HER 15787 - The Bishop's Camera Roof, Farnham Castle

The Bishop’s Camera is part of the Palace of the Bishops of Winchester at Farnham, lying a little distance behind the Castle’s Great Hall and almost parallel with it. It is a 14.8m by 8.3m stone-built rectangle, with wall 1m thick. Apart from the remains of a Gothic window, little is visible outside, but inside, the roof is almost complete. The roof is of sans purlin construction. There are 38 virtually identical rafter trusses, each being ‘seven-canted’ – ashlar, rafter, soulace, collar, soulace, rafter and ashlar. The soulaces are halved over the collars and continue upwards to form scissor braces near the apex. The roof is gabled and divided into six bays by five tiebeams (with a further two against the end walls). The third and fifth of these beams are particularly large (330mm x 360mm). Rather than being dovetailed to the plates, they are held by ‘taces’, a rare, early joint with opposing teeth. All the tiebeams are hollow chamfered underneath. The wide walls have outer wallplates, as is usual, but on the inner edges the ashlars are supported by double-banked, staggered cornice plates, both being hollow chamfered. Tree-ring analysis (dendrochronology) of timbers from the building has dated it to the 14th century.

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Related Records

• SHHER_1682

Archaeological History

Activity	Person & Organisation	Dates
timber sampling	Moir, A K Tree-Ring Servi	2006-10-17
Description Tree-ring services report: FACA/27/06 Location Surrey, Waverley, Farnham, Grid Reference SU 837 472 Associated Sources Title Author Type More info Tree-ring services report: FACA/27/06 Moir, A K document more... Reference Dendrochronological analysis of oak timbers from The Bishop's Camera Roof, Farnham Castle, Surrey, England Reference 31/12/06 Reference Extract of report held in Surrey HER Holding Location Surrey History Centre 1 part

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