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Anglo Saxon Oak Door - 1050s CE (media.piefed.world)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/historyartifacts@piefed.social
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This oak door belonging to Westminster Abbey, London; England. It is the oldest and only Anglo-Saxon door in Great Britain. The door has been standing for over 950 years, dating back to the reign of Edward the Confessor during the 1050s CE.

The door was made from a single oak tree from eastern England in medieval times. The oak piece has 5 main boards, connected by iron strips and wooden beams, and is approximately 2m high.

https://bsky.app/profile/archaeohistories.bsky.social/post/3mauxmgyq2s2g

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[–] 23 points 10 months ago (4 children)

The carpenter who made this a thousand years ago probably complained that some part of the door didn't line up properly and that if they had more time, they could have done a better job.

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  • [–] [S] 7 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    There is a striking air gap at the top. That poor carpenter died knowing he did a shitty job (that we are now admiring)

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    I've done lots of carpentry and building and renovating over the years.

    In a lot of instances, I'd fix something believing that it was temporary and that I would get around to fixing it properly some other time.

    My entire life is now surrounded by temporary fixes ... some of which do get exchanged for better permanent fixes but many more sitting their looking at me day in and day out reminding me of that half finished job.

    I find the thought funny that the guy who made this door a thousand years ago may have built it thinking it was just going to hold for a short time while he figured out a better solution ... only to put up with it for decades until he was too old to do anything about it any more and then just died ... and everyone else after thinking that the work was finished.

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