York Conservation Trust


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Glossary

Acanthus	a plant represented in stylised form in Classical and Renaissance ornament, in particular in the capitals of the Corinthian and Composite Orders.
Anthemion	honeysuckle or palmette ornament in Classical architecture.
Apse/Apsidal	a semi-circular or polygonal recess, semi-domed or vaulted, in or projecting from a building.
Arabesque	a highly stylised fret-ornament in low relief, common in Moorish architecture, found in 16th and 17th-century work in England.
Architraves	the lowest member of an entablature; often adapted as a moulded enrichment returned round the jambs and head of a doorway or window opening.
Ashlar	masonry wrought to an even face and square edges.
Baluster	splat of flat cross-section and cut to a shaped outline.
Balustrade	railing supported by balusters.
Band/Plat-band	a flat projecting horizontal strip of masonry or brickwork across the face of a building, as distinct from a moulded string.
Barge-boards	a timber plank, often carved, fixed to the edge of a gabled roof at a short distance from the face of the wall, to protect projecting timbers.
Bolection moulding	a bold moulding of double curvature raised above the general plane of the framework of a door, fireplace or panelling.
Boss	a projecting square or round ornament, covering the inter-sections of the ribs in a vault, panelled ceiling or roof, etc.
Bressumer	a spanning beam forming the direct support of a wall or timber framing above it.
Cantilever	a long bracket or beam projecting from a wall to support a balcony or stairs, fixed at only one end.
Capital	the head or cornice of a pillar or column.
Cartouche	in Renaissance ornament, a tablet imitating a scroll with ends rolled up, used ornamentally or bearing an inscription or arms.
Chamfer	the small plane formed when a sharp edge or arris is cut away, usually at an angle of 45°; hollow chamfer, when the plane is concave; sunk chamfer, when it is recessed.
Chantry	Chapel (of a Priest)
Cheek-pieces	in open string stairs, a rectangular or shaped block covering the ends of the steps between treads and risers.
Clerestorey	an upper row of windows in a cathedral.
Collar beam	in a roof, a horizontal beam framed to and serving to tie together a pair of rafters at some distance above wall-plate level.
Colonnette jambs	columnar shaped.
Console	a bracket with a compound-curved outline.
Coping/Coped Slab	a slab of which the upper face is ridged down the middle, and sometimes hipped at each end.
Corbel	a projecting stone or piece of timber for the support of a super-incumbent weight.
Corinthian	a Classical order of architecture, with very decorative capitals.
Cornice	a crowning projection. In Classical architecture, the crowning or upper portion of the entablature.
Coterie	an exclusive group of people sharing interests.
Crown Post	a vertical post standing centrally on a tie-beam to give direct support to a collar and collar purlin, and additionally to the collar purlin through two-way braces.
Dado	the separate protective or decorative treatment applied to the lower parts of wall-surfaces to a height, normally, of 3 ft. to 4ft.
Dentils	the small rectangular tooth-like blocks used decoratively in Classical cornices.
Distyle in antis	a portico with two (round) columns between (square) pilasters.
Doric	an Order in architecture comprising a column, fluted shaft and plain capital but with no base.
Dragon-beam	a ceiling beam on the diagonal into which are housed the ends of the joists that form jetties on two adjacent fronts of a building.
Dutch Gable	a scalloped gable of Dutch origin.
Embattled	a usage for the decorative adaptation of the alternating merlons and embrasures on the parapet or breastwork of a rampart walk.
English Garden Wall Bond	a method of laying bricks so that alternate courses appear as all headers and all stretchers on the wall face.
Entablature	in Classical and Renaissance architecture, the part of an order above the column, the full entablature comprising architrave, frieze, and cornice; often used alone, in whole or in part, as a horizontal architectural feature.
Fanlight	glazed opening immediately over, and integrated within the framing of, a doorway.
Fascia	a plain or moulded facing board.
Fenestration	the arrangement of windows in a building.
Feoffees	trustees who hold land for the benefit of others, particularly the Church.
Finial	a stylised ornament at the top of a pinnacle, gable, canopy etc
Flemish Bond	a type of brickwork in which alternate headers and stretchers in each course appear on the wall face.
Foliated	(of a capital, corbel etc) carved with leaf ornament.
Frieze	the middle zone in an entablature, between the architrave and the cornice; generally any band of ornament or colour immediately below a cornice.
Gableted	a peaked gable often found at the top of a hip roof, sometimes louvred for ventilation.
Gypsum	hydrated sulphate of lime, a comparatively soft mineral found in Yorkshire along the west side of the vale of York. On rehydration after heating it will set hard.
Header	a brick laid so that the end appears on the wall face.
Impost	the projection, often moulded, at the springing of an arch, upon which the arch appears to rest.
Incised	engraved.
Ionic	a Classical order of architecture with ramshorn design capitals.
Jambs	the sides of an archway, doorway, window, or other opening.
Jetty	the projection of an upper storey of a building beyond the plane of a lower storey.
Jowled	an enlargement at the head of a post to facilitate jointing with two horizontal members at right angles to each other.
King-post	a vertical post extending from a tie-beam or a collar-beam to the apex of a roof, and supporting a ridge-piece.
Knop	in staircase balusters derived from Classical columns, the member equivalent to the sub-base below the column, and placed between it and a shaped pedestal.
Lantern	a raised structure on a dome, glazed to admit light or ventilation.
Lath and plaster	thin flat strips of wood used collectively as a foundation for supporting plaster.
Lintel	the horizontal beam or stone bridging an opening.
Lunette	a crescent shaped or semi-circular space or alcove which contains a painting, statue, etc.
Marguerite	an ox-eye daisy.
Messuage	dwelling house with out-buildings and land.
Modillion	bracket under the cornice in a Classical entablature.
Mullion	an upright of timber, stone or brick dividing an opening into lights.
Newel	the central post in a circular or winding staircase; also the principal post at each angle of a dog-legged or well staircase.
Ogee	a compound curve of two parts, one convex, the other concave. A double-ogee moulding is formed by two ogee mouldings meeting at their convex ends.
Overmantel	decorative feature or panel above a fireplace surround.
Oviform	egg shaped.
Palladian	a three-light window, with a tall round-headed middle light and shorter lights on either side, the side lights with flanking pilasters and small entablatures forming the imposts to the arch over the centre light.
Pantile	a roof tile formed to shape an ‘S’ type section, fitted to overlap.
Parapet	low wall at the edge of a roof.
Paterae	a square or circular flat ornament applied to a frieze, moulding or cornice; in Gothic work it commonly takes the form of a four-lobed leaf or flower.
Pediment	a low-pitched gable used in Classical and Renaissance architecture above a portico, at the end of a building, or above doorways, windows, niches, etc.; sometimes the gable angle is omitted, forming a broken pediment, or the horizontal members are omitted, forming an open pediment. A curved gable form is sometimes used in this way.
Pentice	a sloping roof built on to another building (appendage).
Peristyle	a space surrounded by columns.
Peruke-maker	wig maker.
Pilaster	a shallow pier of rectangular section attached to a wall.
Podium	in Classical architecture, a basis, usually solid, supporting a temple or other superstructure.
Portico	a covered entrance to a building, colonnaded, either constituting the whole front of the building or forming an important feature.
Principals	in a roof of double-framed construction, the main as opposed to the common rafters.
Pulvinated Frieze	in Classical and Renaissance architecture, a frieze having a convex or bulging section.
Purlin	Collar purlin, a beam running longitudinally immediately beneath the collars joining pairs of common rafters. Side purlin, a horizontal longitudinal member resting on or tenoned into the principal rafters of a truss and giving intermediate support to the common rafters.
Quoins	the dressed stones at the angle of a building, or distinctive brickwork in this position.
Rafters	inclined timbers supporting a roof-covering.
Riser	the vertical piece connecting two treads in a flight of stairs.
Rococo	the latest (18th-century) phase of Baroque, especially in Northern Europe, in which effects of elegance and vivacity are obtained by the use of a decorative repertory further removed from antique architectural forms than the earlier phases and often asymmetrically disposed.
Roundels	a small disk, decorative medallion.
Rustication	primarily, masonry in which only the margins of the stones are worked; also used for any masonry where the joints are emphasised by mouldings, grooves, etc.; rusticated columns are those in which the shafts are interrupted by square blocks of stone or broad projecting bands.
Shaft	a slender column.
Spandrel	the more or less triangular space between an angle and a contained curve.
Splat	flat piece of thin wood.
Stretcher Bond	a brick laid so that the side appears on the wall face.
String/String course	a projecting moulded band across a wall.
Stuccoed	plaster or cement used for coating wall surfaces or moulding into architectural decoration.
Studs	the common posts or uprights in timber-framed walls.
Swag	decorative representation of a festoon of cloth or flowers and fruit suspended from both ends.
Tablet	flat slab of wood or stone.
Tie-beam	the horizontal transverse beam in a roof, tying together the feet of pairs of rafters to counteract thrust.
Transom	an intermediate horizontal bar of stone or wood across a window-opening. The horizontal member of a door-frame beneath a fanlight.
Trusses	a number of timbers framed together to bridge a space, to be self-supporting, and to carry other timbers. The trusses of a roof are generally named after a particular feature in their construction, e.g. King-post, Queen-post.
Tympanum	the triangle in the face of a pediment or the semi-circle in the head of an arch.
Volute	an ornament in the form of a spiral, e.g. in the Ionic capital.
Wainscot	wood panelling. Oak imported for this purpose from the Baltic was also so called.
Wall-plate	a timber laid lengthwise at the wall top to receive the ends of the roof rafters and other joists. In timber-framing, the studs are also tenoned into it.
Yorkshire sash	glazed panels sliding horizontally.