Bressumer supporting a chimney in Tŷ-Mawr, Nantmor, North Wales
Discovering Old Welsh Houses Group
Discovering Old Welsh Houses Group
A bressumer, also bressummer or summer beam, is a horizontal load-bearing timber spanning part of a building and supporting a wall, or the ends of floor joists. When it supports a chimney above a fireplace it is also called a hearth beam.[1][2]
The term is a compound of breast + summer,[3] the latter deriving from the obsolete English word sumpter, meaning a load carried by a packhorse.[4]