Corbelling

Corbelling is brick or masonry courses built out beyond one another to support a chimneystack or window etc. A corbel is a projecting block supporting something above. The Old Manor Farmhouse at Drayton Beauchamp has a corbelled door and chimney.

 

A corbel table is a series of corbels to carry a parapet or a wall-plate or wall-post. A corbel table was recorded at Notley Abbey.

 

It is also a technique for roofing stone chambers that has been used from the Neolithic to the present day. In the upper stages of a wall each course of stones partially over-sails the one below it until the stones eventually meet or leave only a small gap, which can be spanned by a capstone. A nineteenth century corbelled roof was constructed at the church of St Mary-le-Moor, Cadmore End Common, probably mimicing a medieval style.