Looking at Buildings

Glossary

Tusking stones: (Scots): Projecting end stones for bonding with an adjoining wall.
Two-centred arch: The simplest kind of pointed arch.
Two-decker pulpit: A raised and enclosed platform for the preaching of sermons, with a reading desk below. Compare three-decker pulpit.
Tympanum: The surface between a lintel and the arch above it, or within a pediment.
Undercroft: Usually describes the vaulted room or rooms beneath the main room or rooms of a medieval house. Compare crypt.
Undershot water wheel: One turned by the momentum of the water passing beneath. Compare breastshot, overshot and pitchback.
Univallate: Of a hill-fort: defended by one concentric bank and ditch.
Upper cruck: A type of timber construction in which curving paired members (blades) are supported on a tie-beam and rise to the apex.
Vault: An arched stone roof, sometimes imitated in timber, plaster etc. For the different kinds see barrel vault, fan-vault, groin-vault, rib-vault, sail vault.
Vaulting shaft: Shaft leading up to the spring or springing of a vault.