.
115 Hofsummer et al., ‘Typologie de la charpente’, 48–49 and 280–83.
116 Harris and Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster’, 57–68.
117 Hewett, English Historic Carpentry.
118 S. Harrison and J. Wood, Furness Abbey and Piel Castle (London 2015), 17; R. K. Morris, Kenilworth Castle (London 2006), 20.
119 D. T. Yeomans, The Trussed Roof: its history and development (Aldershot 1992).
120 J. W. P. Campbell, ‘Wren and the development of structural carpentry 1660–1710’, Architectural Research Quarterly, 6 (2002), 49–66, at 51.
121 Mesqui, Châteaux et Enceintes, 78–81.
122 B. Meeson, ‘Base Crucks — Have We Got to the Crux?’ in Cruck Building: A Survey, ed. N. Alcock, P. S. Barnwell and M. Cherry (Donington 2019), 80–81; A. Emery, Seats of Power in Europe during the Hundred Years War (Oxford 2016), 339.
123 Fernie, Romanesque Architecture, 105; C. Wilson, The Gothic Cathedral (London 1990), 138 and 187.
124 Courtenay and Alcock, ‘Romanesque Roofs’.
125 J. Munby, ‘The Late-14th-Century Reconstruction of Westminster Hall’ in Westminster II, 120–32.
126 Fernie, Architecture of Norman England, 306–07; Stalley, Early Medieval Architecture, 26.
127 D. Yeomans, The Architect and the Carpenter (London 1992), 37; R. B. Ulrich, Roman Woodworking (New Haven and London 2007), 147.
128 Wilson, ‘Rulers, Artificers and Shoppers’, 280.
129 E. C. Robison, ‘The Basilica Ulpia, Early Christian Churches and the Roman Double Truss’, Architectural History, 64 (2021), 187–222.
130 G. Hepke, Trier: The Constantine Basilica (Passau 2015), 2; Ulrich, Roman Woodworking, 149.
131 Fernie, Romanesque Architecture, 31–32; H. Grewe, ‘Die Königspfalz zu Ingelheim am Rhein’ in 799 — Kunst und Kultur der Karolingerzeit: Karl der Grosse und Papst Leo III. in Paderborn, ed. C. Stiegemann and M. Wemhoff (Mainz 1999), 142–51.
132 Walker, ‘Late-Twelfth and Early-Thirteenth-Century Aisled Buildings’.
133 Hill, ‘Hall and Chambers: Oakham Castle’; H. E. Malden ed. Surrey, Vol. II, VCH (London 1905), 599–605; T. B. James and A. M. Robinson, Clarendon Palace: the history and archaeology of a medieval palace (London 1988), 90–96.
134 J. Cunningham, ‘Auckland Castle: some recent discoveries’, in Medieval Architecture and its Intellectual Context: Studies in Honour of Peter Kidson, ed. E. Fernie and P. Crossley (London 1990), 81–90; J. Rady, T. Tatton-Brown and J. A. Bowen, ‘The Archbishop’s Palace, Canterbury’, JBAA, 144 (1991), 1–60; M. Biddle and B. Clayre, The Castle, Winchester: Great Hall & Round Table (Winchester 2006); G. Coppack, Medieval Bishops’ Palace, Lincoln (London 2000).
135 Fernie, Architecture of Norman England, 85.
136 Ibid.
137 Harris and Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster’, 38–40.
138 Wilson, ‘Rulers, Artificers and Shoppers’, 280.
139 Ibid., 43 and 280.
140 Fernie, Architecture of Norman England, 85–87.
141 Harrison, ‘Parliaments, MPs and the Buildings of Westminster’, 146; Coppack and Fergusson, Rievaulx Abbey; Harrison and Wood, Furness Abbey, 13.
142 Impey, ‘The Great Hall at Caen’, 81–83.
143 Ibid.
144 Mesqui, Châteaux et Enceintes, 21–22 and 78.
145 P. White and A. Cook, Sherborne Old Castle, Dorset. Archaeological Investigations 1930–90 (London 2015); J. McNeill, Old Sarum (London 2012); M. Biddle, Wolvesey (London 1986).
146 King’s Works, 42–45.
147 Ibid., 43.
148 M. Biddle, ‘William the Conqueror’s Palace in Winchester: The Evidence of John Aubrey’, JBAA, 172 (2019), 90–94, at 90.
149 Ibid., 90–94.
150 King’s Works, 43–45; H. Hurst, ‘Excavations at Gloucester. Third Interim Report: Kingsholm 1966–75’, Antiq. J., 55 (1975), 267–94, at 273–74.
151 P. Bouet, ‘Châteaux et Résidences Princières dans la Tapisserie de Bayeux’, in Castles and the Anglo-Norman World, 135–46, at 136 and 143.
152 Impey and McNeill, ‘The Great Hall’, 120–22.
153 The post-1199 date was derived from a coin found in archaeological excavations of 1943, but re-analysis indicates that the stratigraphy was disturbed, and the dating is not reliable. See B. Fillion-Braguet, ‘Poitiers. État des recherches en cours sur le palais des comtes’, Bulletin Monumental, 178 (2020), 170–75.
154 Mesqui, Châteaux et Enceintes, 82.
155 Emery, Seats of Power, 237.
156 Fillion-Braguet, ‘Poitiers. État des recherches’.
157 Viollet-le-Duc’s plan (Dictionnaire raisonné, VII, 10) omits the lateral entrance door, but shows two doorways at the centre of the north gable. However, courses of old masonry at low level in the north gable, exposed by failing plasterwork, indicate that no such doorways existed.
158 Mesqui, Châteaux et Enceintes, 106–07.
159 Ibid., 78–81.
160 Willelmi Malmesburiensis Monachi Gesta Regum Anglorum, ed. T. D. Hardy and J.-P. Migne, Patrologia Latina, 179 (Paris 1899), IV.1, 1282; J. A. Giles, William of Malmesbury’s Chronicles of the Kings of England (London 1847), IV.1, 341.
161 King’s Works, 45.
162 Emery, Seats of Power, 20.
163 Ibid., 32.
164 Mesqui, Châteaux et Enceintes, 80 and 92.
165 Emery, Seats of Power, 273–74.
166 An open hearth was installed in the mid-1380s, and a screen added in 1388 to shield the king from the fire. The new roof of the 1390s incorporated two smoke louvres, and evidence of an open hearth under the southern one was found in 2005–06 (Barber et al., ‘Excavations’, 115).
167 Harris and Miles, ‘Romanesque Westminster’, 49–50.
168 S. Keynes, ‘Giso, Bishop of Wells (1061–1088)’, Anglo-Norman Studies XIX: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1996 (Boydell 1997), 203–71.
169 E. A. Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest of England, Vol. IV (Oxford 1871), 538.
170 E. A. Freeman, The Reign of William Rufus and the Accession of Henry I, Vol. II (Oxford 1882), 314.
171 P. A. Rahtz, The Saxon and Medieval Palaces at Cheddar, British Archaeological Reports, 65 (Oxford 1979), 377–78.
172 Ibid., 170–77.
173 J. Blair, ‘Hall and Chamber: English Domestic Planning 1000–1250’, in Manorial Domestic Buildings in England and Northern France, ed. G. Merion-Jones and M. Jones, Society of Antiquaries Occasional Papers, 15 (London 1993), 1–21, at 13.
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