Medieval wall construction

After the fall of the Roman Empire around 500 CE and into the Middle Ages, solid stone wall construction continued as a prevelant building material throughout Britain. Medieval builders had a good understanding of engineering and of solid wall construction, often building large temporary timber structures to keep stone walls in place as the lime mortars set, creating increasingly sophisticated Medieval Architecture. A large number of churches were built prior to the battle of Hastings in 1066, many of which stand today, are some of the oldest buildings in England and most are solid wall construction of stonewith lime mortar. The oldest is likely to be Beehive cells a monastic centre Eileach an Naoimh, Argyll, Scotland or St Martin's Church, Canterbury which is the oldest church building in England, and still being used.

During and after the Norman conquest, William the Conqueror ordered the construction of a vast number of castles, towers, cathedrals and churches across his realm, almost all of which were solid wall stone and most made from Caen stone brought from France. The best known examples of these are Norwich, Lincoln and Richmond Castles, Canterbury Cathedral,, Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London. In general the stone in most Medieval castle walls was built within a wooden frame designed to hold it in place while the mortar dried, in some cases for thicker walls, a cavity may have been introduced though it would usually have then been completely filled with rubble. In some examples very wide cavities were created between two single stones walls to house a thin stair case or rampart.

One construction method that stems from the Medieval period is the half-timber framed house, greek wood or oak frame with a wattle and daub infills. This type of wall build-up ais made up of different layered materials the full depth of the timbers. It was usually employed as part of a timber frame building as the infill between the framing elements. Wattle was substrate for the infill, usually wooden strips or thin branches, reeds, grasses or vines woven to form a plate spanning between and fixed to the frame. The wattle substrate was then covered with daub, made up of a combination of binders, clay, lime, chalk dust, etc, aggregates, subsoil, sand, crushed stone etc and reinforcement such as straw, hay and other fibrous materials creating a solid build-up between structural members also full depth, or covered internally.

Whilst earth was most likely used medieval Britain for earth burred stores, pits and dug outs it was not until some time later, around the 1400's that cob buildings started to appear across parts of Devon, Cornwall and Wales. This mixture of sandy sub-soil, clay and straw was often shuttered in place creating walls of half to one meter thick, wide enough to create a raised trail for livestock to walk over, thus stamping down the mixture to compact it. It was finished with a lime render and then a lime wash externally as wellas in some cases a lime plaster internally creating a breathable hygroscopic massive solid wall build up.

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