Weald and Downland Living Museum Ticket Portal

Monday 28 April - Friday 2 May 2025

This course teaches students how to frame timbers together to ensure the correct lengths, bevels and allowances and carry out double-cut scribing, string-line and plumb rule layouts.

During the workshop the primary timbers - posts, plates, beams and cills - will be lined-out, scribed, cut and fitted. The course will focus on historic tools and techniques and aims to develop the students’ knowledge and experience of the specific problems facing the historic carpenter framing with “wet” or “green” oak.

Monday 20 to Friday 24 October 2025

The workshop is designed to enable students to frame both a gable and a hipped roof over two simple frames constructed on two previous oak timber framing workshops. It covers the lining out, cutting and fitting of common, principal, hip and jack rafters.

The tools and techniques introduced in this workshop are suitable for both new build and repair work.

The workshop aims to develop the students’ knowledge and experience to the specific problems facing the historic carpenter framing with “wet” or “green” oak and introduces solutions to framing timbers together to ensure the correct lengths, bevels and allowances. A range of tools will be demonstrated to illustrate those used today and in the past.

Monday 9 - Friday 13 June 2025

In this workshop, participants will learn how to line out, scribe, cut and fit braces and studs to a simple frame constructed during a previous workshop.

It will include demonstrations on how to use power tools as well as hand tools and aims to develop students’ knowledge and experience in dealing with the problems faced by carpenters framing with ‘wet’ or ‘green’ oak in the past. You will learn how to frame timbers together to ensure the correct lengths, bevels and allowances, and gain experience in plumb bob scribing, chalk line and spirit level layout.