breastsummer

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breastsummer, bressummer, brest summer. Horizontal beam, cill, lintel, or plate over an opening in an external wall or a fireplace-opening, or set forward from the lower part of a building to support an entire jettied wall in timber-framed construction. In the latter case (jetty-bressummer) it sometimes rests on the cantilevered floor-joists, sometimes is secured to the joists tenoned into it, and is also carried on jetty-brackets: in turn, the bressummer supports the posts of the jettied upper front wall. On occasion the cantilevered jetty construction is disguised behind an ornamental fascia-board that is often mistaken for a true bressummer.

Bibliography

Alcock,, Barley,, Dixon,, & and Meeson (1996)