Bargeboard is a board fastened to the projecting gable

Gable

A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...

s of a roof

Roof

A roof is the covering on the uppermost part of a building. A roof protects the building and its contents from the effects of weather. Structures that require roofs range from a letter box to a cathedral or stadium, dwellings being the most numerous....

 to give them strength and to mask, hide and protect the otherwise exposed end of the horizontal timber

Timber

Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...

s or purlins of the roof to which they were attached. Bargeboards are sometimes moulded only or carved, but as a rule the lower edges were cusped and had tracery in the spandrel

Spandrel

A spandrel, less often spandril or splaundrel, is the space between two arches or between an arch and a rectangular enclosure....

s besides being otherwise elaborated. The richest example in Britain is one at Ockwells

Ockwells

Ockwells Manor is a timber-framed 15th century manor house in the civil parish of Cox Green, adjoining Maidenhead, in the English county of Berkshire. It was previously in the parish of Bray....

 in Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

(built 1446-1465), which is moulded and carved as if it were intended for internal work.