Looking at Buildings

Glossary

Flemish bond: West Walton, Norfolk.
Brickwork with alternating headers (short ends) and stretchers (long sides) showing.
Flemish gable: A gable with curved sides crowned by a pediment (also called a Dutch gable).
Fleuron: Medieval carved flower or leaf ornament, often rectilinear.
Flowing tracery: Bar tracery with uninterrupted flowing curves, typical of the 14th century; also called curvilinear tracery.
Flushwork: Trimmed (knapped) flint used with dressed stone to form patterns.
Fluting: Series of concave grooves (flutes), their common edges sharp (arris) or blunt (fillet).
Flying buttress: A buttress which transmits the thrust to a heavy support (abutment) by means of an arch or half-arch.
Flying stair: A stair with one or more flights unsupported by a wall on either side.
Foil: (lit. leaf): Lobe formed by the cusping of a circular or other shape in tracery. Trefoil (three), quatrefoil (four), cinquefoil (five), sexfoil (six) and multifoil express the number of lobes in a shape.
Foliate: Decorated with leaves.