A VERY SPECIAL ROOF

The roof structure in St John’s Church, Facit, is very special indeed.

It is a fine example of a Hammer Beam roof, other examples of which are at Rochdale Town Hall and Westminster Hall in London, where the late Queen Elizabeth II laid in state before her funeral.

A Hammer Beam roof is so designed that its arched, wooden beams dissipate the total weight of the roof sideways to the vertical walls and is then transferred vertically to the ground. This allows the roof to be built higher than normal, therefore allowing more light to be transmitted into the building through the East and West leaded windows. The design mimics the Gothic style of structure used in France from the 12th to the 15th centuries, although examples were more used in buildings in this country around the 1870’s.

Rochdale Town Hall was built from 1866 to 1869, St John;s Church, Facit in 1870.