medieval technology & the Building Regulations

 

In practical terms the Coffee Yard Project was little different from other oak-framed restorations we have directed before or since, but in two respects it was entirely unique.

 

In the first place, the time English Heritage eventually took to list this important complex after it had been restored meant that all the restoration work was undertaken to an unlisted building, one therefore ineligible for any form of heritage grant or public subsidy.

 

Secondly, the city council decided that since the buildings were unlisted the restoration work constituted new development, not conservation work, and it must therefore comply fully with current Building Acts and Regulations.

Consequently we found ourselves in the unique position of proving, mathematically, that 600 year-old building technology is compliant with modern standards of construction before restoration work could begin.

 

 

 

While the Hall Range was being completed by local carpenters in York another firm of sub-contractors near Reading were using our Contract Drawings to pre-fabricate the North Range. Each long oak post represents one 200 year-old tree. These are two wallframe bays of a fourteen bayed structure.