Wollaton Hall: Prospect Room Floor

Wollaton Hall is one of the most important houses of its period, and the Prospect Room, which rises above it, is unique. The floor construction to the Prospect Room is especially significant because it is formed as a ‘Chinese lattice’ structure, with no main beams clear spanning across the width; instead each are tenoned into adjoining beams running at right angles, which themselves are then tenoned into further beams, thus reducing the lengths of the timbers.

This paper looks briefly at the history of the building and the floor, and then at the context for the repairs and the design development, which took place between November 2003 and May 2005, and the construction process which brought the floor back into full use for the first time since the 1950s.

Figure 2 Survey plan of floor showing main beams marked 1–27.

Figure 4 Great Hall ceiling and ‘false’ hammer beam trusses.

Ed Morton B.Eng(Hons), C.Eng, MICE, IHBC

Ed Morton is Managing Director of The Morton Partnership Ltd, Structural Engineers who work extensively on historic buildings throughout the United Kingdom and abroad. Ed is Engineer to Canterbury Cathedral and York Minster and is also working at Ely, Sheffield, and Wakefield Cathedrals. Other notable projects include Lincoln Castle, Stowe House, St George’s Hall, the Palace of Westminster and Wollaton Hall as well as numerous National Trust properties.

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Donhead Publishing 2012