Half-Hipped Roofs in Pre-Seventeenth Century Somerset Buildings

To date over 50 examples of pre-seventeenth-century buildings which have or had half-hipped roofs have been recorded in the south and west of Somerset, and others are continuing to be discovered. In some cases the half hip remains but in others the feature has been obscured by later changes such as the addition of a gable stack, or by extensions beyond the gable. They are confined to houses of below manor status and to barns. Three types of structure are described and illustrated, of which one is the 'Devon' type end cruck described by N. W. Alcock in Vernacular Architecture 8 (1977). Examples of one 'Somerset' type have also been found over the Devon border. Possible reasons for these structures occurring in the south and west of the county, but not at present known elsewhere, are discussed

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Feature (linguistics · Gable · Geography · Literature · Roof · Vernacular · Vernacular architecture · Architecture and Cultural Influences · Historical Architecture and Urbanism · History · Architecture