The oak frame forms the structure at first floor, where the views over the North Yorkshire countryside are at their best. A steel frame forms the ground floor structure, forming a ring and spine beam on which the frame is supported.
Two wings of 9m span and 21m in length intersect to form a cross in plan, with primary sling-brace frames arranged throughout in 3m bays, giving a regular rhythm and symmetry to the frame. There are some real nods to traditional English timber framing to be found: swept jowl posts (cut from the flare in the butt of an oak tree); down-bracing; close studding and tapered sling braces.
The sling brace is shown to its full potential – creating a clear span space of 9m, possible through the triangulation inherent in this frame style.
The second phase of the project, and extension to the main hall, was built to blend seamlessly with the original frame, with consistent proportions, scale and detailing.
The theme of sling braces (albeit broken by the tie beam) continued and there are five in this frame, which is 17 x 7M and nearly 10M tall. It contains some 38M3 cube of oak. (It would still fit inside another of our projects, Penistone! at 13.5M high!)
Plenty of time was allowed for the design phase as the site date was fixed as January 2020 back in 2018. The site went incredibly smoothly for such a large job – we will update this case study with finished images as the project is completed.
