Historic England
FISH Components Thesaurus
Used to record the constituent elements of a building or monument.
Adyton
Adytum
Originally, the inner sanctuary of a Greek temple from where the oracle was delivered. Now used for any private chamber or sanctuary.
Agraffe
Agrafe
A keystone decorated with a relief sculpture, usually a cartouche
Air Shaft
Ventilation Shaft
A shaft constructed to allow the circulation of fresh air, into a mine, building etc.
Airing Yard
Exercise Yard
A yard intended for the purpose of taking exercise, for example within the grounds of a prison.
Alatoria
Alatorium
Alorium
Pentice
Slype
Covered Way
A passageway or corridor beteen two areas which is covered.
Aleois
Balistraria
Loophole
An opening in a wall that is usually narrow on the outside but widens internally to allow a defender to stand and shoot through the loophole.
Allure
Alura
Alure
A walkway around the parapets of a castle or the roof of a church.
Analemma
Angle Buttress
Two buttresses which meet at a right angle at the corner of the structure they are supporting.
Clasping Buttress
A buttress which encases the corner between two walls.
Diagonal Buttress
A buttress placed at the exterior corner of a building, forming a 135 degree angle with the walls it supports.
Hanging Buttress
A type of slender support carried on a corbel.
Lateral Buttress
A buttress attached to a corner of a structure, seeming to be a continuation of one of the walls.
Pier Buttress
A detached external pier by which an arch or vault is prevented from spreading.
Setback Buttress
A buttress that is set slightly away from a corner. Usually one of a pair.
Buttress
A mass of stone or brick built against or as part of a wall to provide additional strength to it.
Curtain Wall
A wall connecting two pavilions, bastions, towers etc..
Partition Wall
An interior wall, usually not load bearing, that divides a space.
Wall
A structure, usually of brick, stone or timber, that encloses or defines a space or room.
Angle Bead
Angle Staff
A vertical piece of wood fixed on corners of walls to help the fixing of plaster and to protect against damage to the plaster.
Angle Brace
Arch Brace
A curving, upright timber brace used in roof construction, found in pairs, forming an arch.
Concealed Brace
A brace halved to the inside of studs, and so not visible from outside.
Corner Brace
A short, horizontal brace set between a tiebeam and a wall plate to strengthen the structure.
Downward Brace
A brace running from a vertical to a lower horizontal timber.
Dragon Tie
A horizontal brace linking tiebeam and wall plate, or adjacent wall plates at the corner of a hipped roof.
Knee Brace
A very short brace between post and tiebeam, or post and wall plate.
Parallel Brace
A brace, parallel to another, in wall framing or arcading, or in trusses between post and tiebeam; also referred to as a duplicate brace.
Passing Brace
A long straight timber, halved across other roof timbers, especially running from a wall post or aisle post across the tiebeam to the opposing rafter.
Passing Windbrace
A windbrace that bypasses one purlin to be jointed into the next purlin or principal.
Rafter Brace
A timber running obliquely across a series of common rafters.
Scissor Braces
One of a pair of crossing braces halved or lapped across each other, tying a pair of rafters together.
Sling Brace
A brace, running from a post to a principal, stiffening an interrupted tiebeam.
Upward Brace
A brace extending from a vertical to a higher horizontal timber.
Brace
An inclined timber used to support and provide rigidity to roofs, partitions etc.
Angle Stone
Coien
Coign
Coin
Coyn
Long And Short Work
A Saxon quoin consisting of alternating horizontally and vertically laid stones.
Hollow Quoin
Clapping Quoin
A quoin, usually of stone, with a concave rebate at one corner forming the surface against which the rounded edge of a canal lock gate turns, making a kind of hinge.
Quoin
A stone or brick used on a corner to reinforce it and also as decoration.
Angular Column
Angle Column
A column at the corner of a structure.
Anse De Panier
Basket Arch
An arch consisting of a segment of a circle connected to other segments with smaller radii.
Antechamber
Anteroom
A room before a larger room which is often used as a waiting room.
Antepagmenta
Epistyle
Fascia
One of two or three bands on a classical architrave, each projecting slightly beyiond the one below, often separated by enriched mouldings. Also a vertical band or board, such as that over a shop front on which its name is painted.
Gibbs Surround
An architrave surrounding a door, window or niche interrupted by large blocks of stone, and often by a massive keystone set under a pediment. Named after the architect James Gibbs (1682-1754).
Architrave
The lowest of the three main parts of an entablature. Also the lintels, jambs and mouldings surrounding a door, window, panels or niche; or the ornamental mouldings around the exterior curve of an arch.
Apothecarerium
Infirmary
A room or group of rooms for healing the sick. Where it is a monument use the Thesaurus of Monument Types.
Ashlar Post
Ashlar Piece
An inclined timber running from a rafter to the inner face of a wall, forming a triangle.
Attached Column
Applied Column
An engaged column, that is one attached to a wall.
Engaged Column
A column that is attached to or partly sunk into a wall or pier.
Attic Storey
Garret
An apartment contained, wholly or partially, within the roof space of a house.
Loft
Space used for storage in the roof.
Attic
An area partly or fully within the roof space of a building.
Back Choir
Retrochoir
The space between the high altar and the east wall or chapel in a large church, and often the area west of a Monks' choir.
Balk
Hayloft
A loft for the storage of hay.
Bannerolle
Banderolle
A flat band carrying a motto.
Banqueting Room
Banqueting Hall
A hall normally reserved for holding feasts on special occasions.
Barrel Roof
Cradle Roof
Wagon Roof
A roof consisting of a series of rafters and arch braces set closely together to give the appearance of a continuous, uninterrupted arch or curved plate.
Beaked Ionic Capital
Corner Capital
Angle Capital
A capital at the corner of a colonade or portico in the Ionic Order in which the volutes are splayed outwards at 45 degrees.
Angular Capital
A type of Ionic diagonal capital where all four sides are the same and with therefore eight volutes.
Ionic Capital
A Capital with a rolled up cushion-like form on either side creating distinctive volutes.
Beam Engine
Cornish Engine
A beam steam engine originating in Cornwall, first used for raising water from mines.
Newcomen Atmospheric Engine
A single acting, non-rotative beam engine worked by atmospheric pressure.
Side Lever Engine
A design of beam steam engine introduced circa 1800 in which, instead of a single overhead rocking beam, there are two beams positioned alongside the cylinder, one either side, giving a lower overall height.
Sims Compound Engine
A form of tandem compounding of early beam engines, with a high pressure steam cylinder mounted on top of a low pressure one, introduced in Cornwall the 1840s by James Sims.
Beam Steam Engine
An engine which operates machinery via a pivoted, horizontal beam with a piston located at one end and a reciprocating pump beneath the other, resulting in a rocking, seesaw-like motion. Variations featured the steam piston placed above the beam.
Bed Chamber
Camera (Bedroom)
A private bed sitting room.
Bedroom
A room intended to contain a bed.
Bed Recess
Bed Nook
A small projection designed to allow space for a bed.
Belfast Roof
Belfast Truss Roof
A roof with a bow-shaped, segmental timber truss which has the space between its members filled by a lattice of crossing diagonal rods.
Bell Turret
Bell Tower
A high tower, attached to or detached from a building such as a church, with a belfry stage containing bells.
Block Capital
Cube Capital
Pillow Capital
Scalloped Capital
A type of cushion capital with the lunette on each face cut into a series of truncated cones to form a scallop shell-like decoration.
Cushion Capital
A cube-shaped capital with its lower corners rounded to facilitate the transition from the circular shaft below to the square abacus it supports.
Bowre
Bower
A private room or parlour usually at the same level as the hall.
Breastsummer
Chimney Bar
Brest Summer
Bressummer
A horizontal, supporting beam set above an opening in an external wall, a fireplace opening or in timber framed construction set forward from the lower part of a building to support a jettied wall.
Business Room
Office
A room in which commercial or administrative activities are carried out.
Butment
Abutment
Solid masonry placed to counteract the lateral thrust of a vault or arch.
Butt Purlin
Tenoned Purlin
A purlin that is joined to a principal rafter by a tenon joint.
Calefactory
Warming Room
A heated room within a monastery where monks could warm themselves.
Camera (Generic)
Chamber
Almonry
A room in a monastery from which alms were distributed; or the residence of an almoner.
Anchorage
A room over the vestry of a church, often thought to have been where anchorets lived.
Antehall
The hall before a great hall.
Apartment
A room or group of rooms in a building.
Apodyterium
The undressing room in a bath house or similar.
Ballroom
A room for holding receptions particularly balls.
Banking Hall
An open area within a bank where financial transactions take place.
Belfry
The tower, generally attached to a church or other building but sometimes separate, where bells are hung and from which sound is emitted. Also applied to the upper chamber where bells are hung, or the wooden structure supporting them.
Bleeding Room
A room dedicated to the drawing or letting of blood, a procedure once thought to possess medicinal properties.
Bursary
A treasury, often the bursar's room in a college or university.
Cabinet
A small room used as a study for the preservation of papers etc. Generally use for any small room appended to a larger one.
Hot Bath
Caldarium
The hot room in a Roman baths.
Camera (Suite)
A suite of rooms.
Casemate
A chamber built into a wall in a defensive structure.
Chinese Room
A room decorated, and furnished, in the style of the Chinese.
Cloakroom
A room in which cloaks, coats, hats etc may be left and often including coathooks, hat boxes and similar fixtures and fittings.
Confessio
A recess or chamber near the altar which holds a relic. A feature of medieval churches.
Control Room
A room in which actions are checked, verified and approved.
Dressing Room
A room, particularly in a house or theatre, intended for dressing or changing one's clothes and furnished with wardrobes, dressing tables and other facilities for the application of make-up, styling of hair etc.
Great Chamber
An apartment for the use of people of high status, often the owner of the building. Also a room adjoining, or close to, a hall and used as a drawing room or venue for private functions.
Grinding Room
A room where usually materials or consumables are processed into tools or meal, for example in a workshop or mill.
Guard Chamber
A room frequently in a military building where sentries guard and protect the premises.
Keeping Room
A room that serves as a combined living-room, kitchen and workshop.
Knights Chamber
A communal sleeping room in medieval houses for male servants.
Laundry Room
A room for washing and cleaning linen.
Library
A place set apart to contain books for reading, study or reference.
Foyer
Hall (Lobby)
Vestibule
Lobby
A small room communicating with one or more apartments.
Pallet Chamber
A room in which servants slept.
Police Cell
A room for temporary imprisonment and detention at a Police Station.
Powdering Room
A small room off a bedroom, usually in eighteenth century houses, in which a person would have their wig powdered.
Prison Cell
A room for detention and imprisonment within a prison.
Privy Chamber
A private chamber usually in a Royal residence.
Prothesis
A room in a church to receive the congregation's offerings.
Relic Chamber
A room within a church or cathedral in which holy relics were kept.
Diaconicon
Sacristy
A room in a church where vestments and sacred vessels are stored.
Salone
Saloon
Salon
A large, high-ceilinged room, usually in a great house or palace, serving as a principal reception room; also a room used by the public for a specific purpose; or a drawing room in a house.
Servants Hall
A room for servants, particularly where they would eat.
Servants Quarters
The part of a house frequented by servants when not performing their duties.
Service Room
A room usually set aside for the provision of materials used in a household.
Staircase Hall
A room which contains, wholly or partly, a staircase.
State Apartment
A room or group of rooms usually reserved for use by the monarchy or government.
Stewards Parlour
Stewards Room
A room for higher-ranking servants.
Vestry
A room used in a church to store vestments and for the clergy to dress in.
Reception Room
A room in a house, hotel, business premises etc. where guests or visitors are received.
Waiting Room
A room provided for the use of people waiting for a service, such as a train or bus service, or to see an individual such as a doctor or a dentist. When a dedicated structure, see Thesaurus of Monument Types.
Throne Room
A room containing one or more thrones.
Nursery
A room equipped for the care of babies and young children.
Artists Studio
A workroom or apartment, often with a north-light, used for the creation of artwork by painters, sculptors etc.
Dean Hole
Priests Hole
A concealed passage or room for the purpose of hiding and protecting a (Roman Catholic) priest during times of religious persecution.
Boiler Room
A room, usually at ground level or below, housing the tank in which water is heated as part of a building's heating system.
Changing Room
A room within a building, such as a shop or leisure complex,sometimes equipped with cubicles or screens to allow a degree of privacy, where clothing can be tried on or changed.
Porters Room
Room within a building or complex used by a porter.
Masters Room
Room in a building or complex in which the master of an establishment, such as a workhouse or a school, is accommodated.
Work Room
Room in a building or complex, such as a workhouse, in which work is carried out.
Utility Room
A room in which domestic appliances and facilities for cleaning are stored.
Fumigatory
A room within a building or complex, such as a workhouse, used for purifying objects with smoke.
First Aid Room
A room set aside for the initial treatment of injuries sustained for example in public amenities such as lidos.
Post Room
A room where letters and parcels are sorted prior to dispatch
Laboratory
A room, within a building or institution, equipped for conducting scientific experiments or research.
Cold Bath
Frigidarium
The cold room in a Roman baths.
Warm Bath
Tepidarium
The warm room in a Roman baths.
Novices Room
A room in a monastery used by monks or nuns as a day room.
Box Office
A ticket booth in a theatre or cinema.
Function Room
A room set aside within a building where social and other functions such as parties, presentations and meetings can be held.
Photographic Darkroom
A darkened room or workshop used by photographers to process prints from glass plates or photographic film.
Room
An enclosed compartment within a building intended for a purpose other than as a thoroughfare.
Cellarium
Cellar
A room that is underground or partially underground. Primarily used for storage.
Central Chimney Plan
Axial Chimney Plan
A plan of a building which consists of two or more cells where the chimney is placed on the axis of the building between two rooms and midway between the lateral walls.
Centre Valve Steam Engine
Willans Centre Valve Steam Engine
A high speed, single acting compound steam engine with centrally placed piston valves controlling the distribution of steam.
Cill
Sill
The horizontal piece of timber or stone forming the bottom of a window, doorway or other opening, usually and properly designed to throw off water.
Clustered Pier
Compound Pier
A pier made up of several shafts against it. The shafts can be attached or detached.
Covey
Covie
Pantry
A room used for storing food.
Crenel
Crenelle
Embrasure
Crenellation
The openings between the upright blocks, or merlons, of a battlement.
Crouds
Arcosolium
An arched or vaulted recess, within a tomb or catacomb, intended to contain a coffin or sarcophagus.
Ring Crypt
A semicircular crypt below the apse of a church.
Crypt
A wholly or partially underground chamber, often beneath a chancel, equipped for religious services and usually containing tombs.
Deambulatory
Ambulatory (External)
A path or area for exercise, usually taken in the form of walking. Can be partially or totally covered.
Demi Column
Annulated Column
A column joined to another by a band or ring.
Annulet
A small, flat band or fillet around a shaft or column.
Apophyge
The outward curve at the top or bottom of a column where it joins the base or capital.
Attic Column
A square pillar.
Banded Column
A column in which the shaft is interrupted by stone bands.
Blocked Column
A column whose shaft is interrupted by square blocks.
Compound Column
Clustered Column
A pier made up of several columns clustered together. They can be attached through their whole length or only at top and bottom.
Twisted Column
Salomonic Column
Spiral Column
A column whose shaft is scuplted to give it a contorted or twisted appearance, sometimes referred to as a barley-sugar column.
Insulated Column
Detached Column
An unengaged, or free-standing, column.
Drum
A polygonal or circular stone forming part of the shaft of a column.
Column
A vertical, circular member, usually load-carrying. Where separate, use monument type.
Discharging Arch
Relieving Arch
An arch built into a wall above another arch or lintel to relieve it of some of the weight of the structure above.
Dorter
Dormitory
A sleeping apartment usually containing a number of beds and sometimes partitioned into cubicles.A room for sleeping in, usually for a number of beds.
Double Suntrap Plan
Butterfly Plan
A nineteenth century plan where two or four wings of a house are constructed at an angle to the core, usually at approximately 45 degrees to the wall of the core building.
Egg And Anchor
Egg And Leaf
Egg And Tongue
Egg And Dart
Decorative ornamentation consisting of alternating oval and V-shaped motifs, used to enrich ovolo mouldings.
Embattlement
Machicolation
An opening through which missiles or combustible materials could be dropped upon attackers. Usually through the roof of an entrance way or in a projecting parapet.
Merlon
The solid, upright part of a battlement separating the openings, or crenelles.
Battlement
An indented parapet consisting of raised parts, called merlons, separated by gaps, or crenelles.
Ewery
Scullery
A room, or part of a kitchen, for the cleaning and storage of kitchen utensils.
Forechoir
Antechoir
Part of a church in front of the choir and usually enclosed by tombs, screens etc.
Forechurch
Antechurch
An addition to the west end of a church which is similar to a porch or narthex but usually consists of a nave and aisles.
Full Cruck
Base Cruck
A cruck, forming the main upright of a wall but whose blades are truncated by a transverse member.
Blade
A principal member in a cruck truss.
Cruck Spur
A short timber connecting a cruck's timber, or blade, to a wall plate.
End Cruck
A cruck blade, sometimes jointed, set in the centre of a gable wall, usually of a cruck-framed building.
Jointed Cruck
A cruck truss whose blades are composed of two pieces of timber joined near the wall head in a variety of ways.
Raised Cruck
A cruck which is set in solid masonry above floor level but stretching a long way down the wall.
Upper Cruck
A cruck with its feet sitting on a ceiling beam on the first floor.
Cruck
A pair of timbers, or blades, usually curved, rising from a place at or near ground level to a point at or near the apex of a roof, forming an approximately triangular frame on which the subsidiary structure rests.
Gallery (Church)
Gallery (Chapel)
Gallery (Ecclesiastical)
An upper story in a chapel, church or cathedral, situated above the aisle and below the clerestory, often arcaded and sometime called a Tribune.
Giant Order
Colossal Order
An order in which the columns rise more than one storey in height from the ground or plinth.
Hagioscope
Squint
An aperture cut obliquely in a wall, usually of a chancel, affording a view between the high altar and the aisles or side chapels.
Half Beam Engine
Grasshopper Engine
Also known as a half-beam engine, named for the characteristic nodding action of the overhead beam which is supposed to resemble the action of the rear legs of the grasshopper.
Long Room
Great Hall
A large communal room often occupying the full height of the building, used for functions such as meetings, entertainments etc. Traditionally found in medieval buildings but also found in later buildings emulating medieval architecture.
Lounge (Private)
Morning Room
A sitting room or lounge in a house intended mainly for use during the morning.
Living Room
A room for general daily use, usually in a family dwelling.
Necking
Neck Moulding
A moulding on the neck of a column.
Oeil De Boeuf
Bullseye Window
An oval window placed with its long axis horizontal. The term is often applied to similar round windows.
Outshut
Outshot
An extension to a building, though sometimes contemporary with it, housed under a lean-to roof.
Passageway
Transyte
Cross Passage
Entry to a hall through opposing doors with a partition screening the hall and forming a passageway.
Enterclose
A passage between two rooms in a house or leading from the door to the hall.
Screens Passage
A passage that runs axially across the end of a hall with a screen between it and the hall and doorways to service rooms on the other side.
Wall Passage
A passage constructed within the thickness of a wall.
Service Passage
A passage providing access to utility services or a larger tunnel for the purposes of monitoring and maintenance. May also provide be used as an evacuation route.
Passage
A narrow means of access, often internal.
Post And Truss Frame
Box Frame
Timber framed construction where a box of horizontal and vertical members is created to support the roof.
Presence Chamber
Audience Chamber
A room where a monarch or similar would meet people, usually in a palace or similar building.
Put Log Hole
Putlog Hole
A hole in a wall in which cross timbers, known as putlogs, were placed to allow scaffolding to be erected. Putlog holes are often left unfilled and are often the only evidence for the use of scaffolding.
Quadrangle Plan
Double Courtyard Plan
Two linked quadrangular open areas surrounded by walls or buildings.
Courtyard Plan
A plan of a house where the buildings are around at least three sides of a quadrilateral courtyard.
Ressant
Ogee
A decorative form consisting of two upright S-shaped curves positioned opposite one another with their concave sections placed at the top.
Rhenish Helm
Helm Roof
A roof with four sloping sides, rising from four gables, joining at the apex like a pyramid.
Roof Boss
Boss
A carved, convex block, often richly decorated, at the intersections of vault-ribs, beam-junctions or terminations of mouldings.
Saddle Stone
Apex Stone
The top stone in a gable end.
Sanctus Bell Cote
Bell Gable
Bellcote
A housing for one or more bells, usually gabled or roofed.
Shovelboard Parlour
Billiard Room
A room intended for the placement and use of a billiard table.
Gamesroom
A room in which board and table games are usually played.
Stairway
Stairs
Back Staircase
A staircase for the use of servants, tradesmen or individuals not permitted to use the main part of a building or establishment.
Dogleg Staircase
A staircase divided into two parallel flights joined by a landing with no well between the outer strings.
External Staircase
A flight of stairs, situated on a building's exterior, extending to an upper storey.
Imperial Staircase
A grand staircase where the lower flight splits into two upper flights.
Newel Staircase
A staircase where the vertical members are placed at the ends of flights to support the strings, handrails, trimmers and bearers.
Night Stair
A staircase, usually leading from a dormitory, used by monks to enter the transept of a monastic church.
Open Well Staircase
A staircase, usually rising through more than one storey, with a space at its centre around which the stair is carried by strings and newels.
Service Staircase
A staircase normally used by servants and tradesmen.
Spiral Staircase
A staircase, circular in plan, that winds around a central newel.
Winder Staircase
A staircase that rises through only one storey and has treads and risers framed into square studs, one of them often on one side of a door-frame; it usually occupies a rectangular space.
Staircase
A flight of steps leading from one level to another.
Tas De Charge
Springer
The point or block from which an arch or vault starts. The block generally has a horizontal base and sloped top.
Telamone
Atlas
Atlantis
A whole male figure used in place of a column to support an entablature.
Tunnel Vault
Wagon Vault
Barrel Vault
A semi-circular or pointed vault uninterrupted by cross vaults, the ceiling bearing a resemblence to a tunnel or the inside of a barrel.
Vacuum Engine
Atmospheric Engine
An early steam engine using steam at atmospheric pressure. Chiefly employed in mine pumping. sometimes known as a vacuum engine.
Venison Larder
Game Larder
A store for undressed meat, usually for keeping grouse, partridge, pheasant or rabbit in a cool environment.
Volute Cushion
Volute
A decorative, spiral scroll form, thought to have been based upon the shape of a ram's horn, employed in consoles, modillions, the capitals of orders such as the Ionic, Composite and Corinthian etc..
Wallplate
Aisle Plate
A horizontal member along the length of an aisle wall to receive the ends of rafters.
Wall Plate
A longitudinal timber set on top of a timber frame, brick or masonry wall on which roof-trusses or rafters rest.
Winter Parlour
Lochtory
A parlour in a monastery.
Parlour
Originally a reception room where visitors come come to talk especially in a closed establishment such as a monastery or school. Later used to refer to any room used for entertaining guests.
Withdrawing Chamber
Withdrawing Room
Drawing Room
A room to withdraw to from the dining room.
Glory
Aureole
Circular or almond-shaped halo surrounding the figure of Christ, the Virgin or a saint.
Baldachin
Baldaquin
Baldacchino
A canopy suspended, or on pillars, over a throne or altar.
Cover Slip
Batten
A small timber fixed to a wall to support items such as cladding. Also a strip of timber fixed across two or more parallel boards to join them together or conceal their join.
Paternoster
Bead And Berry
Pearl And Olive
Bead And Reel
Decorative ornamentation consisting of alternating bead shapes with small, elliptical forms resembling reels
Gambrel Roof
Mansard Roof
A curb-roof with curved or steeply pitched lower slopes and a hipped or pitched roof above. Named after the French Classical architect F. Mansart.
Die
Dado (Pedestal)
The area between the base and the cornice of a plinth.
Therm
Thermal Window
Diocletian Window
A semi-circular opening or window divided, by two mullions, into three sections, the central section being wider than those either side of it.
Drip Mould
Hood Mould
Label
A rectangular dripstone.
Shell Hood
A shell-shaped moulded hood over an exterior opening, such as a doorway.
Dripstone
A moulding that projects from a wall above an exterior opening and is shaped to channel rainwater away from it.
Chimney Back
Fireback
The heat-resistant wall, or sometimes decorative cast iron panel, at the back of a fireplace.
Lucomb
Luccam
Lewcome
Locum
Lucam
A projecting structure in the roof of a mill containing a winch, allowing loads to be lifted clear of the building's wall and protecting the winch from the weather.
Engaged Baluster
Split Baluster
A half or whole baluster applied to a wall or pedestal, thus described as engaged.
Serliana
Palladian Window
Venetian Window
A window with three openings, the central light being arched and wider than those flanking it.
Communion Table
Altar
An elevated table or podium on which to place, or sacrifice, offerings to a god or gods.
Communion Rail
Altar Rail
A rail or balustrade that separates the altar from the rest of the church.
Zigzag Moulding
Chevron Moulding
A three-dimensional decorative ornamentation composed of a series of Vs forming a zigzag.
Chantry
Chantry Chapel
A chapel, often attached to or screened off inside a church, endowed for the celebration of masses principally for the repose of the founder?s soul.
Garderobe (Wardrobe)
Wardrobe
A room or cupboard usually used for the storage of garments.
Minstrels Gallery
Musicians Gallery
A loft, balcony or gallery, in a hall or church, for the use of musicians.
Bartisan
Bartizan
A small turret that projects from the top of a tower or parapet.
Birds Head Moulding
Beak Head Moulding
A decorative moulding depicting an animal or bird head with a tongue or beak that overlaps the moulding set below it.
Chancel Screen
Rood Screen
A timber screen, often richly decorated, placed in front of a chancel to support a rood loft.
Gigantic Order
Tuscan Order
A biggest and plainest of the classical architectural orders, based upon a simplified version of the Doric Order. Sometimes called the Gigantic order, though not to be confused with the Colossal or Giant Order.
Ogee Moulding
Cyma Recta
A decorative S-shaped moulding, usually placed at the top of a cornice, with a convex lower half and a concave upper half.
Frater
Refectory
A dining hall, usually in a monastery or college.
Sheila Na Gig
Sheela Na Gig
A carved stone female figure often found on castles and churches.
Wall Arcade
Blind Arcade
A succession of arches on shafts with no openings, attached to and used to enliven a wall.
Jigger
Wall Crane
A wall mounted, hydraulically operated crane or winch, sometimes used to operate lifts.
Rag And Chain Pump
Chain Pump
An early design of pump featuring a series of pistons, or sometimes bundles of rags, passing through a barrel on a continuous chain, forcing water upwards.
Horse Gin
Horse Whim
A timber, horse-powered device consisting of a large, rotating drum around which a rope would be wound, hoisting material from a quarry pit, mine shaft etc..
Clearstory
Clearstorey
Clerestorey
Overstorey
Clerestory
The upper parts of walls carried on arcades or colonnades in the nave, choir or transepts of a church or hall, rising higher than the lean-to roofs of the aisles and pierced with windows to allow light to penetrate.
Intermediate Truss
Secondary Truss
A truss of slighter construction between principal trusses in an elaborate roof.
Trimmer Joist
Trimmer
A short timber supporting end of joists or rafters to facilitate an opening, such as a door or dormer.
Verandah
Veranda
An open balcony or gallery extending along the outside of a building, providing principal rooms with shade by means of a roof or canopy supported by posts or light columns.
Treadwheel
Treadmill
A large wheel, often of timber construction, rotated by the walking action of people or animals placed within it usually to provide a power source for another machine or device.
Treadwheel Crane
Treadmill Crane
A crane operated by a treadmill turned by the walking action of men placed within it.
Tearoom
Breakfast Room
A room where meals, particularly breakfast are partaken.
Canteen
A room intended for the taking of refreshments, usually containing a counter from which they are served.
Hinds Hall
A dining hall for the use of seasonal labourers.
Dining Room
A room, furnished with tables and chairs, where meals and refreshments are served and consumed.
Painted Panel
Inscribed Panel
Decorated Panel
A panel, usually wooden or stone, painted or engraved with an illustration or inscription.
Almery
Ambry
Aumery
Aumbry
A recess or cupboard within a church, usually positioned near the altar, used for the storage of sacred vessels.
Chimney Piece
Mantelpiece
A decorative structure of wood stone or metal, incorporating a shelf, surrounding the opening of a fireplace.
Downpipe
Rainwater Pipe
An exterior, vertical pipe that carries rainwater from a roof's guttering, usually to a drain.
Bag Hoist
Sack Hoist
A mechanism, either automated or consisting of winches and pulleys, that raises sacks of grain on ropes or chains from one floor of a mill to another, usually through one or a series of trap doors.
Wheel Shaft
Mill Shaft
King Pin
Waterwheel Shaft
The large main axle on which a waterwheel, which turns the shaft, and a pitwheel are mounted.
Dresser
Bolter
Wire Machine
A mechanical device, used in a corn mill, that separates bran from meal to produce a whiter flour.
Sifter
A mechanical device, used in a corn mill, that sieves and grades flour or meal and separates oversized particles.
Gudgeon
Journal
The area at the end of an axle or shaft around which a wheel, bearing etc. pivots or rotates.
Hursting Frame
Hurst
The large wooden framework that supports the grinding wheels in a corn mill.
Drive Mechanism
Drive
The primary mechanism within an engine or device that transmits motion, especially rotary motion, to wheels, cogs, turntables etc.
Gun Loop
Gun Port
A strategically placed aperture in the wall of a fortification through which guns and cannon can fire upon an invading force.
Arms
Coat Of Arms
Escutcheon
A decorative feature of a shield for armorial bearings.
Hatchment
A wooden panel, mounted on the wall of a church, bearing the Achievement of Arms of an individual whose funeral has taken place there.
Achievement Of Arms
A display or depiction of authorised armorial bearings, such as the elements of a coat of arms, livery and personal badges and flags, mottoes etc..
Lightning Rod
Lightning Conductor
A metallic rod attached to a high point on a building and leading to the earth for the purpose of conducting lightning away from the main body of the building.
Sales Counter
Counter
A flat-topped, often elongated, construction at which customers are served by staff in a commercial establishment such as a bank, shop, inn etc.
Uplong
Sail Back
Whip
The principal longitudinal member or spine of a windmill sail, extending from the stock and supporting the sailbars.
Board Room
Boardroom
A meeting room intended specifically for the use of a board of directors or governors of an organization or company..
School Room
Classroom
A room intended for the purpose of teaching a group or class of students simultaneously.
Schoolroom
A room within a school, private house or institution used for lessons.
Casual Ward
Vagrants Ward
A ward in a workhouse for vagrants
Open Air Swimming Pool
Outdoor Swimming Pool
A unenclosed feature, usually sub-terranean, constructed to contain water for public or private recreation and sporting activities. Sometimes part of a LIDO complex. Use INDOOR SWIMMING POOL for pools within a covering structure.
Fuse Box
Fusebox
A box or cupboard enclosing the fuses for the electrical circuits within a building.
Site Layer
Layer
An archaeological unit of soil in a horizontal plane which may seal features or be cut through by other features.
Handrail
Railing
A barrier consisting of a horizontal rail supported by uprights.
Aron Hakodesh
Aron Kodesh
Ark
A cupboard set into the eastern wall of a synagogue, facing Jerusalem. The Torah scrolls are kept in the Ark.
Elevator
Lift
An apparatus, featuring an ascending and descending platform or compartment, for carrying people or objects from one level or floor to another. This term can include the shaft or well in which such an apparatus operates.
Creeper
Conveyor Belt
A machine consisting of a continuously moving band of fabric, rubber, or metal used for transporting people or objects from one place to another.
Sheep Creep
Creep
A small opening built into a stone wall or hedge to allow small animals through.
Quire
Choir
Part of a large church, east of the nave, appropriated for singers and clergy.
Mass Dial
Scratch Dial
A set of marks found on the wall of a building, thought to be a form of sundial.
A Frame Steam Engine
A simple, single cylinder vertical steam engine with its cylinder mounted directly on a baseplate, driving an overhead crankshaft which is supported by two A-shaped frames
Bull Engine
An early type of steam engine, similar to a Cornish Engine, designed by Edward Bull.
Condensing Steam Engine
A steam engine in which the spent steam leaving the cylinder passes to a condenser instead of being exhausted to the atmosphere. The condenser creates a partial vacuum which increases the pressure drop across the engine, so raising its efficiency.
Contra Flow Steam Engine
The common design of steam engine, where steam enters the cylinder at one end, and after it has pushed the piston to the other end, its direction of flow is reversed as the piston returns, the steam leaving the cylinder through the exhaust ports.
Horizontal Steam Engine
A steam engine in which the cylinder, crosshead and crankshaft lie in a horizontal line, as opposed to vertical designs.
Inverted Vertical Steam Engine
A type of steam engine in which the steam cylinders are placed above the crankshaft supported on a robust frame.
Mine Haulage Steam Engine
A steam engine working an underground cable haulage system in a late 19th century coal mine.
Non Condensing Steam Engine
A steam engine from which the spent exhaust steam either passes out to the atmosphere and is lost, or in some cases is used as process steam in a factory.
Non Dead Centre Steam Engine
A patented design of twin-cylinder, inverted vertical steam engine, which can be started irrespective of the position of the crank.
Oscillating Steam Engine
A compact design of steam engine which eliminates a connecting rod by having the piston rod directly attached to the crank.
Rotative Steam Engine
A steam engine which produces rotary motion.
Savery Engine
An elementary steam engine working on the atmospheric principle; often used downstream of an overshot waterwheel.
Stationary Steam Engine
A steam engine working at a fixed location.
Steeple Engine
A compact, free standing steam engine introduced circa 1810 and built mainly in small sizes.
Table Engine
A compact steam engine of moderate power in which the steam cylinder was placed vertically on a table with the crosshead and guides mounted immediately above.
Tandem Compound
A horizontal, stationary steam engine with two cylinders in line, one behind the other, the steam passing through each cylinder in turn.
Traction Steam Engine
A small mobile steam engine.
Triple Expansion Engine
A design of steam engine in which either three cylinders, in the case of vertical engines, or four cylinders on horizontal engines, permit steam to be expanded three times as it passes through the installation.
Trunk Steam Engine
A steam engine in which the pistons are long relative to their diameters, and there are no piston rods and crossheads.
Uniflow Steam Engine
A steam engine in which steam flows in one direction only at each stroke, as opposed to the commoner contra-flow engines.
Water Returning Engine
A steam engine, often used in the 18th century, which drove a pump to return water back to a waterwheel so that it could be used over and over again.
Steam Engine
A power source deriving its energy from solid fuel, which is used to boil water in an almost closed vessel, producing steam which moves one or more pistons in tight fitting cylinders, the energy being transmitted by a piston rod to a diversity of devices
Spandrel Strut
A short timber set diagonally in the spandrel of an arch brace, between the brace and the corner of the main frame.
A Strut
A strut with a reflecting counterpart that forms the letter A on either side of a king post.
Angle Strut
A strut which is at an angle between the principal rafter and tiebeam.
Crown Strut
An upright timber similar to a crown post, but not supporting a plate.
King Strut
A vertical timber set on a collar or tie-beam extending to the apex of a pitched roof.
Queen Strut
A strut which is part of a pair which support the collar and are supported by the tiebeam.
Raking Strut
One of a pair of straight or curved members set at an angle on the tie-beam and framed into a principal rafter, often supporting a purlin.
V Strut
One of a pair of inclined struts that meet at the bottom to form a V shape.
Strut
A member whose purpose is to keep two other members apart, so acting in a state of compression.
Abacus
The flat slab at the top of a capital.
Basket Capital
A Byzantine bell-type capital, ornamented with carving resembling wicker-work or basket-weave.
Bell
The core of a capital.
Bell Capital
A capital which is circular and has several mouldings but no foliage.
Crocket Capital
A capital which is decorated with stylized leaves similar to small volutes.
Protoma Capital
A capital with a half figure projecting from each corner
Stiff Leaf Capital
A capital featuring stylised, often projecting, three-lobed leaves.
Water Leaf Capital
A late 12th Century capital featuring large, unribbed leaves growing outwards from each angle before curving up towards the abacus and turning inwards at the top.
Capital
The top part of a column, often decorated.
Aedicule (Frame)
The framing of a door or window with two columns piers or pilasters which support a lintel,entablature etc.
Alcove
A recess within a wall or room.
Ancone (Construction)
A projection left on a stone block to allow it to be hoisted into position.
Ancone (Structural)
An ornamental bracket on either side of a doorway supporting a cornice.
Angle Bar
The corner upright bar of a polygonal sash.
Apron
A shaped or decorated raised panel below the sill of a window or a niche.
Archway
An opening in a structure which is arched.
Arris Fillet
A triangular piece of wood used to raise slates next to a wall or similar.
Barge Board
A board fixed at the gable end to purlins, often decorated.
Block
A small piece of timber occupying the angle between two other timbers.
Bolster
One of the rolls forming the sides of an ionic capital, joining the volutes of the front and rear faces.
Came
An H-sectioned strip of lead used to hold panes of glass in position in stained-glass windows or other leaded lights.
Capstone
A large stone laid horizontally to form the roof of a chamber.
Centering
A temporary support placed under a vault or arch to support them during construction.
Collar
A horizontal member connecting rafters or cruck blades at a point between their feet and the apex of the roof.
Corbel
A cantilevered block projecting from the face of a wall and supporting a structure such as a parapet, beam or arch.
Cross Tree
Two intersecting beams set on the ground to support a post, usually for a post mill.
Cutwater
The wedge shaped end of a bridge pier designed to break the current of water.
Dais
A raised platform at the end of a hall on which the high table sat, though sometimes used to describe the table itself.
Dais Canopy
A framed canopy suspended above the dais or high table at the upper end of a hall.
Dome
A roof, circular in plan, usually semicircular in section, over a circular, square or polygonal base.
Dormer
A chamber usually used for sleeping.
Draw Bar
A wooden bar sliding from a long channel at one side of a doorway into a socket in the other jamb so as to bar the door.
Fantail
A bladed wheel attached to the rear, and at right angles to the main sails, of a windmill. Connected to winding gear, the fantail would catch the wind when it changed direction, allowing the mill to move automatically into the wind.
Flue
A duct or channel for hot air to travel through.
Fluting
A concave groove or series of grooves.
Gully
A usually shallow cut linear feature often used for drainage.
Haunch
A part of an arch between the apex and the springer.
Kerb
A stone edging on a footway dividing it from a carriageway.
King Pendant
A vertical timber in a truss, descending from the ridge, and projecting below the lower transverse timber, normally used with scissor beams.
Kneeler
A large approximately triangular stone at the foot of a gable, cut to have a horizontal bed and a top conforming, wholly or in part, to the slope of the gable.
Lath
The smallest piece of timber (2-5cms) across used in building, employed on rafters to support the roof covering or in a partition as a base for plaster or external render and wall covering.
Light
A section of a window between mullions; thus for example a three-light window.
Neck
A plain area situated between the top of the shaft and the capital of a Renaissance Tuscan or Doric Order column.
Orthostat
A large vertical stone forming part of a structure. If the structure is roofed, the orthostat will stretch from the floor to the roof as a single slab.
Packing Piece
A timber set on the back of a cruck blade to carry a purlin.
Pad
A short timber laid across the top of a masonry wall to carry a wall plate or the foot of a common rafter.
Padstone
A stone block set into a wall to support a truss or beam.
Peg
A wooden nail, round or square in section, used to fix a joint.
Pendant
A decorative piece descending vertically from the bottom of a newel on a staircase, or from the junction of barge boards at the apex of a gable.
Pile
A type of foundation in the form of a post sunk into the ground to support a building platform.
Portal Frame
A frame to a structure formed by precast concrete beams placed in pairs.
Post Pad
A pad on which a post rests to support part of a structure.
Quarter Bar
A diagonal brace running from an end of a cross tree to the vertical post to support this.
Rail
A horizontal member of a wall frame between posts or studs, also the horizontal member in panelling, a panelled door or a window.
Rampart
A protective earthern mound.
Rebate
A rectangular recess along the edge of a timber to receive a shutter, door or window.
Ring Groove
A gulley in the form of a circle for holding vertical posts in the walls of iron age round houses.
Saddle
A short timber set on top of two cruck blades.
Sail
A device, usually wooden, or fabric on a timber frame, designed to catch, and be driven by, the wind in order to power a windmill. For maritime uses see the Thesaurus of Maritime Archaeology.
Scotch
A housing, normally of triangular section, in a post to take the end of a prop, to hold the post upright during construction.
Shutter
A hinged, sliding or rolling door placed over a window's exterior or interior.
Sill Beam
A horizontal timber positioned at the bottom of a framed wall into which posts and studs are tenoned.
Skylight
A glazed opening in a roof or ceiling.
Sleeper Wall
A wall, usually perforated to allow free passage of air, supporting the ground-floor joists of a building.
Smoke Hood
A framed fireplace hood built on a bressumer and extending from one outer wall to the other or to a spere.
Soffit
The under surface of an arch, lintel or projecting architectural feature.
Sole Piece
A horizontal member supporting the posts in a timber framed structure.
Soulace
A straight brace from rafter to collar in a common rafter truss.
Spere
A screen, with a wide central opening, or multiple narrower openings, spanning the lower end of a medieval hall, screening the cross entry and defining the screen, or cross, passage.
Sprocket
A triangular or wedge-shaped timber cocking-piece attached to the upper face of a rafter near its foot in order to reduce the slope above the eaves. Such eaves are referred to as being sprocketed.
Staddle Stone
A short, tapered, vertical stone supporting a rough stone disc so resembling a toadstool, often forming one of several uprights on which a timber structure, such as a granary rests, protecting the building from damp and vermin.
Stained Glass
Glass that has been coloured by fusing glass with a metallic oxide film or by burning pigment into the surface.
Stokehole
The hole through which the fuel for a fire is put to start and maintain the fire.
Stop
A projecting, sometimes decorated, finish to a moulding, chamfer, label, hood-mould or string-course.
String
A sloping timber in a staircase holding the ends of treads and risers.
Tail Pole
A pole projecting to the rear of a post mill to allow the sails to be moved into the wind.
Template
A timber placed horizontally in a cob or stone wall to support the foot of a post or cruck blade.
Vent
A gap which allows air to circulate.
Voussoir
A wedge shaped stone or brick forming part of an arch or vault, with its radiating sides coinciding with the radii of that arch.
Wind Brace
A diagonal or arched member placed across rafters to stiffen and support a roof structure.
Yoke
A short timber linking two pieces of timber.
Tympanum
The face within a pediment, as enclosed by the cornices, or the solid infill of an arch above an impost, sometimes embellished with sculptural or relief ornament.
Band (Structural)
A flat, horizontal strip, block or moulding, sometimes decorated, on a facade or interrupting an architectural feature such as a column.
Blocking Course
A plain stone course, sometimes projecting, above a cornice and counterbalancing the cantilevered sections of stone, or at the base of a building.
Coping
A protective covering applied to the top of a wall, chimney, gable etc., usually curved, sloping or ridged to prevent rainwater settling.
Corbel Table
A projecting wall or structure, such as a parapet or battlement, supported by a series of corbels.
Groin
The ridge formed at the intersection of two vaulted surfaces.
Muntin
An upright framing member, or mullion, that separates two panels, such as in a panelled door or a window.
Nogging
A section of stone or brickwork employed in a timber-framed building to fill the spaces between uprights or studs.
Plaque
A metal or stone plate or tablet, usually inscribed, set into a wall, pedestal, floor etc., often serving as a memorial.
Quarry
A small square or lozenge-shaped pane of glass as used in a leaded light.
Saddle Bar
A horizontal iron bar set in a window opening to which a leaded light is fixed.
Stanchion
A vertical iron bar fixed within a window opening to support a leaded light.
Spur
A short timber connecting a cruck blade to a wall above the point at which the blade diverges from it.
Strap
An iron plate connecting two or more timbers together.
Water Table
An inclined course on top of a projecting sill, cornice etc., designed to throw off rainwater.
Rainwater Head
A small tank or cistern, often lead or cast-iron and sometimes ornamented, that collects rainwater from a gutter or channel prior to it being discharged.
Respond
A half-pier, corbel or other architectural element, usually situated at the end of an arcade, attached to a wall to support an arch.
Transom
A horizontal member dividing a window into two or more lights.
Shingle
A thin wooden slab or tile used in quantity as a roof or wall covering.
Revetment
A thin masonry facing or cladding employed to conceal the surface or structure behind it.
Penthouse (Shelter)
A covered walkway attached to a building.
Brickwork
A structure, part of a structure or area constructed from plain bricks.
Tun
A casement, usually wooden, in a mill enclosing the grindstones and preventing the loss of ground material before it is channelled into sacks.
Hopper
A funnel-like container from which grain or other material is fed to a grinding mechanism below.
Pit Wheel
The main gearwheel in a water mill, sharing the same shaft as the exterior waterwheel but placed within the mill.
Wallower
The first driven gearwheel on the vertical shaft within a corn mill which meshes with the brake wheel in a windmill, or the pit wheel in a watermill.
Crown Wheel
The gearwheel on the upright shaft within a windmill from which secondary drives operating other parts of the machinery are powered. are taken
Spur Wheel
A large gearwheel which, together with a smaller gear called a pinion, connects two parrallel shafts and, in a corn mill, drives the stone nuts.
Millstone
A flat, circular stone, usually made of sandstone, used in pairs for grinding corn and other meal.
Stone Nut
Pinion which engages with the spur wheel and drives the millstones in a corn mill.
Meal Spout
A funnel, connected to an opening in the floor of the tun encasing the grindstones in a corn mill, that carries ground meal away to a bin or sack.
Penstock
A channel or pipeline that feeds water to a waterwheel.
Sluice
A gate or valve that controls the flow of water from a reservoir, harbour, etc..
Upright Shaft
The main vertical axle running through the centre of a mill.
Windshaft
The main axle projecting through the front of a windmill on which the sails are mounted.
Crown Tree
The main vertical beam standing at the centre of a post mill carrying the bearing upon which the body of the mill rotates.
Cap
The rotating top section of a tower or smock mill.
Brake Wheel
The main gear wheel, which is engaged by a brake to halt or slow the machinery, mounted on the windshaft of a windmill.
Bridge Tree
An adjustable, horizontal beam, supporting the vertical stone spindle in a water or windmill, which allows the gap between the grinding stones to be varied.
Masons Mark
A device, monogram or symbol incised in stonework by a mason as a means of identifying his work. Particularly common in Romanesque and Gothic buildings.
Stonework
A structure, part of a structure or area consisting of plain masonry.
Foundation
The lowest part, or base, of a structure, sometimes built into the ground, on which the weight of the whole rests.
Water Spout
A pipe or channel to carry water outwards from a gutter or behind a parapet. If decorated with grotesque heads it is called a gargoyle.
Glazing Bar
A moulded bar or baton dividing the panes of glass within a window light.
Grating
A framework of crossed or parallel wooden or metal bars placed over an opening to prevent access but allow the passage of air, light, water etc.
Fan Carriage
A wheeled device supporting a windmill's fantail that moves around a trackway thus turning the windmill into the wind.
Striking Gear
A mechanism within a windmill, attached to the striking rod, allowing the opening and closing of the shutters or vanes of patent sails.
Spider
A four-armed metal coupling, positioned at the centre of a windmill's sails, connected to the front of the striking rod and the shutter bars of all the sails, causing the shutters to open and close.
Salt Pan
A large shallow pan, usually metal, in which seawater or brine is evaporated for the extraction of salt. The name is also often applied to the exterior pits or ponds used for the same purpose (see Thesaurus of Monument Types).
Striking Rod
An iron bar or rod running through the core of a windmill's windshaft that causes the opening and shutting of the vanes on patent sails.
Foundation Stone
A stone, usually inscribed, laid during a ceremony to commemorate the founding of a new building
Beetle
A float or pontoon supporting a flexible steel roadway as part of a Mulberry Harbour.
Vault Springer
The impost, or point at which a vault rests upon its support, and from which it seems to spring. Hence the term describes the bottom stone of a vault, which lies on the impost.
Bell Frame
A timber frame placed in the bell chamber of a church tower or belfry designed to hold the bells.
Peristalith
A stone ring built to enclose and sometimes revet a burial mound or cairn.
Stop Plank Slot
A vertical slot found on each side of a canal channel. These grooves are used for fitting planks to form a temporary dam to prevent a section of the channel from draining during maintainance works.
Baltic Mark
Symbols, letters, or numbers stamped or carved into softwood pine timber imported into the UK and Western Europe from the Baltic region, for use in construction, primarily during the 18th to mid 19th centuries.
Structural Component
A part of a building or structure that is an element of the construction.
Acanthus
A long much indented leaf usually curled over at the tip which is a standard form of foliage in classical decoration.
Anthemion
A stylised, leafy decorative feature reminiscent of, and sometimes referred to as, honeysuckle
Arabesque
A style of decorative design consisting of intertwined, geommetrical patterns of leaves, branches, tendrils etc. Often defined as being devoid of human or animal figures.
Ball Flower
Decorative ornamentation in the form of a ball enclosed within petals.
Bay Leaf
Bay-leaf shaped decorative ornamentation, usually adorning mouldings or friezes, often depicted in a garland arrangement.
Caulicoli
The lesser stalks springing from the principal stalks, or caules, within the decoration on a Corinthian capital.
Fleur De Lys
Decorative ornamentation of a formalized lily.
Fleuron
Decorative ornamentation of a flower or leaf.
Rosette
A circular stylised ornament, essentially a patera with floral enrichment, associated with classical architecture and occurring on the soffits of coffers, and as the fleuron of the Corinthian abacus.
Tudor Flower
Decorative ornamentation in the form of an upright, stalked trefoil used in Tudor architecture.
Tudor Rose
A decorative feature in the style of a formalized rose.
Palmette
A decorative motif representing a palm leaf. Often painted, incised or applied in relief, can occur singly or as a repeating pattern.
Floral Feature
A decorative feature in the style of a flower or plant. Use more specific term.
Antefix
A decorative tile on the end of the cornice or eaves of a building to conceal the ends of tiles.
Cartouche
A decorative, framed tablet, usually bearing an inscription or coat of arms, in the form of a scroll or curving piece of parchment.
Cornucopia
Decorative ornamentation in the form of a horn filled with fruit etc.
Dentil
One of a series of small, rectangular blocks arranged like a row of teeth, projecting from the lower part of a cornice in many classical orders.
Flushwork
The use of knapped flint applied to a wall to form a decorative pattern.
Guttae
Small 'drops' or conic projections under the mutules (a repeating block motif) and triglyphs (rectangular blocks embellished with vertical grooves) in a Doric entablature.
Key Pattern
Classical decorative motif of interlocking right-angled and vertical lines, usually applied as a continuous pattern.
Knotwork
Decorative ornamentation in the form of interlacing ribbons or cords, usually in an intricate pattern.
Medallion
An oval or circular decorative feature often bearing an illustration or portrait in light relief.
Patera
A flat oval or circular ornamental feature decorated in relief, often with flutes or floral motifs.
Rebus
A decorative feature, or non-heraldic badge, representing the name of a person connected with a building, often in the form of a graphic pun on the name.
Spiral Fluting
A decorative feature, usually Norman, in which fluting takes a spiral rather than vertical form.
Diaper
A decorative, repeating geometric pattern, utilizing motifs such as lozenges, leaves etc., applied to a wall or panel, or incorporated into brickwork by laying different coloured bricks in a series of squares, diamonds.
Pinnacle
Small ornamental pyramid or cone, often decorated, crowning a spire, turret, buttress etc.
Painting
Fine art depiction in oil, watercolour or other media on wood panels, canvas or paper
Strapwork
A decorative feature of wood, plaster or carved masonry, often used in low relief on ceilings, panels or screens and resembling interlacing leather straps. Popular in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
Stone Carving
An inscription or illustration carved into the surface of a stone wall or other architectural element.
Graffito
An inscription on illustration applied to a wall by carving into its plaster to reveal a different colour beneath.
Picture Frame
A case or border, usually wood or metal, enclosing a picture, painting or photograph.
Overmantel
An ornamental panel or decorative structure situated above a mantelpiece
Wallpaper
Paper, often decorated with a printed pattern, painted or embossed design, and usually provided in rolls and used to line the interior walls of a building for decorative purposes.
Ceiling Painting
A two dimensional image using paint applied to the surface of a ceiling.
Camouflage
The application of colour and other materials to a structure to either conceal it from identification or to make it look like something else.
Decorative Features
A component part that is designed deliberately for decorative purposes.
Adit
A passage, usually horizontal, leading into a mine to allow for access or drainage.
Cross Entry
The entry to a hall through opposed doorways, but without a passage formed by a wall or partition.
Entrance
A place of entry into a site, monument or building.
Aedicule (Shrine)
An opening or shrine, usually containing a statue, framed by a pair of pilasters or columns supporting an entablature and pediment.
Shrine
A fereter or repository for relics or any building containing such a repository, or any place or structure where worship is offered or devotions are paid to a saint or deity.
Agiasterium
The area of the Basilica, especially in the early church, in which the altar resides.
Antechapel
The partially enclosed western part of a chapel, leading to the chapel proper.
Apothesis
Found in early churches this was a part of a church on the south side of the chancel where there were bookshelves and storage for vestments.
Arena
The body of a church or chapel as opposed to galleries.
Atrium (Secular)
A central area within a building.
Baptistery
A building, or part of a church, used for baptismal rites, usually containing a font.
Chancel
The choir and sanctuary in the liturgical eastern part of a church appropriated for those who officiate during services.
Closet
A small chamber or private room.
Corridor
A passageway within a building providing access to rooms.
Feretory
An area in a church, sometimes defined by screens, containing a shrine. Also a shrine, usually portable, containing religious relics.
Nave
The central division of a church, extending from the west end to the chancel or transepts.
Offertorium
The area where the act of Offertory, where bread and wine are placed upon the altar, takes place.
Oratory
A small private chapel in either a house or church.
Orchestra Pit
An area normally below a stage or dais occupied by an orchestra or musical group for performances and entertainment.
Presbytery
A part of the chancel of a church where the altar is situated.
Sanctuary
The part of the chancel, between the altar rail and the eastern wall, containing the high altar.
Undercroft
An underground, or partially underground, vault or crypt beneath a church or other building.
Walking Space
A clear area in a church covered by the transepts and crossing.
Auction Room
A room in which public or private auctions are held.
Spa Pool
Manmade structure that contains water that is heated to a high temperature and sometimes has bubbling air jets. Meant to be used for therapeudic purposes.
Trading Floor
An open area within an exchange building (e.g. cotton exchange, corn exchange, stock exchange) where goods are traded.
Internal Area Or Space
An area or space within a building.
Keystone
The wedge-shaped block placed at the crown of an arch to consolidate the structure. Sometimes employed as a decorative feature.
Aileron
A half gable or half pediment concealing the lean-to roof of an aisle.
Cross Gable
A gable supporting a roof, placed at right-angles to the main part of the roof.
Crowstepped Gable
A gable with sides shaped like a flight of steps.
False Gable
A gable without a roof behind it.
Flemish Gable
A gable with curved sides and an identifiable pediment.
Gablet
A small gable above a hipped roof. Also used ornamentally, such as on a buttress or over a niche.
Gable
The part of the wall that supports a pitched roof at the end of the roof.
Broken Pediment
A pediment with a gap at the centre of its base.
Open Pediment
A pediment with a gap at its apex, sometimes filled with an urn or other decorative feature.
Pediment
A triangular gable usually above an entablature.
Air Pump
A pump for removing condensed steam from the condenser of a steam raising plant.
Duplex Pump
A type of direct-acting, twin cylinder steam driven water pump.
Steam Pump
A pump driven by steam power generated by solid fuels.
Pump
A power driven machine or device for raising a liquid or forcing it along a pipe, or for compressing a gas.
Passage Aisle
A narrow aisle that pierces an internal buttress.
Carrel (Aisle)
An aisle divided into chapels. This term is sometimes applied to the screens dividing the aisle, or the chapels themselves.
Aisle
The side compartment of a building, usually a church, hall or barn, separated from the main body of the building by an arcade; or a passage allowing access to rows of seats in an auditorium or church.
Aisle Truss
A roof truss supported by arcade posts in an aisled building.
Box Framed Truss
A complete cross-frame from ground level to ridge in a box-framed building.
Closed Truss
A truss in which spaces between timbers are filled, as between rooms and at the ends of a building.
Common Rafter Truss
A pair of common rafters with a collar.
Double Arch Braced Truss
A truss in which two pairs of arch braces form a continuous curve from the wall-heads or below to meet in the centre of the collar.
False Hammer Beam Truss
A truss with a transverse timber like a hammer-beam, but braced to a principal or collar without a hammer-post.
Hammer Beam Truss
A truss with transverse timbers, like a tie-beam from which the middle section has been removed, supported on braces and carrying hammer-posts and braces that carry the open structure of the roof.
Open Truss
A truss which does not subdivide a space, as in the centre of a hall of two bays or in an undivided building such as a barn.
Post And Rafter Truss
A truss comprising principal rafters and wall-posts secured by knee-braces or sling-braces, but lacking tiebeams.
Principal Rafter Truss
A pair of principal rafters with a tiebeam, usually with a collar.
Queen Post Truss
A truss with paired vertical posts set on the tie-beam and supporting collar purlins or plates.
Saw Tooth Truss
A roof truss used for small spans with a saw-tooth overall shape braced by vertical and diagonal members.
Scissor Braced Truss
A truss with braces crossing and fixed to each other, thus tying a pair of rafters together.
Spere Truss
The structure across the lower end of a medieval hall containing the spere, its supporting posts and tie-beam.
Truss
A combination of timbers to form a frame placed at intervals and carrying the purlins.
Ambo
A reading desk usually placed near the west end of the choir.
Bath
A container for holding water in which to bathe.
Pulpit
A raised structure from which a priest can preach.
Retable
A shelf that is behind an altar.
Stoup
A fixed basin, containing Holy Water, positioned near the entrance of a church, usually placed within a niche, on a wall or pier, or freestanding upon a pedestal.
Tabernacle
A recess for holding the Holy Sacrament.
Chandelier
A branched, hanging light fitting, often ornate in design, provifding illumination from a number of candles or lightbulbs.
Lectern
A stand, either fixed or free-standing, usually with a sloping surface from which a bible, book or notes can be read, found in a church or lecture theatre.
Vat
A large tank or cask for storing or holding goods, whether liquid, such as chemicals or fermenting beer, or dry, often during a production process.
Display Case
An enclosed structure, usually glass fronted, designed to contain, and facilitate the viewing of, objects or notices. May be built into the fabric of a room, affixed to an exterior or exterior wall or free standing.
Lamp
A light, usually encased and mounted upon brackets, often used outdoors. It may be powered by gas, electricity or house a candle.
Sign
A panel, board or device bearing an inscription, symbol or image, usually describing a function, name, location, instruction, or otherwise distinguishing the object or structure on which it is placed.
Climbing Wall
An artifically constructed wall with recessed and projecting grips for hands and feet and places to attach ropes. Used for practising rock climbing. If the wall is a free-standing external structure use term for the Thesaurus of Monument Types.
Boot Scraper
A device, usually cast iron and often decorative in design, placed upon, embedded in or built into a doostep facilitating the removal of mud, dirt, manure etc. from footwear before entering a building.
Trunking
A channel or casing containing and protecting wiring, piping etc.
Water Tank
A tank used for the storage of water, usually found as part of an institution like a workhouse or hospital complex
Cycle Rack
A structure used for the secure storage of bicycles.
Sconce
A type of light fixture affixed to a wall in such a way that it uses only the wall for support, and the light is usually directed upwards.
Wall Safe
A metal safe built in to wall
Yorkshire Square
Specialised fermenting vessel consisting of a two-storey system consisting of a shallow chamber approximately 2m high above which is a walled deck.
Fixtures And Fittings
Accessories used in furnishing and embellishing a building or structure.
Altar Screen
A partition or wall behind an altar, often separating the choir and altar from the ambulatory and east chapel.
Reredos
A decorated screen behind an altar.
Parclose
A screen that separates a tomb or a chapel from the main body of a church.
Pulpitum
A stone screen, usually found in a monastic or collegiate church, that separates the choir from the nave.
Choir Screen
A screen separating the choir from other parts of the church.
Iconostasis
In Orthodox churches, the screen that divides off the sanctuary, usually decorated with sacred images (icons). (Source: Pevsner Glossary)
Screen
A vertical partition used to separate one area from another.
Annex
A structure, or building, forming a supplementary and subsidiary part of a main complex.
Balcony
A platform projecting from the surface of a wall of a building carried on brackets, consoles or columns, usually placed before windows or openings, and protected by a railing or balustrade. It can also be a gallery in an auditorium.
Bastion
An outward projection from a defensive wall allowing the defenders to attack the flanks of any force attacking the wall.
Conservatory
An extension to a building usually made primarily of glass, for growing plants.
Counterscarp Bank
A low bank on the edge of a defensive ditch on the side away from the main rampart.
Cupola
A small dome on top of a larger dome, roof etc.
Earth Closet
A wooden commode containing earth, which was used to cover and absorb human waste. An alternative, and rival, to the water closet.
Garderobe (Toilet)
A latrine built into, or projecting beyond, the wall of a medieval castle featuring a stone or wooden seat situated above a pit or the castle moat.
Hypocaust
An underfloor heating system.
Narthex (Classical)
A transverse vestibule at the west end of a church.
Pavilion
A section of a building distinguished from the rest either architecturally or as a separate structure joined to the main building, often intended for entertainment, specialised functions or ornamental purposes.
Rood Loft
A loft or gallery supported on a covered, vaulted structure and projecting over the rood screen proper, occassionally used by minstrels or singers.
Westwork
The west end of a church made up of a tower, entrance hall and upper room, usually with an altar.
Landing
The area or platform at the top of a staircase.
Dovecote
A shelter for doves or pigeons, often containing nesting boxes, either free-standing or built into other structures (barns, towers etc.). If a dedicated, free-standing structure, index with MONUMENT TYPE: DOVECOTE.
Caponier
An enclosed, defensible passageway, equipped with gun ports, extending into or traversing a dry ditch.
Easter Sepulchre
A recess, usually situated in the north wall of a chancel, often canopied, containing a decorated tomb chest representing the burial and resurrection of Christ.
Receiving Block
Series of rooms in a workhouse, prison or hospital, often including porter's lodge, baths, clothes store, washrooms, casual cells, rooms etc, for receiving inmates/patients. Use term in Monument Type Thesaurus if it is a freestanding building.
Childrens Block
Series of rooms in a workhouse complex where children were housed and looked after.
Aged Mens Ward
Series of rooms within a workhouse where elderly men were housed.
Administration Block
A part of a building or complex where administrative duties are undertaken.
Entrance Block
A building forming part of a complex or larger establishment, such as a workhouse, that serves as an entrance equipped with facilities associated with procedures undergone by new arrivals.
Hospital Block
An area of a building functioning as a hospital.
Service Block
An area of a building or complex specifically housing the kitchens, sculleries and services.
Building Component
A feature which forms part of a building and has a specific functional usage or decorative form.
Ambitus
The consecrated ground immediately surrounding a tomb or grave.
Atrium (Ecclesiastical)
A court in front of a church, usually open.
Paradise
An atrium or open court, surrounded by porticoes, at the west end of a church.
Parvis
A space usually in front of a church entrance but can include the space surrounding a church.
Paddling Pool
Man made shallow pool, usually made for children to play in rather than swim.
Boating Pool
Manmade feature to contain water for the purpose of floating miniature boats in it. Different to BOATING LAKE as lake can be naturally occuring park feature and can be used for full sized boats.
External Area Or Space
A space or area that is outside a building.
Ambulatory (Interior)
An aisle within a chancel providing access to, and around, the High Altar and surrounding cells.
Amorino
A representation of a winged boy who represents Cupid or Love.
Canephora
A sculpted female figure carrying a basket on her head.
Green Man
A sculpture, drawing, or other representation of a face surrounded by or made from leaves and branches or vines. Green Men are frequently found on carvings in both secular and church buildings, and are though to represent pagan fertility deities.
Mermaid
A female figure, half human and half sea creature, frequently found in carvings and wall paintings in both ecclesiastical and secular settings. Often depicted with a mirror or comb. Believed to represent variously the power and danger of the sea, of femininity, and of the natural world.
Merman
A male figure, half human and half sea creature, found in carvings in both secular and ecclesiastical settings. Believed to represent a connection with the sea or as a reference to classical mythology.
Human Figure
A sculptural or decorative representation of a human figure. Includes mythical and fantastical figures such as Cupid, Atlas etc.
Anchor And Collar Hinge
A simple type of hinge used for large gates.
Hinge
A movable joint, usually consisting of two plates joined by a pin, that fastens a door, gate, window etc. to its frame and allows it to open and shut.
Anchor Beam
A beam the end of which is fixed beyond the upright it passes through.
Applied Beam
A beam that has been applied to a wall face.
Axial Beam
A ceiling beam aligned with the length of a building.
Dais Beam
A decorated beam, above the dais or high table, attached to the partition at the upper end of a hall.
Dragon Beam
A horizontal member cutting through the corner formed by two walls to act as a support to a hip rafter to support jetties on two adjacent sides of an upper floor.
False Hammer Beam
A transverse timber resembling a hammer beam but without a hammer post above, being braced to a principal or collar instead.
Flitched Beam
A composite beam of timber strengthened by an iron plate, or plates, used in the construction of 18th and 19th century timber framed mills and warehouses.
Girding Beam
A beam that is part of a frame in a wall.
Half Beam
A beam which is half the width of a main beam, usually supporting joists.
Hammer Beam
A short beam that projects into a roof space from the foot of a principal rafter to receive a hammer post and, often, an arched brace.
Strainer Beam
A transverse timber in aisled construction, joining aisle posts below tiebeam level, to allow rearing of pairs of posts.
Transverse Beam
A beam that runs the width of a building.
Rood Beam
A beam often situated above, and spanning the width of, the west end of a chancel and supporting a cross or crucifix.
Beam
A main load-bearing horizontal member.
Angle Bracket
A bracket that is shaped to form an angle.
Console
An S-shaped ornamental bracket with a greater height than projection.
Bracket
A small support designed to help support a weight, such as that of a projecting member.
Angle Chimney
A chimney placed at an angle with the walls so that there is an obtuse angle with each wall.
Chimney Breast
A stone or brick structure that projects into, or out of, a room and contains the flue.
Chimney Cowl
A covering of metal, stone or pottery set on a chimney breast above a fire to prevent smoke entering the room and instead directing it up the chimney.
Chimney Pot
A cylindrical, polygonal, or square element of brick, metal or terracotta fixed on top of a chimney stack to extend the flue and improve the extraction of smoke.
Chimney Shaft
A very high chimney, though more often a chimney stack containing only one flue.
Chimney Stack
A masonry or brickwork structure projecting above a roof and containing several flues.
Chimney
The flue or channel that funnels smoke from a fire.
Angle Modillion
A diagonally set modillion placed at a cornice's external corner.
Modillion
A small moulded bracket found on the Corinthian and Composite orders, and in plain form in the Ionic.
Angle Rafter
A principal rafter below a hip rafter that supports the ends of purlins under a hip.
Principal Rafter
A structural member that supports a purlin and is also a common rafter.
Angle Rib
A rib placed at an angle to support timbers.
Transverse Rib
A rib which spans a vault passing from springer to springer at right angles to the axis of the vault.
Tierceron
A secondary rib usually springing from the junction of two other ribs, or one that rises between a main diagonal and transverse rib, from the springing to the ridge rib.
Rib
A moulding on a flat or vaulted ceiling, suggesting a structure or forming a pattern derived from vaulting..
Angle Tower
A projection from the inner angle of a building around a court or with advancing wings, usually containing a staircase and often crowned above the roof line with an ogee dome.
Clock Tower
A tall structure, high in proportion to its lateral dimensions, often rising in stages, free standing or part of another building, surmounted by a clock.
Stair Tower
A tower, normally forming part of a larger structure, housing a staircase.
Forebuilding
A subsidiary tower or projection attached to the front of a keep containing access to its first floor entrance.
Tower
A tall structure of any form, high in proportion to its lateral dimensions, often rising in stages, freestanding or part of another building, often used in fortifications and churches.
Angular Niche
A niche in the corner of a structure.
Carrel (Niche)
An enclosure or niche in a library or cloister used for study.
Mihrab
A semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque used to indicate the Qiblah - the direction to be faced during prayers. Qiblah is set as the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca.
Niche
A shallow, ornamental recess, often arched and semicircular in plan, set in a wall or pier and usually containing a statue or ornament.
Annular Moulding
A circular moulding.
Bagnette
A small semicircular moulding.
Bed Moulding
A moulding on an entablature that is between the frieze and the corona.
Bolection Moulding
A moulding which projects beyond the face of a panel or frame, usually found in panelling or in doors.
Bracket Moulding
A decorative moulding cosisting of two ogee-forms with joined faces.
Cable Moulding
A decorative moulding shaped to resemble a length of cable or twisted rope.
Casement
A hollow moulding, often enriched, similar to a scotia or cavetto, used in Gothic jambs and cornices.
Cats Head Moulding
A decorative moulding depicting an animal or bird head, similar to a beak head moulding but with a shorter, cone-like tongue or beak overlapping the moulding set beneath it.
Cavetto
A concave moulding where the profile is a quarter of a circle.
Chain Moulding
A decorative moulding in the form of a chain.
Cove
A large concave moulding.
Cyma Reversa
A decorative S-shaped moulding, usually placed at the top of a cornice, with a concave lower half and a convex upper half.
Dogtooth Moulding
A decorative moulding featuring a repeating star-like motif carved in relief.
Echinus Moulding
An ovolo moulding below the abacus of a Doric or Ionic Capital.
Edge Roll Moulding
A rounded or convex moulding, such as an ovolo or torus.
Embattled Moulding
A decorative moulding featuring a geometric pattern suggesting the crenelles and merlons of a battlement.
Fillet
A plain, narrow moulding or area, sometimes projecting, separating two decorated mouldings or features such as the vertical grooves on a fluted column.
Keel Moulding
A curved moulding with a sharp edge running along its centre. So named as its profile resembles the keel of a ship.
Lozenge
A decorative moulding in a diamond shape.
Nailhead Moulding
A decorative feature in the form of small pyramids in a continuous line.
Nutmeg Moulding
A decorative moulding featuring a series of small, projecting, dome-like shapes each resembling a halved nutmeg.
Ovolo
A Classical convex moulding, often decorated with egg-and-dart or similar motifs.
Roll Moulding
A plain moulding of semi-circular section.
Scalloped Moulding
An ornamental moulding whose curved, segmented form resembles that of a scallop shell.
Scotia
A deeply concaved moulding, with a projecting lower edge, that sits at the base of a column between two torus mouldings.
String Course
A horizontal, moulded band, usually projecting, running across a wall, often indicating the position of a building's interior floor.
Tenia
A small moulding on the top of the architrave in the Doric order.
Torus
A large, convex moulding, sometimes ornamented, set at the base of a column and above its plinth.
Archivolt
A series of concentric mouldings decorating the curved face of an arch.
Gadroon
A convex, finger-like moulding, usually applied in a series to form a pattern of ridges.
Label Stop
A termination, either in the form of a decorative feature or a right-angle applied to the end of the moulding, of a label, dripstone or string course.
Bead
A small convex moulding, often decorated with beads and reels.
Moulding
An ornamental contour given to the angles or features of a building, whether a projection or a cavity, such as a cornice, an architrave or an astragal.
Annular Vault
A term used to describe a vaulted roof where the vault goes from either the newel of a staircase to a wall or from one wall to another where the walls are circular in plan.
Cross Vault
A vault created by the intersection of two other vaults set at right angles to each other and of equal size.
Vault
A room or space with an arched ceiling or roof, the depth of which exceeds its span.
Anta
A pilaster terminating the side walls of a temple whose capital and base differ from those of its associated columns. Such an arrangement, where the columns do not project beyond the faces of the antae, is said to be 'in antis'.
Lesene
A pilaster without base or capital.
Pilaster Strip
A form of pilaster without base or capital.
Pilastrade
The equivalent of a colonnade but using pilasters.
Pilaster
A flattened rectangular version of a column of one of the classical orders.
Antecourt
The first court which is before the principal court.
Base Court
A small outer courtyard, or service-yard.
Forecourt
An enclosed area in front of a structure.
Cloister Garth
A quadrangle or courtyard, often grassed or planted, surrounded by cloisters
Courtyard
An enclosed area, often surrounded by walls or buildings.
Anteportico
A porch in front of the solid wall of a cloister.
Apotheca
A storeroom for valuable goods, such as wine, oil and spices.
Armoury
A room where weapons and armour are stored.
Gun Room
A room for storing guns.
Harness Room
A room where fittings such as saddles and harnesses for horses are usually kept.
Tack Room
A room for storing and maintaining the equipment used in riding, eg saddles, bridles, reins etc.
Lumber Room
A room in which disused items, such as furniture, are stored.
Clothing Store
A room within a building or complex used for storing clothing.
Storeroom
A room set aside for the storage of goods or valuables. Use more specific term where known.
Applied Order
A classical order in which the columns or pilasters are applied to a wall.
Order
A style of construction following an established set of criteria, based around the conventional use of a type of column.
Apsidiole
A small apse.
Counter Apse
The apse at the west end of the nave in a double-ended church.
Apse
A polygonal or semicircular recess projecting from an external wall, often with a rounded vault.
Apse Chapel
A chapel that radiates from an apsidal end of a cathedral or church.
Lady Chapel
A chapel dedicated to the Virgin, usually east of the chancel.
Radiating Chapel
One of a series of chapels which project symmetrically from an apse or ambulatory at the east end of a church.
Chapel
A building, room or area, often within or attached to a church or other building, serving as a place of worship. Where a monument, use the Thesaurus of Monument Types.
Aqua Thruster Pump
A type of water pump used in the Wigan coalfields in the late 18th and 19th centuries.
Water Pump
A pump used to move water.
Interlacing Arcade
Romanesque overlapping arcades, producing a series of pointed arches.
Arcade
A series of arches.
Arcade Plate
A timber running above vertical posts, in the place of a wall-plate, within a timber-framed building.
Collar Plate
A horizontal timber that joins the collars of a series of roof trusses.
Crown Plate
A plate in a crown post roof, supported on crown posts and bearing the collars.
Sill Plate
A horizontal timber usually at the bottom of a timber framed wall into which posts and studs are tenoned.
Sole Plate
A short timber set across the top of a wall to take the foot of a rafter and an ashlar piece.
Plate
A general term given to all horizontal timbers laid on walls or posts in order to support other timbers.
Arch Band
The part of a rib or arch visible below the general surface of the vault.
Chancel Arch
An arch at the liturgical east of the nave, carrying a gabled wall above, separating nave from chancel.
Elliptical Arch
An arch which is half an ellipse.
Equilateral Arch
An arch whose height is equal to its span.
Extrados
The outer curve of an arch or vault.
False Arch
An arch built by corbelling or cantilevering in from both sides with horizontal joints.
Four Centred Arch
A pointed arch which, on a plan, is shown to be constructed around four arcs: two centred below and two centred upon the springing line, which is the level at which the vertical sides of the arch begin to curve.
Horseshoe Arch
An arch, either pointed or round, which broadens above the springing line, creating a horseshoe shape.
Intrados
The lower, or inner, curve of an arch
Proscenium Arch
An arch associated with the portion of the stage between the curtain and the orchestra.
Segmental Arch
An arch made up of part of a circle, the centre of which is below its springing line.
Shouldered Arch
A flat arch or lintel with quadrants on the corbels rising from the jambs.
Squinch
One or more arches built across an angle between two walls to support a polygonal or circular structure.
Stilted Arch
An arch where vertical piers raise the springing line.
Strainer Arch
An arch whose purpose is to arrest or prevent structural movement in a building.
Three Centred Arch
A depressed arch formed around three arcs: two struck from the springing line with one centrally placed arc struck from below it.
Two Centred Arch
An arch formed around two arcs whose radii are each equal to the span of the arch.
Skew Arch
An arch with jambs that do not stand at an angle of ninety degrees to its face.
Flat Arch
An arch which is formed by keystones but is flat like a lintel
Splayed Arch
An arch which has a larger radius on the front face of a wall than on the back.
Arch
A curved construction, spanning an opening, formed from wedge-shaped blocks supported by mutual pressure; they can also be formed from moulded concrete and cast metal.
Arch Brick
A wedge shaped brick used to construct arches.
Arch Buttress
A buttress shaped like an arch and springing from a pier in arched form to the wall.
Entablature
In the Classical Orders, the horizontal assembly of architrave, frieze and cornice carried upon columns and pilasters.
Armilla
A metal binding or ring fastened around the top of a pile to stop splitting.
Key
A piece of wood of square or rectangular section driven through a scarf joint to tighten it
Pivot
A piece of stone or timber with a small cup shaped depression in its upper surface, set into the ground to fasten a door, gate, window etc to allow it to open and shut.
Fastening
An item used to fasten, bind or join one item to another.
Arris Gutter
A V-shaped gutter.
Gutter
A trough or watercourse constructed to collect rainwater from a roof and channel it towards a drain or pipe.
Ashlaring
Short vertical timbers which go from the rafters to the inner plate on a thick wall.
Asiatic Base
An Ionic base with a lower disc with horizontal fluting or reeding, above which is a torus, also reeded.
Ionic Order
A classical order with an Attic base and fluted column. The cornice has dentils and the capital volutes.
Base
The lowest part of a structure, such as a pier, or the section of an order on which the shaft of a column sits.
Chapter House
A building, sometimes polygonal in plan, attached to a cathedral, church, abbey etc. and used for the assembly of chapter or brethren, often to address official business.
Assembly Room
A large room for large numbers of people, eg for balls, meetings etc.
Committee Room
A room where a committee meets to discuss matters put before them.
Common Room
A room in general use for persons to meet, often found at institutions such as colleges.
Council Chamber
A assembly room or rooms in which a collection of nominated persons meet to transact business of relevant purpose.
Courtroom
The place, hall or chamber in which justice is administered.
Day Room
A communal living room.
Debating Room
A chamber where discussions of issues take place, often found at universities.
Justice Room
A room in the house of a Justice of the Peace in which cases were heard. Houses after 1848 contained these for prestige purposes since the practice of hearing cases at home was made illegal at that date.
Lounge (Communal)
A room where the public can sit, often in hotels and airports.
Meeting Room
A room intended, and often furnished accordingly, as a venue for the holding of meetings.
Astragal
A moulding which is small, convex and circular.
Astylar
Describes a Classical interior, exterior or facade without pilasters or columns.
Facade
The external face or elevation of a building, especially the principal front.
Basement
The bottom storey of a building, often below or partially below ground level.
Mezzanine
A storey of lesser height than those above and below it.
Storey
One of a building's horizontal divisions, being the space between two floors, or a floor and the roof structure.
Attic Base
A column base featuring a hollow, concave - or scotia - moulding between two tori, which are projecting, convex mouldings.
Corinthian Order
A classical order having a bell shaped capital that is decorated with laurel, olive or acanthus leaves from which CAULICOLI emerge. The shaft is usually fluted and the base is often an Attic base.
Lecture Theatre
A large room with fixed seating, often including audio-visual facilites, in which lectures are given.
Auditorium
A room or hall designed for an audience to listen and view, as in a theatre, concert hall, lecture hall etc..
Auxiliary Rafter
In a truss, a rafter used to stiffen the principal rafter by doubling it.
Common Rafter
A rafter of uniform size placed at regular intervals along the length of a roof.
Hip Rafter
A rafter set at the corner of a hipped roof, to take the upper end of a common rafter.
Jack Rafter
A shortened common rafter that runs between ridge and a valley rafter, or between eaves and a hip rafter.
Verge Rafter
A rafter set outside a gable to carry the roof beyond the wall face.
Valley Rafter
A rafter set diagonally where two sloping rooves meet.
Rafter
An inclined member used to support laths under a roof covering. Normally one of a pair.
Baffle Entry Plan
A plan featuring a doorless entry to a lobby in front of an axial chimney-stack.
Basilica Plan
A plan type, usually for a church, having a rectangular core with one apsidal end wall.
Central Fireplace Plan
A plan in which a chimney containing back-to-back fireplaces heats two rooms simultaneously by being placed within the dividing wall.
Central Staircase Plan
A plan in which the staircase is placed at the centre of the building.
Circular Plan
The plan on which a circular building is constructed.
Cruciform Plan
A building plan in the shape of a cross.
Direct Entry Plan
A plan in which entry is directly into a room without being situated opposite a fireplace.
Double Depth Plan
A plan in which the building is two rooms deep but has no central corridor.
Double Pile Plan
An English seventeenth century house plan consisting of a rectangular block two rooms deep, the rooms sometimes separated by a passage.
E Shape Plan
A plan type of a hall with two wings and a central porch.
End Hall Plan
A medieval plan with the hall situated at one end of the main range.
End Lobby Entry Plan
A plan featuring a lobby entry, situated at one end of a side wall, which provides access to one room only.
Gable Entry Plan
A plan of a building where the entrance is in the gable wall.
H Shape Plan
A building plan that features a hall lying between, and at right-angles to, two projecting wings.
Hall And Cross Wing Plan
A common plan form of large medieval and sub medieval houses, with a hall range flanked by two wings; also found with only one wing.
Hexagonal Plan
A building or structure with a six-sided plan.
L Shape Plan
A house plan with a hall and a single wing.
Lobby Entry Plan
A plan in which the front entrance opens into a lobby opposite to an axial chimney stack.
Octagonal Plan
A plan of a structure which has eight sides.
Open Plan
A building plan where space is unconstrained by partitions.
Panopticon Plan
A circular plan with a series of cells around a central core, often used for prisons.
Pavilion Plan
A plan form in which pavilions lead off from a spiral corridor.
Quatrefoil Plan
A plan with four foils radiating out from a central point.
Rectangular Plan
A plan in which a four-sided figure has all its angles at right angles and its opposite sides equal and parallel.
Sexfoil Plan
A decorative pattern, as used in tracery or a Gothic arch, featuring six lobes, or foils, separated by cusps.
Side Wall Fireplace Plan
A building plan in which the principal fireplace is positioned on the side wall.
Single Cell Plan
A simple, one-roomed structural plan.
Symmetrical Plan
A building plan in which the rooms are symmetrically placed.
T Shape Plan
A building or structural plan shaped like a T.
Three Room Plan
A building plan consisting of three rooms placed in a straight row.
Through Passage Plan
A building plan in which a passage crosses the axis of the building, often at one end of a hall, with an external door at each end.
Trefoil Plan
A plan featuring three foils or lobes radiating outwards from a central point.
U Shape Plan
A building or structural plan with a U shape.
Structural Plan
A plan form of a structure or building.
Back Purlin
A purlin that is joined to the back of a principal rafter.
Clasped Purlin
A purlin that rests against the lower surface of a principal rafter and is supported by a queen post, collar or raking strut.
Threaded Purlin
A purlin that is threaded through a hole in the principal rafter.
Trenched Purlin
A purlin that sits in a trench cut in the back of a principal rafter.
Through Purlin
A purlin that passes a principal rafter
Backwashing Machine
A machine used in the worsted industry for cleaning woollen slivers after gilling and cording.
Ball Winding Machine
A hand operated machine for winding cotton and linen thread into balls - invented in 1802.
Boiler
A steam generator comprising a pressure vessel, and/or rows of tubes arranged to receive heat from a firegrate.
Cider Press
A machine that presses apples to extract juice for the production of cider.
Crushing Circle
A horse-powered apparatus, for the crushing of commodities such as ore or cider apples, consisting of a stone wheel running over a circular iron or stone bed.
Dashwheel
An early washing machine used in bleaching works for washing calico and other textiles.
Fairbairns Lever
A mechanical testing machine used to carry out pioneering tests on various materials, particularly cast-iron beams, to determine practical data on their strength and other properties.
Flying Shuttle
A device patented in 1733 for speeding up the weaving of cloth.
Fourdrinier Machine
A machine for making paper in a continuous length.
Horse Engine
A device or engine powered by one or more horses or donkeys walking around a circular track and harnessed so as to turn a large toothed wheel, either in the same plane or above, which turned smaller wheels operating machinery.
Hydraulic Jigger
A hydraulic machine used to magnify the stroke of a hydraulic piston. The pulleys and chains of a crane or other device are attached to the jigger.
Hydraulic Press
A machine that uses liquid pressure to exert a large force on two platens so that items placed between them are pressed to a shape, compressed, or forced together.
Hydraulic Ram
A device in which a large quantity of low pressure water is made to pump a small proportion of itself to a greater height than its source or to a higher pressure; achieved by using the pressure rise resulting from suddenly interrupting the flow
Incinerator
A machine used to burn and desiccate rubbish.
Iron Ore Calciner
A kiln in which Iron ores were heated before smelting in order to drive off the impurities such as sulphur.
Jack Frame
A machine for the final reduction in cross sectional area of a cotton sliver into a fine roving preparatory to spinning high counts of yarn.
Jockey Pulley
A pulley running on the outside of a belt to improve the effectiveness of a drive.
Machine
A single piece of apparatus that uses mechanical power for a particular function.
Man Engine
A device for raising miners individually from a shaft consisting of two rods, raised and lowered alternately, fitted with small platforms and powered by a waterwheel or steam engine.
Masticator
A powerful machine comprising a pair of heated cylinders revolving inside a chamber, and used for converting raw rubber into a soft plastic mass by being 'chewed' between knives or teeth projecting from the cylinders.
Mechanical Stoker
Machines for automatically feeding fuel onto the fire of steam boilers and other furnace plant, introduced at the beginning of the 19th century.
Milling Machine
A machine tool capable of creating a variety of forms and surfaces in materials by way of a spinning cutter positioned over a movable table.
Planing Machine
A machine tool for producing large flat surfaces on metal objects. It comprises a large work table which slides backwards and forwards along a substantial guide bed, passing under a stationary bridge containing a fixed tool.
Railway Lift
An elevator used to raise locomotives.
Railway Signal
A signal usually mounted on a gantry, be it mechanical or electronic, to provide guidance to traindrivers on access to sections of track.
Railway Turntable
A rotating circular platform operated by machinery to turn a steam locomotive around.
River Intake Gauge
A gauge for measuring the volume of water flowing from a river to machinery using the water for motive power??
Satellite Dish
A device for receiving and sending radio-transmitted signals into the atmosphere.
Scoop Wheel
A wheel, usually steam driven, used for raising water by means of buckets attached to its circumference.
Scutching Machine
A machine for cleansing flax, hemp or cotton and forming the fibres into a continuous wide lap or sheet in preparation for carding.
Shaping Machine
A machine tool for producing flat surfaces and slots on small work pieces by cutting away surplus material.
Slasher
A machine for applying protective size to yarn intended for warp
Slotting Machine
A machine tool similar in general appearance to a shaping machine but in which the head or ram carrying the cutting tool moves in a vertical plane.
Slubbing Frame
A machine for further attenuating a sliver of cotton after it has been through a draw frame.
Smutter
A cleansing or separating machine used in a corn mill for removing smut from grain before it is ground.
Speedframe
A general name given to a series of machines which successively reduce the diameter of rovings before the final spinning into yarn.
Stamps
A series of water or engine-driven crushing machines used in ore dressing.
Steam Whim
A steam-powered machine used for raising materials such as ore or water from a pit or shaft.
Threshing Machine
A machine for beating out or separating grain from corn.
Throwing Machine
A machine used in the silk industry for applying the final twist to silk threads to make them suitable for weaving into a fabric.
Tilt Hammer
An early form of powered forging hammer, featuring a cast-iron hammer head fixed to a pivoted wooden arm, introduced circa 1500 and used primarily in the iron industry.
Water Balance Engine
A device for hoisting, or operating pumps, using water displacement as a lifting and balancing medium.
Wind Engine
A simple, wind-driven water pump, also known as a windpump.
Winding Engine
An engine used for directly winding up coal from deep mines, dating from the 18th century.
Governor
A device which automatically controls a particular funtion within a machine or mechanism, such as regulating the gap between millstones in a windmill.
Cooling Tower
A large structure, usually associated with power stations, in which hot water undergoes a process of cooling before being re-used .
Brine Tank
A tank within a salt works used for storing brine after is has been pumped from underground. The brine is then fed by gravity into the evaporating pans in the Pan House.
Angle Bob
A mechanical component or device that can change the direction of motion of a pump rod from the vertical to the horizontal plane and vice versa.
Balance Bob
A counter balance designed to support the excess weight of a mineshaft's wooden beams.
Cheese Press
A device used in the production of hard cheeses that exerts pressure upon fresh curds in order to remove and drain away excess whey.
Water Purification Unit
A machine used for the purification of water, usually for drinking purposes.
Water Filtration Unit
A plant used to sterilize water for use in public bathing establishments, not to be confused with desaliation or purification units for drinking water.
Ball Mill
A cylindrical device using ceramic or metallic balls to grind materials like ores, chemicals, ceramic raw materials and paints
Chute
A vertical or inclined plane, channel, or passage through which objects are moved from a higher to a lower level by means of gravity.
Machinery
Apparatus using mechanical power for a particular function.
Inner Bailey
An inner defensive area within a castle.
Outer Bailey
A large defensive area that usually has to be crossed before entering the inner bailey of a castle.
Bailey
Defences or an external wall surrounding a castle's motte or keep. Also a castle's outer court, or a court within a castle's walls.
Bakery
A room for baking.
Bread Room
A room for the storage of bread, biscuits, flour etc. Often part of a buttery in medieval times.
Buttery
A room for the storage of food and drink.
Camba
A place in which brewing and sometimes baking took place.
Food Preparation Room
A room in which food is prepared.
Ball Finial
A decorative ball usually used to ornament a bench end, canopy, gable, pinnacle or spire.
Finial
The shaped projection on the top of a newel post or at the apex of a gable.
Turned Baluster
A baluster, circular in plan, turned and cut on a lathe.
Twist Baluster
A spirally turned baluster.
Baluster
An upright member supporting a coping or handrail in a balustrade or staircase.
Balustrade
The structure consisting of a series of balusters supporting a rail or coping, and sometimes a base and pedestal, on a parapet, balcony or staircase.
Fret Band
Decorative ornamentation of a key pattern
Guilloche
A decorative ornamentation of interlaced bands in the form of a plait.
Band (Moulding)
A continuous series of ornaments within a horizontal moulding.
Bare Faced Dovetail Joint
A joint in which a dovetailed timber's surface is proud of the receiving member on one side.
Bare Faced Tenon Joint
A joint in which the tenon retains one or more of the original sides of the timber.
Birdmouthed Joint
A joint in which the end of one timber is cut in V- form and rests on the edge of another timber, frequently found between common rafters and wall plates.
Bridled Joint
A joint consisting of a projecting tongue fitting into an open housing in a scarf joint or the apex of a rafter.
Face Halved Joint
A joint in which the side, or face, of a timber has been squarely cut away to fit into a corresponding cut-away in the side of another member.
Halved Joint
A joint in which both timbers are reduced in thickness.
Halved Lap Joint
A joint in which one timber is reduced in thickness.
Joist Joint
A joint used to secure the end of a joist
Lap Joint
A joint in which one timber is applied to the surface of the other.
Masons Mitre
The non-diagonal joint at the right-angled meeting of two stone mouldings.
Mortice And Tenon Joint
The most common form of joint between two timbers meeting at right angles or at an oblique angle, the mortice being a socket cut in one timber to receive the tenon projection of the other.
Scarf Joint
A joint between two timbers meeting end to end.
Scribed Joint
A joint in which the end of one timber is shaped to fit around the moulding on another.
Scribed Mitre
The junction of two timbers at right angles, with chamfers or mouldings meeting on a diagonal line, where one timber is cut to fit around the chamfer or moulding of the other timber.
Secret Bridle Joint
A bridle joint which is invisible from all sides of the timber.
Slip Tenon Joint
A joint with a loose tenon morticed into two touching pieces of timber
Splayed And Tabled Scarf Joint
A joint which has a splay interrupted by a step
Splayed Scarf Joint
A joint with each timber ending in a cut slanted across its length.
Stop Splayed Scarf Joint
A joint which has a splay with a short perpendicular section at each end.
Through Tenon Joint
A joint in which the tenon passes completely through the receiving timber.
True Mitre
The junction of two timbers at right angles which involves chamfers or mouldings meeting on a diagonal line and where the timbers meet on the 45 degree line of the chamfer or moulding junction.
Jowl
The end of a timber post made wider than the rest of its length on one face to accomodate tiebeams, wall-plates etc..
Joint
A junction whereby two members or elements of an artificial structure or mechanism are joined or fitted together, whether rigidly or hinged.
Barring Engine
A small auxiliary engine to help start up a large steam engine - invented 1866.
Blowing Engine
A steam engine driving a reciprocating air pump to provide air for a blast furnace.
Fixed Engine
A stationary winding steam engine positioned at the top of a railway incline for hauling up trains and locomotives.
Hot Air Engine
An engine which uses air or the products of combustion as its working medium.
Scotch Crank Engine
A compact design of engine in which a connecting rod is dispensed with, giving a short baseplate.
Engine
A piece of machinery used to convert energy of one sort (for instance steam) into motive energy.
Belvedere
A turret on the side of a house providing views across the surrounding countryside.
Stair Turret
A small or subordinate tower, normally forming part of a larger structure, housing a spiral or winding stair.
Turret
A small tower, usually round or polygonal and attached to a structure. When a separate building, treat as a monument.
Bathroom
A room intended to contain a bath and often other toilet facilities.
Lavatory
A room with apparatus for washing the hands and face, now often combined with a water closet.
Toilet
A room containing a toilet, water closet etc..
Washing Room
A room intended for, and usually equipped to aid, the performance of ablutions.
Battened Door
A door with a planked outer face and spaced horizontal members such as battens or ledges on the inner face.
Heck Door
A door divided horizontally into two parts, independently hinged.
Panelled Door
A door adorned with panels, usually arranged in pairs.
Planked Door
A door made up of vertical planks on the outer face and horizontal planks on the inner face.
Studded Door
A planked or battened door, with large nails or pegs with projecting heads keeping it intact.
Wicket
A small hinged opening within a large door.
Jib Door
An internal door flush with, and decorated to match, the wall it is set in for the purpose of concealment.
Trapdoor
A horizontal door within, and usually flush with surface of, a floor, ceiling or roof.
Priests Door
A priest's private entrance into a church, usually found on the south side of the chancel.
Door
The entrance to a building, apartment or any enclosure consisting of a movable barrier, usually lockable, of wood or other materials.
Parapet
A barrier, usually in the form of a small wall, set to prevent people falling over the side of a bridge, balcony, roof etc.
Half Bay
A short bay, usually in a hall, commonly as a smoke bay or for a cross-entry.
Bay
A regular structural subdivision or compartment within a building, defined by dividing walls or the positions of the principal supporting members.
Corps De Logis
The main body of a structure not including wings etc.
Piano Nobile
The principal storey of a building, containing the main reception rooms, when not situated on ground level.
Plan Component
The element or elements that make up the different parts of a structural plan.
Oriel Window
A bay window, supported by corbelling, cills or brackets, projecting from an upper storey of a building.
Bay Window
A window that forms a projection from the body of a building, extending down to ground level, forming a bay in the wall's interior.
Bow Window
A window set within a curved projection from the face of a wall.
Cross Window
A window with a single mullion and a single transom.
Dormer Window
A projecting vertical window in the sloping roof of a house.
Fire Window
A small window placed to cast light upon a fireplace.
Laced Window
One of a set of windows placed vertically and linked either decoratively or by aprons extending to the lintel below.
Lancet Window
A tall, narrow window with a pointed arched head.
Lowside Window
A window that is lower than others in the chancel side wall.
Lucarne
A window in a spire, often in the form of a dormer.
Oculus
A circular or oval window or panel. Also the circular opening at the top of a dome.
Pierced Window
A window cut through a single slab of timber or stone.
Quatrefoil Window
A window either in the shape of a four leaf clover or circular with four foils enclosed.
Rose Window
A circular window containing tracery.
Traceried Head Window
A window which has its head beam decorated with elements of tracery.
Trefoil Window
A window in the form of a three-leafed clover.
Wheel Window
A circular window with tracery or shafts radiating from the centre.
Fanlight
A semi-circular window, often decorated and with its glazing bars radiating like the ribs of an opened fan, set above a door.
Window
An opening in a wall, roof, door, etc to allow light to enter. Usually used to include all component parts.
Boudoir
A small, finely-furnished room, traditionally where a lady could retire to be alone or entertain intimate friends.
Retirement Room
A room used for sleeping or resting in. Use more specific term.
Bowstring Roof
A roof constructed of horizontal tiebeams and curved trusses.
Billet Frieze
A series of billet mouldings forming a decorative band of small, regularly placed squared or rounded blocks.
Billet Moulding
An ornamental moulding consisting of a series of small, regularly placed squared or rounded blocks.
Blind Colonnade
A series of columns in a straight line supporting an entablature with no openings or glazing.
Colonnade A Jour
A colonnade where it is exposed to the air on two sides.
Peristyle
A colonnade all around the exterior of a building or an interior space such as a courtyard.
Colonnade
A row of columns that carry arches or an entablature.
Block Cornice
An Italian cornice consisting of a bed moulding, a row of plain block corbels or modillions, and a corona or cornice.
Corona
A vertical faced projection in the cornice.
Cymatium
The top of a cornice in an entablature.
Mutule
A small slab in a Doric cornice.
Raking Cornice
A cornice along the sloping edge of a pediment or gable.
Cornice
The upper part of the classical entablature. Also a moulded projection crowning a door, wall, window etc.
Private Room
A room for personal rather than public use.
Common Rafter Roof
A roof consisting entirely of common rafters, without the use of principals, in pairs but not connected by collar-beams.
Coupled Roof
A roof in which pairs of rafters are fixed to the ridge piece and the wall plates without any collars or tiebeams.
Gabled Roof
The commonest type of roof with sloping sides meeting at a ridge and with a gable at each end.
Half Hipped Roof
A roof whose ends are partly gabled and partly sloped.
Hipped Roof
A ridged roof that slopes on all four sides.
Principal Rafter Roof
A roof made up of common and principal rafters.
Ridge Piece
The horizontal timber running the length of a roof and positioned at its apex.
Thatched Roof
A roof featuring a covering of straw, reeds, rushes etc. used extensively during the medieval period but also popular in rural or rustic architecture.
Hammerbeam Roof
A roof consisting of trusses that have a pair of brackets supporting the hammer posts that in turn support the rafters.
Flat Roof
A roof with a slope of less than ten degrees to the horizontal.
Roof
The exterior upper covering, and its supporting structure, of a building.
Breastshot Wheel
A waterwheel in which the incoming water is directed onto the periphery at approximately the same level as the axle, the water being kept in contact with the floats, or buckets, by breastwork of masonry, timber or iron.
Overshot Wheel
A waterwheel turned by the weight of water discharged into buckets placed around its circumference from an outlet positioned above it.
Pitchback Wheel
A waterwheel where the incoming supply of water is introduced at the top of the wheel and drops onto the paddles, or buckets, of the wheel which rotates in the reverse direction to that of the incoming flow.
Waterwheel
A wheel turned by water to generate mechanical power.
Broach Spire
An octagonal spire atop a square tower, the transition between structures effected by partially pyramidical masonry forms called broaches.
Fleche
A spire, or spirelet surmounting a roof, especially over the crossing of a French Gothic Cathedral.
Needle Spire
A steeply pitched spire whose base is significantly narrower than the tower on which it sits.
Spirelet
A small form of spire.
Spire
A tall, circular, polygonal or square structure rising from a roof, tower, turret etc., tapering to a slender point.
Bucranium
Decorative motif in the form of an ox skull.
Animal Figure
A sculptural or decorative representation of an animal. Includes mythical and fantastical animals such as dragons, centaurs etc.
Burial Pit
The pit in which human or animal remains are placed for interment,which may be either an inhumation or cremation.
Feature
An archaeological component which cuts, overlies or abuts other features such as ditches, pits and building foundations.
Unassigned
This is the top term for the class. This class includes terms with very broad definitions which could be assigned to three or more classes. See UNASSIGNED Class List for narrow terms.
Calvary
A representation of the crucifixion of Christ or related scenes as a sculpture, etc.
Sculpture
A figurative or abstract design in the round or in relief and can be of various materials. For freestanding sculptures see also Monument Types Thesaurus.
Canal Inclined Plane
A slope, usually with rails, by which a boat can be transferred from one level of waterway to another.
Railway Inclined Plane
A slope, usually with rails, along which a vehicle can be moved between two relatively flat stretches of railway.
Inclined Plane
A slope, usually with rails, along which a vehicle can be moved between two relatively flat stretches of railway, or by which a boat can be transferred from one level of waterway to another.
Caryatid
A female figure used instead of a column, usually supporting an entablature.
French Window
A casement window, carried down to floor level, and opening like two-leafed glazed doors to a garden, veranda or terrace.
Casement Window
A window where the sash is hung vertically and the window opens outwards or inwards.
Catslide Roof
A roof with one side longer than the other, continuing at the same pitch over an extension to a building. Commonly found in New England Colonial architecture.
Pent Roof
A lean-to or monopitched roof, or a projecting canopy over a door, window, or stair.
Camera (Ceiling)
A ceiling that is curved or vaulted, sometimes employed to give a space the appearance of a vault.
Ceiling
The surface of a room which conceals overhead structural members.
Cell
Term used to indicate the basic unit of accommodation in the plan of a building. It does not necessarily relate to the structural divisions within a building.
Lavatorium
A communal wash area, sometimes a dedicated outbuilding, or facility, such as a basin or trough, used by monks.
Pavilion Ward Block
A pavilion ward in a workhouse, used to accommodate inmates
Dance Floor
An open floor surface for dancing.
Areas And Spaces
Areas and spaces within a monument or site.
Chevet
The area that contains the ambulatory, apse and chapels. Usually found in larger churches, monasteries and cathedrals.
Clapboard
A horizontal, riven board, tapered in section, used for external cladding.
Slate Hanging
A wall cladding consisting of slates hung in overlapping rows.
Tile Hanging
A vertical cladding consisting of tiles hung in overlapping rows.
Cladding
A non-structural covering, such as tile, slate, wood etc., applied to an exterior wall.
Cloister
A covered ambulatory, usually arcaded, arranged around three or four sides of a quadrangle in a monastic or collegiate establishment.
Close Studding
In timber framed buildings this is the division of a wall into narrow panels by vertical studs.
Cruck Stud
A stud on the outside of a cruck blade and attached to it.
Herringbone Studding
Studding in which the studs are at an inclined angle to the posts.
Stud
A subsidiary member, usually vertical, in a framed wall or partition.
Hydraulic Tippler
An hydraulically powered machine that tips coal into railway wagons, usually situated at a pithead.
Coal Tippler
Loading machinery tipping coal into railway wagons, usually at a pithead.
Coaling Crane
A crane used for moving coal during the refuelling of coal-powered vessels or locomotives.
Derrick
A machine for hoisting or moving heavy weights, consisting of a spar or boom set up obliquely, with its head steadied by guys, and furnished with suitable tackle and purchases.
Floating Crane
A mobile crane which floats on water.
Quarry Hoist
A piece of machinery for lifting stone, or containers loaded with stone, from a quarry.
Steam Crane
A crane deriving its power from steam generated from solid fuels.
Crane
A machine used for lifting materials.
Coffering
A series of recessed, ornamental panels decorating a ceiling.
Wainscot
Wooden panelling, especially interior wall panelling that rises only to dado height.
Panelling
A series of panels, usually of wood, combined to line a room.
Cogged Joist
A joist that has its end resting in a recess in a transverse beam.
Cross Joisting
A method of floor construction in which sections of joists run at right-angles to one another.
Lodged Joist
A joist which rests on top of a beam.
Joist
Horizontal timbers laid parallel to each other on which flooring is laid and to which a ceiling is fixed.
Nook Shaft
A colonnette set in a corner or angle, such as the meeting of two walls or the place at which a doorframe meets the wall it is set in.
Colonnette
A small shaft or column.
Heilmann Comber
A machine for combing the fibres of cotton, worsted, flax etc to remove short fibres, clean out extraneous matter, and lay the fibres more or less parallel to each other.
Holden Comber
A wool combing machine for very fine wools.
Lister Comber
A machine for combing out wool, mohair and alpaca, removing short fibres and any extraneous matter, and laying the long fibres more or less parallel to each other.
Noble Comber
A machine for combing out wool, cleaning out extraneous matter and short fibres and laying the combed long fibres more or less parallel to each other as required for Worsted spinning.
Comber
A machine used for combing wool. Use more specific term where known.
Composite Arch
A lancet arch designed in the composite style.
Lancet Arch
A pointed, two-centred, arch whose height is much greater than its span.
Composite Order
An order composed of elements of the Ionic and Corinthian orders.
Composite Base
Bases of this order are often referred to as spira and have a double astragal in the middle.
Composite Capital
An ornate version of an eight-voluted Ionic capital known as an angular capital or Scamozzi under which are added two tiers of acanthus leaves.
Composite Column
A detached, sometimes monolithic vertical structural element usually circular, square or polygonal bearing an ornate eight-voluted Ionic Capital.
Composite Entablature
The horizontal assembly of architrave, frieze and cornice carried upon columns and pilasters in the Composite order; and so containing elements of the Ionic and Corinthian orders.
Secondary Rafter
The inner rafter of a compound rafter.
Compound Rafter
A doubled rafter, separated by cleats, spacers or distance pieces.
Extraction Engine
A compound steam engine with provision for bleeding off some steam after it has passed through the high pressure cylinder and before it enters the low pressure cylinder.
Manhattan Engine
A twin cylinder compound steam engine introduced in the 1870's which combined a horizontal and vertical configuration in the same machine.
Woolf Compound Steam Engine
A beam steam engine, reciprocating or rotative, powered by two steam cylinders side by side.
Compound Steam Engine
A steam engine that uses the same steam successively to drive pistons in high and then low pressure cylinders.
Corinthian Base
A slender and elegant base usually of Attic type with two tori, two scotiae and two astragals.
Corinthian Capital
A capital with two rows of eight acanthus leaves rising above an astragal;from between the leaves of the upper row rise eight stalks,each surmounted by a calyx from which emerge volutes carryingthe corners of the concave sided abacus and central ornaments
Corinthian Column
A vertical structure usually with an Attic base or spira with slender and elegant design, with a capital decorated with acanthus leaves and an entablature rich in carved ornament.
Corinthian Entablature
An entablature often of great magnificence with bead and reel between fasciae of the architrave, frieze ornamented with continuous sculpture and cornice, with ornate coffers and richly carved modillions.
Cross Transept
The transverse portion of a cruciform church, or the arms on either side of the crossing, often with chapels at the east sides and possibly with aisles as well.
Dwarf Transept
A transept in which the two wings that extend beyond the walls of the nave are lower than the nave and the crossing of the church.
Transept
A large division of a building which lies across, and at right angles to, its main axis, such as the arms either side of the crossing in a cruciform church.
Cross Wing
A wing joined to the main body of the building with the roof at right angles to the main roof.
Service Wing
A wing of a house used specifically for the storage of household materials and victuals.
Wing
A part of a building joined to the core of the structure and at an angle to it.
Crossing
The intersection and space between the nave, chancel and transepts in a cruciform church.
Crown Post
An upright timber standing on a tiebeam to support a collar or purlin. Once used as an alternative to king post, this term is now restricted to the shorter post ending at collar level.
Hammer Post
A vertical timber resting on a hammer beam and forming a triangle between it and a principal.
King Post
An upright post set on a tiebeam or collar and used to support a ridge piece.
Queen Post
One of a pair of posts, placed symmetrically on a tie beam, supporting a collar purlin or plate.
Wall Post
A post, usually carrying a tiebeam, which forms part of a wall in a timber framed building.
Post
A substantial vertical member, usually a component of a main framework.
Crown Steeple
A steeple in which the spire resembles a crown.
Steeple
A collective term embracing a church tower's entire structure, including its spire.
Diamond Mullion
A mullion of square section set diagonally.
King Mullion
A mullion which divides a window with four or more lights and is larger than the mullions either side of it, often sharing the dimensions of the frame?s members.
Mullion
A vertical member dividing a window into two or more lights.
Diminished Principal
A principal that has been reduced to the same thickness as a common rafter where the roof has clasped purlins.
Knee Principal
A principal that has a short, angled section, resembling a knee-joint, at one end.
Principal With Curved Feet
A principal with a curved lower end that continues down the wall for a short distance.
Principal
A structural member that supports a purlin. Use PRINCIPAL RAFTER where the principal is also a common rafter.
Disk Engine
A hydraulic engine patented in 1830 comprising a large specially shaped cast-iron outer casing enclosing a close-fitting but separate solid globe.
Hydraulic Engine
An engine, introduced in Germany 1748 for use in mines, worked by high pressure water.
Door Lintel
A lintel over a door.
Lintel
A horizontal member spanning an opening and providing support to the wall above the opening.
Door Post
A vertical upright on either side of a door.
Doorway
The space in which a door is placed, allowing passage through.
Doric Base
A base of the Roman Doric order with a torus, an astragal and a fillet.
Doric Order
A classical order with metopes and triglyphs in the frieze. Greek Doric has no base and a fluted column but Roman Doric does have a base and may or may not have a fluted column.
Doric Capital
A capital with an abacus, ovolo, neck and astragal.
Doric Column
A column that is equidistant, with intercolumniations, even at the corners, with two or more triglyphs over each intercolumniation.
Doric Entablature
An entablature with a plain architrave or principal beam over which are the frieze and cornice.
Lap Dovetail Joint
A joint in which the dovetailed member is proud of the receiving member and is not finished flush with it.
Dovetail Joint
A joint in which the end is shaped like a dovetail.
Draw Loom
A hand-operated loom on which figured cloth could be woven, also known as a drawing engine.
Lancashire Loom
A semi-automatic loom developed in Lancashire. Although it is self-acting, it has to be stopped to recharge empty shuttles.
Northrop Loom
An automatic power loom invented by James H Northrop in 1894.
Osset Loom
A narrow hand loom.
Power Loom
A power driven cloth-weaving machine.
Wiper Loom
An early power loom in which the shedding actions of the machine were controlled by tappets, or wipers, which received their motion from a rotating cam shaft positioned at one side of the loom.
Jacquard Loom
A loom developed by Joseph Jacquard in 1801 which used a series of punched cards to control the movement of the warp threads thereby allowing complex patterns to be created without the intervention of the weaver
Loom
A machine for weaving cloth. A traditional loom comprises a framework with a horizontal back roller, the warp beam or warp roller, around which closely spaced warp threads have been wound parallel to each other, stretched horizontally onto a front roller.
Drop Arch
A pointed, two centred, arch whose span is greater than its height.
Pointed Arch
An arch produced by two curves, usually each with a radius equal to the span, which meet at a point.
Dropped Tiebeam
A transverse ceiling beam set below wall-plate level in order to increase head room within the roof space; it carries knee principals, or the struts or braces of an interrupted tiebeam truss.
Interrupted Tiebeam
A tiebeam whose central section is omitted to increase head room; its inner ends are held by a slip-braces or struts rising from a dropped tiebeam and can be used in end frames.
Stub Tiebeam
A block in the position of a tiebeam.
Tiebeam
A major horizontal timber spanning a roof space to connect a pair of principal rafters and prevent them spreading.
Oubliette
A hidden dungeon entered through a trap door from the room above it. Also a similarly concealed pit into which prisoners would be cast.
Dungeon
A chamber for the incarceration of one or more prisoners.
Eaves Board
A board on the lower edge of a sloping roof which protects the top of the external wall.
Eave
The edge of a roof that hangs over the wall.
Eaves Drip Gully
A feature formed by water falling from the roof of a building and creating a linear or curving indentation in the ground.
Beam Slot
A slot, usually in a wall, into which a beam was placed.
Implied Feature
Terms covering features of a monument or building which imply the previous presence of a component or structure. Use for negative evidence of a component or structure.
Entrance Hall
The passage, area, lobby, room or vestibule into which a building's main entrance opens.
Open Hall
A hall, or main living-room in a medieval house, open to the roof.
Hall (Communal)
The principal room in early houses, which occupies the entire height of the building.
Exedra
A semicircular niche or recess in a wall.
Fairbairn Jib Crane
A specialised form of crane, usually employed on a dockside, featuring a curving, solid jib.
Jib Crane
A crane consisting of a vertical tower or similar structure from which projects a movable boom, or jib, fitted with a mechanical hoist.
Inglenook
An area within a large fireplace where it is possible to sit.
Fireplace
The opening at the base of a chimney stack.
Fixed Quay Crane
A crane that is fixed to a quay and used for the loading and unloading of cargo.
Quay Crane
A crane usually found at a marine or inland quay.
Mosaic
A surface made up of small pieces of hard material such as stone or tile, often in a decorative pattern.
Floor
The lower, horizontal surface of a room on which people walk. Can also mean a storey of a building.
Flying Buttress
A buttress set away from the structure it supports, joined to it by an arch.
Immersion Font
A structure, usually sunk into the ground, for the purpose of allowing total bodily immersion as part of a baptismal ceremony.
Font
A receptacle to hold water used in baptism usually found in a baptistery or nave of a church.
Fourneyron Water Turbine
An outward radial flow reaction water turbine.
Francis Water Turbine
A mixed-flow reaction water turbine, developed in the USA in 1840 by James Bichino Francis, in which water enters the runner radially and leaves axially.
Jonval Water Turbine
A parallel or axial-flow reaction water turbine invented in France in 1843, in which water descends through fixed curved guide vanes which direct the flow sideways onto curved vanes on the runner.
Poncelet Water Turbine
An inwards, radial flow reaction water turbine developed by Jean Victor Poncelet (1788-1867) in France in 1826.
Thomson Water Turbine
An inward radial-flow reaction turbine developed by James Thomson.
Water Turbine
A prime mover in which a central wheel with curved vanes, enclosed in a chamber, receives water directed onto the curved vanes by a ring of fixed guide vanes, causing the wheel to rotate about its axis.
Fresco
A two dimensional image using paint applied to plasterwork whilst the plaster is still damp.
Wall Painting
A two dimensional image using paint applied to the surface of a wall.
Pulvinated Frieze
A frieze that has a convex section.
Frieze
The middle section, between the architrave and the cornice, of an entablature.
Galilee
A lobby or chapel at the western entrance of a church. Sometimes a place of burial, an area reserved for women, or a place where monks could meet female relatives.
Long Gallery
A long, high-ceilinged room, usually extending the full length of an Elizabethan or Jacobean house and often occupying an upper floor, used as a promenade, place of entertainment etc..
Picture Gallery
A room within a house or building used to exhibit artworks, often decorated and lit accordingly.
Gallery (Secular)
A long room for recreation, often on an upper floor.
Larder
A room in which food, usually meat, is kept.
Play Room
A room for children to play in.
Smoking Room
A room set aside within a club, hotel, large residence etc. for the benefit of guests or individuals who wish to smoke.
Music Room
A room in which music is performed.
Gymnasium
A room equipped with apparatus to facilitate physical exercise, gymnastics or indoor sports.
Fitness Suite
A room or rooms containing fitness equipment such as running machines and weights.
Sauna
A room, usually lined with wood panels, that is heated to a hot and steamy temperature using a small stove and intended to be used for relaxation and therapeutic purposes.
Palaestra
The exercise hall of a Roman baths complex.
Recreation Room
A room intended for the pursuit of recreational activities.
Gargoyle
A projecting spout to throw water from a gutter away from the wall, frequently decorated with grotesque figures to spew out evil away from the House of God.
Gas Engine
An internal combustion heat engine which uses gas as its fuel, and acts as a prime mover or power source for driving other machinery.
Oil Engine
An oil-fuelled internal combustion engine, developed in the late 19th century, and usually made as a stationary, horizontal unit.
Petrol Engine
An internal combustion engine which uses a mixture of air and petrol as fuel, the combustion of which is by an electric spark.
Internal Combustion Engine
An engine or prime mover, in which a mixture of air and fuel is ignited inside a closed cylinder, and the resulting explosion drives a piston to the opposite end of the cylinder, its movement turning a crankshaft via suitable mechanical parts.
Gas Turbine
A heat engine prime mover in which hot gases or hot air expand as they pass through and rotate vanes attached to a central shaft, enclosed in a chamber.
Reaction Turbine
A prime mover which is rotated by the reaction from forcing a moving fluid to change direction.
Turbine
A motor in which rotary motion is produced by motive power, usually of water, steam or gas, impinging directly on a series of vanes upon the circumference of a revolving cylinder or disc.
Portcullis
A large, movable barrier, usually an iron or wooden grating with pointed bars along its bottom edge, with its sides set in vertical grooves above a castle's gateway enabling it to be dropped to bar entry.
Gate
A movable barrier, usually external, within an opening in a wall, fence, hedge or similar.
Gate Pier
A pier which supports a gate.
Pier
A solid support of masonry to sustain vertical pressure and frequently each of the pillars from which an arch springs.
Gateway
A form of entrance closed by a gate.
Grotesque
A classical ornamentation featuring foliage, fruits and, unlike Arabesque, human and animal figures, sometimes fantastic or mythological in nature. The term may have originated from the fact that many examples of such ornamentation were found in grottoes.
Hearth Passage Plan
A plan in which the chimney stack backs onto the cross passage between a building's two entrances.
Heslop Steam Engine
A rotative beam steam engine patented in 1790.
Tank Bed Engine
A small self-contained rotative Beam Steam Engine.
Rotative Beam Engine
An engine in which the oscillating motion of the beam is translated via gearing to a rotative motion.
Hollow Spandrel
A spandrel that is sunk below the surface of the arch.
Pendentive
A spandrel which supports a dome and aids the transition between the dome and its square or octagonal base.
Spandrel
The quasi-triangular area between, and defined by, the upper sections of a pair of adjacent arches, or between the curve of an arch and the angle of a surrounding frame or structure.
Hydraulic Box Crane
A box crane which uses hydraulic power
Hydraulic Pillar Crane
A hydraulic machine used to drive a pillar crane.
Hydraulic Crane
A crane using hydraulic power.
Hypocycloid Steam Engine
A design of vertical steam engine patented in 1802.
Vertical Steam Engine
An engine in which a vertical piston rod supplies energy via a crankshaft directly to the flywheel suspended above the cylinder.
Impost Moulding
A decorative style on a block or band from which an arch springs.
Impost
The band or block from which the springing of an arch occurs.
Ionic Base
A base embellished with horizontal reeds and other mouldings.
Ionic Column
A column of the Ionic Order, set upon a base and characterized by its slender form.
Ionic Entablature
An entablature consiting of an architrave, usually a frieze and cornice.
Jenny
An 18th century hand-operated machine capable of spinning several yarns at once, invented in circa 1767.
Mule
A machine for spinning cotton yarn.
Spinning Machine
A machine used for drawing out and twisting together short fibres to make a yarn or thread. Use more specific term where known.
Jetty Bracket
The bracket under a jetty bressumer.
Jetty Bressumer
The sill beam of the jettied upper floor resting on projecting ends of joists or on jetty brackets.
Jetty Plate
The wall plate of the lower storey on which the joists of a jetty rest.
Jetty
A projecting part of a building that overhangs the wall below it.
Kerb Principal Truss
A truss with two curved kerb-principals, which are the short principal rafters rising froma tiebeam to a collar, placed either side of a crown strut.
Kitchen
Lantern
A small structure, often polygonal or circular, on top of a roof, dome, tower etc. featuring apertures to light or ventilate the building it adorns.
Lierne
A tertiary vault rib, usually employed for decorative purposes, that links one intersection of the main ribs to another.
Louvred Opening
An opening normally in a door or window filled with diagonally set slats to provide ventilation.
Louvre
An opening in the ridge of a roof intended to provide ventilation or an outlet for smoke; also the hood on such an opening that prevents rain entering.
Metope
A thin, rectangular panel, sometimes enriched with sculptural relief, placed between the triglyphs in a Doric Order frieze.
Misericord
A projection from the bottom of a church stall designed to provide some support for a person standing in long services.
Sedilia
Set of three seats for the clergy found in the chancel
Stall
A fixed seat, often enclosed, usually found within an ecclesiastical building and frequently arranged in series to accommodate a congregation, choir or clergy.
Seat
A fixed object to sit upon. Use narrower terms where known.
Moving Crane
A mobile crane.
Moving Quay Crane
A mobile crane usually found on a marine or inland quay.
Mullioned Window
A window divided into lights by mullions.
Narthex (Medieval)
An antechurch which is transverse to the axis of the church and is covered or enclosed.
Newel Post
The post at the centre of a winding staircase from which the steps radiate; or the post, supporting the handrail and string, at the angle of a square staircase.
North Light
A window usually spanning the full width of the north side of a roof allowing the maximum amount of direct and indirect light to enter.
North Light Roof
A roof design, common to weaving sheds, featuring a sawtooth profile with unequal slopes forming each ridge and lights on its northern side.
Secret Notched Lap Joint
A joint with a notch cut into its invisible inner face.
Notched Lap Joint
A lap joint which has a notch cut in one side.
Ogee Arch
A pointed arch in which the arcs comprising it are centred on points both outside and inside the arch so that the point takes the form of a double S, or ogee.
Ogee Brace
A brace which is cut to a double curve.
Open Hearth
A hearth, normally placed clear of the walls, without a chimney stack or hood above.
Hearth
The area directly in front of a fireplace or the floor of a firecplace itself.
Organ
A musical instrument that produces sound through the passage of air through a number of pipes controlled by stops, pedals and keyboards.
Panel
A defined portion of a surface, often a wall lining or door, usually rectangular, which may be recessed, level with or proud of its surrounding surface and may be framed by mouldings or channels.
Pargetting
Ornamental plasterwork applied to the exterior of a building, especially timber-framed houses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries..
Decorative Plasterwork
An area of plasterwork modelled or incised with ornamental designs or motifs.
Acroterion
A plinth or pedestal, sometimes decorated, and sometimes supporting statuary, placed at the apex and lower extremity of a pediment.
Plinth (Pedestal)
The lowest part, usually projecting, of a pedestal or the base of a column.
Pedestal
A base on which a statue, column etc. stands.
Piloti
A pier used to raise a structure or building above ground floor level so that there is open space beneath the structure
Pillar
A vertical member standing without support.
Piscina
A water-drain connected to a stone bowl within a niche in the south wall of a chapel, used to receive the water in which the priest washed his hands and rinsed the Chalice.
Plans And Divisions
Plans of structures, particularly ground plans, and divisions or elements of structures that form part of these plans.
Plinth (Wall)
The skirting or projecting base of a wall.
Portico
A porch with columns and pediments.
Porch
An interior or projecting shelter surrounding an entrance to a building.
Porte Cochere
A porch which is sufficiently large enough to allow a vehicle beneath it.
Post Pipe
The space occupied by or left where a post has been.
Post Hole
A hole occupied by a timber post or the void remaining after its removal, usually with packing.
Archaeological Feature
A feature found during an archaeological investigation which implies the presence of a monument, building, structure or human activity.
Reredorter
A latrine, or privy, situated at the rear of a monastery dormitory.
Privy
A latrine.
Collar Purlin
A longitudinal member in a roof, running beneath the collar beams and intended to give stability to the roof.
Purlin
A horizontal timber set in the plane of a roof's slope and supporting common rafters.
Quadripartite Vault
A vault where the bay is divided by diagonal and transverse ribs into four cells or webs.
Fan Vault
A vault composed of concave cones, inverted and overlaid with ribs that rise from the springing of the vault and diverge equally in different directions, producing an effect like the ribs of an opened fan.
Sexpartite Vault
A vault whose bay is divided by diagonal and transverse ribs into six compartments or cells.
Ribbed Vault
A vault with a ceiling or undersurface subdivided by ribs into bays or webs.
Bimah
An elevated area or platform in a synagogue where the person reading aloud from the Torah stands.
Religious Elements
Components within a religious, ritual or funerary site directly connected to the sacred practices involved at the site.
Saddle Joint
A thin timber, usually sloping on both sides, fixed to the floor between the jambs of a doorway.
Yorkshire Sash Window
A window with a frame for holding the glass, capable of being slide horizontally to make an opening.
Sash Window
A window with a frame for holding the glass, capable of being raised and lowered in vertical grooves.
Shaft Ring
A moulded ring around a shaft.
Shaft
The part of a column between the capital and the base.
Smoke Bay
A bay in a two storeyed house open to the roof to allow smoke to escape.
Solar
A first-floor chamber, often serving as a parlour, bedchamber or private room, in a medieval house. Also a loft, rood-loft or garret.
Stake Hole
A small hole filled or vacated by a stake, normally driven into the ground.
Steam Turbine
A steam motor in which rotory motion is produced by steam impinging directly upon a series of vanes upon the circumference of a revolving cylinder or disc.
Tread
The horizontal surface of a step or stair.
Steps
A series of flat-topped structures, usually wooden or stone, on which a person places their feet when ascending or descending, facilitating movement from one level to another.
Study
A room for private work, reading etc.
Throstle Frame
An improved water frame spinning machine which differed from the water frame in mechanical details, being larger and operating at a much faster speed.
Water Frame
A machine used for spinning cotton powered by water.
Tie
Any member that connects two bodies, such as the sloping sides of a roof, to prevent them pulling apart.
Tomb
A grave or sepulchre enlosed or covered by a memorial.
Cinquefoil
An ornamental foliation in panels or tracery so called because it is arranged around five intervals, known as foils or cusps, that describe the outlines of five leaves or petals.
Tracery
An arrangement by which panels, screens, vaults or windows are divided into parts of different shapes or sizes by means of moulded stone bars or ribs, called form-pieces or forms in the Medieval period.
Travelling Roof Crane
A crane, usually used in engineering workshops that can be moved from place to place by means of overhead rails..
Travelling Crane
A crane, usually used in engineering workshops, that can be moved from place to place, often by means of rails.
Triglyph
A grooved block placed in series, alternating with the metopes, in a Doric frieze.
Tuscan Arch
An arch of the Tuscan Order.
Tuscan Base
A base of the Tuscan Order, featuring a square plinth supporting a large torus with a fillet above.
Tuscan Capital
A capital of the Tuscan Order featuring a square abacus.
Tuscan Column
A column of the Tuscan Order featuring a plain, unfluted shaft.
Tuscan Entablature
An entablature of the Tuscan Order consisting of a plain architrave, frieze and cornice without decoration or enrichments..
Poncelet Waterwheel
An undershot waterwheel, developed by General Jean Victor Poncelet (1788-1867) in France, which improved efficiency through the replacement of flat, wooden paddles with curved, metal vanes.
Undershot Wheel
A waterwheel where the inflow of water strikes the paddles, or floatboards, below the axis of the wheel.
Weatherboard
A piece of cladding in the form of a length of timber fixed horizontally to the building.
Weatherboarding
An external wall cladding consisting of overlapping horizontal boards.
Weighbridge
A platform scale set within, and flush with the surface of, a roadway, for weighing vehicles, cattle etc.
Weighing Machine
A machine used for weighing objects.
Window Lintel
A lintel over a window.
Bowstring Truss
An arched, or bow-shaped, segmental timber truss with its ends tied together by a straight or cambered member.
Belfast Truss
A bowstring truss with the space between its members filled by a lattice of crossing diagonal rods.
Box Pew
An enclosed, high-sided seat, sometimes entered through a door, usually found in churches as one of a series of box-like compartments.
Bench Pew
Pew
A wooden bench with a back and ends, usually fixed and found in churches. The bench ends are often decorated.
Confessional
A booth, cubicle or recess, often enclosed, in which a priest, usually screened from view, hears confessions.
Cupboard
A recess, often containing shelves and usually fitted with a door or doors, used for the storage of items.
Dado Rail
A wall-mounted moulding defining the upper edge of the dado, intended to protect the wall's surface from damage caused by chairs being pushed against it.
Doorcase
The wood, stone or brick framework, lining a doorway, from which the door is hung.
Kerb Principal
A short principal rafter that that rises from a tiebeam to a collar.
Parapet Gutter
A gutter running behind a parapet wall, the water channelled by it being discharged from holes in the wall.
Wall Rib
An arched half-rib applied to the lateral wall surface in a vaulted bay, its function, rather than structural, being to complete the pattern of the vault's main ribs.
Riser
The vertical face of a step.
Jamb
The vertical lining of a doorway, window or other opening.
Ringing Chamber
A stage in a church tower where bell ringers stand.
Threshold
A wooden, metal or stone strip attached to the floor between the door posts in a doorway covering the joint between two floor surfaces.
Trumeau
A vertical stone mullion or shaft situated in the centre of a wide doorway to support its lintel or tympanum.
Dado (Wall)
The lower area of a interior wall between the skirting board and the dado rail
Penthouse (Apartment)
An apartment or suite of rooms usually occupying the top floor of a building.
Examination Hall
A large room within a school or college used and appropriately furnished for the sitting of examinations by students..
College Hall
A large communal room within a college complex used for functions, assemblies, examinations etc.
Probationary Ward
A ward for receiving new paupers upon entry to a workhouse. They had to remain there until checked by medical officer.
Isolation Ward
An area of a building or complex, such as a workhouse or hospital, for isolating new residents before admission into main building, used to prevent spread of disease
Fever Ward
An area of a building or complex, such as a workhouse, hospital or prison used to house infirm inmates suffering from fever.
Ward
A room, usually in a hospital, in which a number of beds are located.
Reading Room
A room set aside for the purpose of reading, such as in a library or a club.
Sun Lounge
A sitting room fitted with large windows for the purpose of admitting the maximum amount of sunlight.
Sitting Room
Originally a room in a house where a family would gather, usually in the evening, to sit and read, write, sew, play music etc. This term has become commonly used as an alternative to living room.
Conference Room
A room where organizations and associations meet for the undertaking of presentations and consultation.
Bar Room
A room in a public house, hotel, club etc. containing a bar from which alcoholic drinks are served.
Tiling
An area or series of tiles applied, usually to an interior floor or wall's surface, for practical or decorative effect.
Pipe
A hollow, cylindrical structure or tube made of clay, lead, steel, wood etc. through which gas, oil, water or other liquids can be conveyed.
Stage
A raised platform, especially in a theatre or auditorium, for the use of performers or speakers etc.
Shoe
An inclined wooden trough which channels grain evenly from the feed hopper into the eye of the stones in a corn mill.
Tail Race
A channel that returns water that has been used to turn a waterwheel back to the river or source from which it came.
Head Race
A channel, usually placed upstream of a mill, that carries water from a river or other water source to a waterwheel.
Oven
An enclosed structure of brick, stone or metal in which material is heated or burned, or, in a domestic context, food is cooked, through the continuous radiation of heat from its floor, walls or ceiling.
Bar
A counter from which beverages are served in a bar room.
Skirting Board
A narrow timber board or moulding lining the base of an interior wall as a finish between it and and the floor.
Walkway
A pedestrian passageway, often elevated, connecting two buildings or sections within a building.
Firing Step
A cutting, bank or block positioned against the wall of a trench, fort, parapet etc. to allow riflemen to shoot over the crest of the wall or parapet from a standing position.
Banquette
A firing step from which standing defenders could fire over the crest of a high parapet.
Overthrow
A panel of often decorated wrought-ironwork forming the arch between two gate-piers or standards or above a gate. Also used for an arched support for a lamp-holder between two standards.
Triforium
An arcaded upper aisle, wall passage or blind arcade, usually occurring in large Romanesque or Gothic churches, above the aisle and below the clerestory.
Grille
An open grating of wrought iron, bronze, wood etc., forming a screen to a door, window or other opening, or used as a divider.
Nest Hole
Niche intended for pigeons or other birds to nest in, allowing the squabs and eggs to be harvested. Found inside specially built dovecotes and in the walls of other buildings.
Loggia
A roofed structure, open on one side, usually attached to a building, providing a seating area and its occupants with an uninterrupted exterior view.
Shelf
A flat, horizontal piece of timber or masonry projecting from or recessed into a wall to hold objects.
Supervisory Hub
An area or wing of a hexagonal plan workhouse or prison from where the supervision of the inmates is carried out.
Sea Pool
Man made structure to contain tidal waters, often part of a LIDO, bathing or swimming complex at the sea edge.
Mens Pool
A swimmin pool restricted to the use of men only.
Womens Pool
A swimming pool restricted to the use of females only.
Learner Pool
Swimming pool, usually part of a larger LIDO or SPORTS CENTRE complex. Medium size pool, between large pool and paddling pool, used primarily for learners.
Indoor Swimming Pool
An enclosed feature, usually sub-terranean, constructed to contain water for public or private recreation and sporting activities. Often a component of a larger SPORTS CENTRE. Use OUTDOOR SWIMMING POOL for unenclosed pools.
Swimming Pool
Man made structure, usually sub-terranean, built to contain water for the purpose of immersion of people for sport and leisure.
Pergola
An open roofed structure on which climbing plants are grown in order to provide a shaded walkway or seating area.
Chamber Block
An area of several rooms in a medieval house or building. Probably for domestic use.
Reused Vessel Component
Any structural component, usually of wood, which is believed to have derived from a vessel. Double index with the appropriate type of structural component eg. BEAM or if known the original term from the MARITIME FIXTURES AND FITTINGS thesaurus.
Reused Stone
Repurposed building stone for new construction, or decorative sculpture reused in new monuments, is the result of an ancient and widespread practice whereby stone that has been quarried, cut, and used in a built structure, is carried away to be used elsewhere.
Reused Timber
Repurposed timber for later construction. Double index with the appropriate former usage, if known.
Reused Material
Repurposed material for new construction, or decorative element reused in later monuments. Use more specific term where known.
Credence
In churches a niche, or shelf, within or beside a piscina, or a table for the sacramental elements and vessels. (Source: Pevsner Glossary)
Crossing Tower
A tower which rises above the space at the intersection of the nave, chancel and transepts of a church. Usually pierced by windows to provide light directly to the area below.
Organ Loft
A gallery or platform within a place of worship housing the organ.
Combined Steam And Gas Turbine
A propulsion system for ships using a combination of steam turbines and gas turbines to power the shafts.
Combined Diesel And Gas Turbine
A propulsion system for ships which need a maximum speed that is considerably faster than their cruise speed, particularly warships. It consists of diesel engines for cruising and gas turbines for high-speed transits.
Diesel Engine
Internal combustion engine powered by diesel fuel.
Escalator
Staircase whose moving steps are driven mechanically whilst remaining permanently in a horizontal plane allowing users or objects to be moved effortlessly from one level to another, within or outside a building.
Carriage Entrance
An entrance large enough for carriages and vehicles leading through a building or wall into an inner courtyard.
Stone Mill
A flour milling machine which uses one or more pairs of horizontal millstones to grind wheat into flour which millers call a 'sudden death' process; within not more than 90 seconds complete wheat grain becomes wholemeal flour.
Roller Mill
A flour milling machine which uses horizontal steel rollers and dressing machines (seives and purifiers) to gradually reduce wheat grains into constituent parts or 'streams' which millers call a 'gradual reduction' process.
Combination Mill
A flour milling machine using both stones and rollers to produce flour and, perhaps mainly from the stones, animal feed from grains other than wheat.
Flour Mill
A machine, usually contained in a building called a flour mill which reduces grain into constituent parts or 'streams' which include flour. For a Flour Mill buliding use FLOUR MILL in Monument Type.
Pew Platform
A base on which pews or benches can be placed.
Hollow Chamfer
A chamfer that has been hollowed out to form a concave shape. This is also known as a chamfret.
Beaded Chamfer
A chamfer with a convex bead-like moulding projecting from the chamfer.
Stopped Chamfer
A chamfer which does not extend the whole length of the surface it is ornamenting. The stop is the end of the feature and can be simple or ornamented.
Chamfer
A surface formed by cutting off a square edge, usually at 45 degrees. Use more specific type where known.
Organ Blowing Chamber
A dedicated room for housing the organ feeder bellows, can be an underground chamber or a free-standing building.
Fireplace Surround
The architectural element made of brick, tile, stone or certain woods which surrounds a fireplace to provide aesthetic and safety benefits.