Cuts in joists - any ideas?

[Kearn]

Hi all, these have been bothering me for a while, and we are no closer to an possible explanation (and also resigned to the fact there my not be an exciting or vaguely interesting explanation!). Anyway...

Our house is high wealth oak framed cottage, late 1500/early 1600s, 2 bay 2 storey. The joists in question are in the principal room on a side wall adjacent to the inglenook. Originally an external wall, to the rear (probably) of the cottage, certainly facing into the pightle originally (now garden).
As highlighted in the pic below (if you can ignore the pre-Chrimbo mess!), there are 4 cut-aways, facing each other on the inner edges of 2 pairs of adjoining joists. They are off-centre in the room, and the cuts start between approx. 2 inches proud from the wallplate. They were also added after the chamfers on the joists, which we have reason to believe may also be a later addition unlike the chamfer on the spine beam, so I am not trying to tie anything to the original construction of this wall and location of original studs.



The gap inside a pair of joists is about 12-13 inches and the joists themselves are about 4 inches wide.These aren't perfectly finished, in fact one is very roughly chiselled out, and all of the the angles don't match perfectly, with the edge closest to the wall not actually being true vertical on one pair.




My original thoughts were some form of possible later shuttering fitment for window openings given proximity to the wall, as the angle of the cutaway would allow a board to be inserted at an angle then pushed vertically and fixed in place by other means.

Any thoughts...?!

 

[a twig]

They could be nothing to do with your house

My parents house was built using oak beams "recycled" from another house, so there are notches etc at various points that don't even remotely match up with anything.

Just a thought

 

[Kearn]

They could be nothing to do with your house

My parents house was built using oak beams "recycled" from another house, so there are notches etc at various points that don't even remotely match up with anything.

Just a thought

They could indeed - many of our timbers are certainly recycled from a previous construction, but there are a number of clues with these that point towards that not being the case, at least in my opinion:
- the cuts were made at a later point after the chamfers were added to the joists - I am assuming the chamfers were added to the joists for this build, even if not then they would have been in the same location in a previous build,
- they are in pairs, facing each other - could be random, but feels intentional,
- the proximity to the wall also seems intentional in situ, as opposed to being by chance if the wood was re-used

We do also have one other joist in this room, closest to a wall where someone has kindly butchered a notch along the entire length, to fit a piece of furniture most likely at some stage - thankfully it is the side facing the wall, so hardly visible, but I am well aware that lots of later amendments have been made to my frame, not always particularly sensitive, less so interesting...but thought it worth asking the Q!!

 

[88v8]

Intriguing, these faint traces from the past.
We have oddities such as this, which suggest past structural elements or a previous life.
I realised recently that the entire upper frame of the room in which I am sitting has been lifted from another building, perhaps 350 years ago, and rather clumsily grafted onto the side of our cottage.

Your nicks would have been a laborious means of supporting something. Why not just nail on a scantling... the answer perhaps being that at that time there was not such an easy access to nails.
Perhaps they did indded facilitate the temporary fitting and removal of something or a pair of somethings. Maybe some sort of sleeping arrangement that had to be taken down during the day. Or perhaps something to do with work or a task, that had to be taken down at night.

Hard to imagine the world in which those cutouts were made.

Ivor

 

[MikeG]

I'm puzzled by this. For a start, they were obviously made in situ, after the house was finished. There's a chamfer stop on the other side of each of the joists, which has been cut away in making these matching pairs of housings. I'd be surprised if these aligned with original windows, just because studs and joists were a bit more randomly associated than that. You might have that particular house where a carpenter with OCD lined everything up, so I don't rule it out. I dunno. A built in bit of furniture, maybe?

 

[Kearn]

I'm puzzled by this. For a start, they were obviously made in situ, after the house was finished. There's a chamfer stop on the other side of each of the joists, which has been cut away in making these matching pairs of housings. I'd be surprised if these aligned with original windows, just because studs and joists were a bit more randomly associated than that. You might have that particular house where a carpenter with OCD lined everything up, so I don't rule it out. I dunno. A built in bit of furniture, maybe?

They certainly were, but with quite a heavy hand!

I'm pretty sure they don't relate to original windows, I have a couple of those still evident, on opposing walls, but no similar markings. That said, the is oddly no other shutter evidence either hinged or sliding on those, just the remnants of moulded wooden mullions and vertical bars. There is also only joint evidence for two studs on the wall in question, which obviously wouldn't suffice. I'm assuming later, if window related. But while that was the first thing that sprung to mind, I don't think they were.

What I cannot visualise is their purpose structurally, especially if related to furniture. Plus one pair is only a foot and a half from the inglenook. The other in the centre of the wall. Which to me is strange.

I have a couple of other timber based oddities that I may through to the floor soon too....