| .................................. |
GLOSSARY |
| Bar |
A barrier closing the entrance into a city,
formed originally of posts, rails and a chain. The term was
sometimes afterwards applied to the gate by which these were
replaced. |
| Bay |
A division of a building defined by regular
vertical features such as the' main timbers or
windows. |
| Close-studding |
Closely spaced vertical timbers (studs)
which are structurally unnecessary in a timber-framed budding, but
used for decorative effect (l6th-l7th
centuries). |
| Comber |
One whose business it is to comb wool. |
| Cordwainer |
A worker in cordwain (or cordovan) leather, the name deriving
from Cordova, Spain, where this leather was originally
processed. The term came to be more specifically applied to a
shoemaker, as this type of leather was much used for shoes worn by
the higher classes during the Middle Ages. |
| Cusp |
Part of the decorative edging to Gothic carving, the cusp being
the pointed 'headland', and the foil being the curved 'bay'. |
| Fletcher |
One who makes or deals in arrows. |
| Fuller |
One whose occupation is to full cloth; that is, to tread or beat
the cloth in order to cleanse or thicken it. |
| Half-floored hall |
An open hall which extends, at ground floor level, into an
adjoining two-storey bay, so that the first floor of the latter
overhangs as a jetty. |
| Hall |
The principal room in a medieval house, open to the roof and
heated by a fire on a central hearth (the smoke escaping through a
vent in the roof). Out of fashion by the mid-l6th
century. |
| Jetty |
That part of an upper floor on a timber-framed building which
projects from the wall below, forming an overhang. |
| Salter |
A manufacturer of, or dealer in, salt. |
| Tenement |
In this context, a dwelling-house or habitation. |
| Whittawer |
One who treats leather to retain its natural colour and make it
soft and pliant; often specifically a saddler or harness maker. (The
word is made up of two parts: WHIT from 'whitleather', a type of
leather of a white or light colour; and TAWING, i.e. dressing with
alum and salt, so as to retain the natural colour.) |
| Windbrace |
Timber, often curved, connecting a purlin to a principal rafter
(in a roof). |
| Woader |
A dyer using woad (a blue dye-stuff from the leaves of a plant),
or one who cultivates the woad plant for this
purpose. |
