Piece of wood with holes next to wallplate

[charlieboy]

When I removed some damp plaster in the stone part of my house the wall plate and rafters (both rotten!) were revealed, as shown in the second photo. What I did not expect to see was the piece of wood by the side of the wall plate with holes in it. This is clearer in the first photo.
Is this wood just a bit of scrap wood left behind by the carpenter or did it have some use and could it be a clue as to the original function of the building?
CB

 

[MatthewC]

Could it have just been used as some scrap packing for the wall plate? (It's not totally clear how it fitted)

 

[angrybird]

could that part of the house been the shippon ?

 

[charlieboy]

I agree it could just be packing but I like your idea angrybird. (It was on the first floor so I think it is unlikely to be for feeding animals unless its position has changed)

The only thing I thought of was that it could be for holding the vertical poles in wattle and daub. ( The wood was found quite close to the part of the building that has timber framing.)

Unfortunately when the builders tidied up it probably went in the skip!

 

[Keithj]

We found a lot of bits of oak with unexplained holes when repairing our house. The expert lady (who was seriously impressive) reckoned the wood had been recycled and that the holes were from a previous use.

A pal of mine had a large shed/barn with a strange beam. It turned out it was from a ship. The problem was that the ship was quite famous, and he had a long stream of rubberneckers claiming they had a right to "visit" said beam. He found a simple solution - he charged £10 entry to the shed.