Bargeboard

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Bargeboard (probably from Medieval Latin bargus, or barcus, a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym vergeboard), the boards fastened to the projecting gables of a roof to give them strength and to mask, hide and protect the othwise exposed end of the horizontal timbers or purlins of the roof to which they were attached. Bargeboards are sometimes moulded only or carved, but as a rule the lower edges were cusped and had tracery in the spandrels besides being otherwise elaborated. The richest example in Britain is one at Ockwells in Berkshire (built 1446-1465), which is moulded and carved as if it were intended for internal work.

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.