A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aest ...

-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in a step pattern above the roof as a decoration and as a convenient way to finish the brick courses. A stepped parapet may appear on building facades with or without gable ends, even upon a false front, however.

Geography

The oldest examples can be seen in Ghent (Flanders, Belgium) and date from the 12th century: the house called ''Spijker'' on '' Graslei'', and some other Romanesque buildings in this city. From there, they were spread in the whole of Northern Europe as from the 13th century, in particular in cities of the Hanseatic League (with

brick Gothic Brick Gothic (german: Backsteingotik, pl, Gotyk ceglany, nl, Baksteengotiek) is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Northeast and Central Europe especially in the regions in and around the Baltic Sea, which do not have resourc ...

style), then in Central Europe at the next century. These gables are numerous in Belgium, Netherlands, all Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Poland,

Baltic States The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...

, Switzerland, and some parts of France (

French Flanders French Flanders (french: La Flandre française) is a part of the historical County of Flanders in present-day France where a dialect of Dutch was or still is traditionally spoken. The region lies in the modern-day region of Hauts-de-France an ...

, Eastern Normandy, Picardy and

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

). They are also present but much rarer in the British Isles. Crow-stepped gables are especially common on traditional Flemish and Dutch houses and Danish medieval churches. Crow-stepped gables were also used in Scotland as early as the 16th century. Examples of Scottish crow-stepped gable can be seen at

Muchalls Castle Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The lower course is a well-preserved Romanesque, double-groined 13th-century tower house structure, built by the Frasers o ...

Monboddo House Monboddo House () is a historically famous mansion in The Mearns, Scotland. The structure was generally associated with the Burnett of Leys family. The property itself was owned by the Barclay family from the 13th century, at which time a ...

, and the

Stonehaven Tolbooth The Stonehaven Tolbooth is a late 16th-century stone building originally used as a courthouse and a prison in the town of Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Constructed of local Old Red Sandstone, the prison probably attained its greatest not ...

, all late 16th- and early 17th-century buildings. Nineteenth-century examples are found in North America, and the step gable is also a feature of the northern- Renaissance Revival and

Dutch Colonial Revival Dutch Colonial is a style of domestic architecture, primarily characterized by gambrel roofs having curved eaves along the length of the house. Modern versions built in the early 20th century are more accurately referred to as "Dutch Colonial Rev ...

styles.

Construction

Convenient access to the roof ridge motivated the crow-step design, along with the availability of squarish stones to accomplish this form of construction. The access would have been convenient for

chimney sweep A chimney sweep is a person who clears soot and creosote from chimneys. The chimney uses the pressure difference caused by a hot column of gas to create a draught and draw air over the hot coals or wood enabling continued combustion. Chimneys ...

s and roofers in earlier times, where cranes were non-existent and tall ladders were not common. With crow steps, the roofing slates (rarely tiles) do not reach the end of the building, so making for a special problem with keeping the roof watertight. Many different schemes are found for overcoming this, some of which are described below. Terms currently used in Scotland are italicised. * Slates may be laid to the edge of the crow step, with the last slate raised by a wedge (''tilting fillet''). Then mortar (lime mortar or

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

) would be laid over the edge of the slate to seal the gap. Other solutions involve working with lead. * A groove approximately 25 mm (1 inch) deep is cut into the inside edge of the steps. A lead abutment flashing is inserted into this groove, called a chase or a ''raggle''. The lead is laid over the end slate, which is raised by a tilting fillet. * Leading is inserted into a raggle, and used to make a trough, or secret gutter, running down the inside edge of the steps. The far edge of the trough is raised over a triangular fillet. Slates are then laid resting on that trough edge and overlapping into the trough, which is open and runs directly down to gutters (''roans''). * Rather than forming a raggle, lead flashings may be placed into the joints between bricks as they are laid. When lead is to be held into a raggle, small folded lead wedges called ''bats'' are inserted at intervals and hammered in so they expand. The raggle is then sealed with mortar. Crow steps are frequently made of sandstone, even on buildings otherwise of granite, and it is said that the porous nature of sandstone leads to problems with water penetration. Because of this, crow steps are sometimes capped with lead or sealed with other materials.

Design variation

There are a number of variations on the basic design. One such structure is

Culross Palace Culross Palace is a late 16th to early 17th century merchant's house in Culross, Fife, Scotland. The palace, or "Great Lodging", was constructed between 1597 and 1611 by Sir George Bruce, the Laird of Carnock. The house was mainly built in t ...

built in 1597 which features a

veil A veil is an article of clothing or hanging cloth that is intended to cover some part of the head or face, or an object of some significance. Veiling has a long history in European, Asian, and African societies. The practice has been prominent i ...

ed woman on the crow steps. Roofs in Scotland are typically steeper than in the rest of the United Kingdom (possibly because it snows more) making for steeper and more step-like steps.

Alternative terms

The Nuttall Encyclopædia ''The Nuttall Encyclopædia: Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge'' is a late 19th-century encyclopedia, edited by Rev. James Wood, first published in London in 1900 by Frederick Warne & Co Ltd. Editions were rec ...

'' suggests this architectural feature is called ''corble steps''.''The Nuttall Encyclopaedia'', edited by Rev. James Wood, published by Frederick Warne & Company Ltd., London (1900) ''Corbie steps'' (from the Scots language ''corbie'': crow) is a more common version. Another term sometimes used is ''craw step''. In Dutch, this design is termed ' ("stair-step facade"), characteristic of many brick buildings in the Netherlands, Belgium, and in Dutch colonial settlements. A similar form is found in traditional Chinese architecture called ' ( pinyin: ''mǎtóu qiáng''), which literally means "horse-head wall".

References

External links