Bressumer supporting a chimney in Tŷ-Mawr, Nantmor, North Wales
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]

References



Works cited


{4928910:MTQ7PL6V};{4928910:M28H478Z};{4928910:P6KIISDT};{4928910:NUA2ZR6U} modern-language-association creator asc 1 0 27456