HYDE CHESHIRE

Harry Rutherford's
Festival of Britain Mural




Friday 24 August 2012

Newton Hall

 A postcard of Newton Hall.

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Newton Hall is thought to originally have been a medieval manor house, a grade 11 listed building circa 1380. It was privately owned and restored by W. Kenyon & Sons. It is one of the few surviving cruck buildings in the region. 

 Carbon dating placed the construction of this hall to c.1370 and it survived because much later it was encased in a brick building having a blue slate roof.


A cruck frame is one where the structure of the building depends on two or more ‘A-frames’ which go from the top of the building down to the ground.  These frames are usually constructed of curved timbers (the cruck blades) using the natural shape of a tree and in many cases the tree is sliced long-ways down the middle so that whatever the shape of the curve the two sides are symmetrical.  The two beams are joined together at the top by a ‘collar’ or tie-beam.

Cruck barns probably evolved in Anglo Saxon times and the earliest archaeological evidence comes from 4th century excavations in Buckinghamshire.

The term crook or cruck comes from Middle English crok(e), from Old Norse krāka, meaning "hook". This is also the origin of the word "crooked", meaning bent, twisted or deformed, and also the crook used by shepherds and symbolically by bishops.

Thanks to Wikipedia

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Barry in Oz here, marvellous isn't it ? I was born and raised in Newton and never knew this place existed. Duh.

Anonymous said...

I have very pleasant memories of this when it was Watt's farm. I helped in milk delivery and loved the harvest time collecting the cut grass. Allways felt as though I was out in the countryside.
Mercian

Anonymous said...

Hi, my name is Alan and I was born in 1951 and lived very close to Watt's farm. As a kid I was allowed to play on the farm, as company for a lad who lived there.
Harvest time was indeed memorable, and remember sitting atop the hay piled high on the cart whilst the horse trundled us back to the farm.
I also remember the many times I scaled the supporting beams of this barn (and others on the farm!) mindful to evade Mr. Watt, who's muck caked wellie would find our backsides if caught! Great times indeed!