ROOD LOFT. A gallery running along the top of the rood screen, which in parish churches usually crossed the chancel arch, on which the rood (i. e. the figure of our Blessed Lord on the cross) was placed, and on either side the Blessed Virgin and St. John. In large cross churches, the rood loft with its screen was usually of stone, and sometimes contained a chapel and altar within it. These more substantial rood lofts have been almost universally converted into organ lofts.
ROOD SCREEN. A screen separating the chancel from the nave, on which was formerly the rood loft.
ROOF. The following are the principal terms which occur in the description of a timber roof.
Beam.—A horizontal piece connecting the principals of each truss, and stiffening and tying them together. According to its position, it is either a tie-beam, extending from wall to wall; a collar-beam, connecting the principals near the ridge; or a hammer-beam, extending horizontally from the wall, (and sometimes again from the principal rafters,) but cut off before it reaches the opposite side. It is only by its combination with other timbers, as braces, principal, and collar, that the hammer-beam serves the purpose of a beam in mechanical construction.
King-post. The middle post of each truss, resting upon the beam, and rising to the ridge.
Rafters. Timbers rising from the wall, and inclined towards each other till they meet at the ridge. The principal rafters are let into the beam at their lower end, and into the king-post at their upper, and together with beam, post, and braces, where they occur, form the truss, which is the whole complication of carpentry, bearing the vertical weight of the roof, and delivering it upon the wall.
Purlin. A longitudinal piece extending from truss to truss, resting on the principal, and bearing the common rafters.
Braces. Curved pieces tenoned into the main timbers in various places and directions, and serving to stiffen and tie them together.
Wall-plate. A longitudinal piece laid on the top of the wall to receive the beams.
Wall-piece. The upright piece connecting the braces beneath a hammer-beam with the wall. This subject should be studied in the very valuable work of Mr. Brandon, “On the Open Timber Roofs of the Middle Ages.”