ABSTRACT
The barn of Leigh Court Manor is the largest and finest extant example of the "true" or "full cruck." That is the structural type in which paired cruck blades rise in a single sweep from floor or plinth to ridge. In the English midlands this type is fairly common in lesser mediaeval halls of relatively modest dimensions, where the crucks rarely exceed at their base a span of 18', or a height of 20'. A typical example of this construction is the peasant house of Noakes Court, Defford, Worcestershire, whose crucks have an internal span of only 14'6″, a blade length of 18'3″, and a height from the top of the sill beam to the top of the ridge of 17'6″. The trusses and wall frames including the gable walls are set on a peripheral sill beam, which has been renewed. A discriminating visitor to Leigh Court Barn will not fail to observe that many of the principal cruck blades.
