Temple Bruer

Computer-generated animation and images of Temple Bruer

Courtesy of Lincs Heritage

http://www.lincsheritage.org/education/temple_bruer/cgi/index.php

Regards

P.P

And I’ll second the praise above for Simon’s book. Well worth a trip to Amazon and shelling out some of your hard-earned, if you haven’t already.

I too would beinterested to hear more of it
Kind regards,
Rodrigo

I visited Temple Bruer just the other day and enjoyed it greatly. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Now, what’s with that strangely discomforting chair on the second floor? Surely you (or your attendant band of history-wizards) know why it’s up there?

Apparently there’s a sculpture nearby made up of drawers, and the chair has a drawer-front appearance.
Is there a link? Is there? Hmmmm?

Caveat: I didn’t see the sculpture myself (heard about it from a friend), so I don’t know how accurate that information is.

Cheers

sochin101 esq.

It may possibly be one of the most boring books you have looked at unless you are a stonemason, but it looks at the styles and development of mouldings (as you have said Jolland, “window inside edges”) and tries to trace their origins - and even the original architect (as a master mason who had risen to the very top of his trade) in some cases, although this is much harder to do - many masters copied from places they had seen or their original master and not all master masons’ (architects) names are known in the UK.

I would also recommend “A History of Architecture - on the comparative method” by Sir Bannister Fletcher for students of old stonework; this will give you a good insight into styles and dating of stonework. If you cannot find a hard copy - I replaced mine (9th reprint from 1931 - the original dates from 1896) from ebay after my first copy was stolen- it can be found here
http://www.archive.org/details/historyofarchite00fletuoft

In Germany the training is the usual 7 years (similar to a university student studying to Masters Level degree in the UK) to train as a steinmetz (stonemason for non German speakers)- and takes in more of the history of the craft; here in the UK and also in France, you may go to college to study stonemasonry and carving, but you learn most on the job and you learn what you wish to learn as you go along; only those destined to become masters and architects of the mysteries of their craft will care to learn much these days, the rest remain “stone cutters”. Because I still love the subject even though I no longer work as a stone carver (you have to learn to be a stonemason first!), my learning continues (although Lincolnshire limestones can be hateful compared to the softer Portland and French limestones that I learnt to work on and I still use hand tools, rather than airtools, which get eaten by the very hard local stone here).

It would be interesting to find out if any German Masters came to Britain to train or work as I have seen definite elements of some of the carving styles used by a couple of the German masters also used in France (brain not working well enough to remember who and where!), but nothing directly identifiable as such in the English limestone cathedrals.

British (Master Mason) Architects came to the fore in the later Middle Ages, when you had those such as Henry de Yevele (Henry of Yeovil (Somerset) or Yeavely (Derbyshire) or even somewhere in Surrey - nobody is quite - bear in mind that masons were one of the few trades that moved about quite freely during the Medieval period) who became master of the King’s works at Westminster Palace in the C14th and worked on the building of the abbey there as well as other cathedrals and castles.

Temple Bruer is a slightly confusing place these days to study as much of the original masonry has been re-used in rebuilding (possibly during the time of the abbey as well as later) & restoration attempts (more recent) - viz the mouldings which are mostly Romanesque (Norman, C11th-13th) with one or two examples of Early English Gothic (C13th) shown on the lower part of the west wall in your photo, Rod. Given the springers for vaulted ceilings seen on the photo of the top floor and the part of the ceiling seen on the arcading photo (these would have been over “sedillas” (seats) around the walls and possibly part of a chapter or council room) this would have been a very richly decorated building at one time.

NB one more thing; some Templar students believe that the Order of Knights Templar trained their own masons rather than employing outsiders. This would mean in theory that all the geometry in planning their buildings was sacred according to their beliefs…

Best wishes,
Kate