mock tudor houses

[JSK]

hi all,

on mock tudor houses, what does the black beams indicate, am i right in saying the more beams equalled more wealth??

[dot.hawkes]

On mock tudor houses it means thay are trying to add character to a modern development, in Tudor times it was a statement of status and design capabilities, which meant wealth and power, but there were many town properties that used the exposed beam features in a more urban setting.

[jno]

I think wealthy people (in real Tudor times) built in brick or stone, though it would depend what material was available locally. The beams in ordinary houses were part of the structure - see here - although there might well be attempts to make them look decorative too

[Toureman]

It just verifies they are mock as wood beams on tudor houses were never painted black or any other colour!

[jno]

true Toureman, but I think they typically darkened over time. I remember seeing Little Moreton Hall in Cheshire - here - years ago, and could hardly make out the beams at all because, I think, they'd recently been either cleaned or replaced. Now however I believe they've gone dark again.

Engineering no longer depends on wooden beams to hold houses together JSK, so the beams are purely decorative; I don't think there's any correlation with wealth, however.

[noxlumos]

We've just moved to a very large tudor property ( 1540) and the beams are just there as part of the super structure. There is some ornamental work with beams to the front, but I imagine that it's just an attempt to make the framework look as pleasing as possible as none of the beams appear to be frivolous in themselves. I think there was a mania for painitng beams on old Tudor places much later on and some here have been painted black, but some in the west part of the house remin natural which I actually prefer.I was never awre of wealth factor you mention.

[JSK]

Thanks for your time, most helpful.

[Octavius]

Most ordinary homes in Tudor times were half timbered - they had wooden frames and the spaces between were filled with small sticks and wet clay called wattle and daub. Tudor houses are known for their 'black-and-white' effect, the daub was often painted with limewash making it look white, whilst the wooden timbers were coated with black tar to protect them from rotting.

Glass was first used in houses during the Tudor times. It was expensive so windows were small; small diamond or square panes were set in lead strips and supported by stone uprights (mullions). People who couldn't afford glass used polished horn, cloth or even paper. It was very expensive and difficult to make big pieces of glass so the panes were tiny and held together with lead in a criss-cross pattern, or �lattice�. So windows became the main feature in wealthy peoples homes.

Beams were purely for structural purposes and no wealthy homeowner in ther right mind would have chosen black (exposed) beams over glass, stone or bricks.

[dot.hawkes]

Another snippet by the way, there were some recusant Elizabethans who used the timber exposed effect to signal their faith, i cannot remember what this involved but I do recall coming across such occurances in my delves into the CRO in Preston