Doors
There is an ancient English expression, “put t’ duur i’ t’ hoile” (put the door in the hole), which comes down from the times when the door was not fastened by hinges and did not swing into place, but had to be lifted up and placed over the door opening. When the door was opened it leaned against two stakes driven into the ground, or some similar support. These old doors were very small, as compared with our modern doors, and were probably made of light wattle, for we read in some old rhymes of throwing doors and windows on the attacking enemy. Even when solid-wood doors were used they were made of one piece of wood. Doors made of a number of planks of wood fastened together by battens or ledges were a later type. It was noticed that these sagged when hung in position and cross bracing was found necessary. These old batten or ledged doors were swung on pivots of wood which rested in sockets bored into the lintel and the sill. These pivots were called harrs, and later were made of iron. The evolution of the hinge idea from the harr is shown in a series of drawings. For many years these great hinges became a very decorative part of the door, and great care was taken with their designing. Our modern butt is quite the opposite in its characteristics, for instead of being a feature upon the face of the door it is completely hidden, except the socket and pin.
| Primitive Door | Old door of solid wood plank | Batten or Ledged Door |
An old English
Ledged Door
In building the old ledged doors, the planks were set vertically and held together with battens through which were driven wooden pegs. The ends of these pegs were chamfered, and a curious mark of tradition can be noted in the later doors, which were fastened with iron pins that were also chamfered on the ends, like the wooden pins. Later construction of doors shows the use of weather-stripping over the vertical joints and also the use of various layers of planks, with their grains running at right angles in each alternate layer. The end timber upon which the harr was placed was thicker than the planking, and later the timber upon the opposite side was made heavier in order to strengthen the crude locks. With this change and the moving of the battens to the upper and lower edges of the door, and the introduction of weather-stripping over the cracks between planks, there was created the prototype for the modern panelled door. It was only a slight step from this to frame the styles, top and bottom rails, and lock rails around the panels between them.
| Wooden Harr | Iron Harr | Iron Harr | Iron Hinge & Hoolie |
Development of the Door Hinge