your period house your period home
Roofs with a gable often have a 'bargeboard'; this wooden panel of a gable end usually has some decorative carving but can be plain. As with most details, more modest houses have plain gables, with the most pattern in the middle Victorian decades. Edwardian bargeboards tend to be fairly simple in design.
These examples show all the elements of the most elaborate bargeboard:
mid-Victorian gable
mid-Victorian gable
late-Victorian or Edwardian with applied moulding
late-Victorian or Edwardian gable with applied moulding
late-Victorian or Edwardian gable
Edwardian gable with deep foot
Edwardian gable, very plain
High Victorian porch gable
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Do you want new bargeboards for your house? The photos here are all original or authentic replacements.
Because of the many variations in pattern, length, width and angles, they have to be custom-made; look for a local carpenter who can make them for you.
Make sure they use a hardwood as modern softwood will not last well in such an exposed position.
If you a good DIY-er, some patterns are easier to make – with a basic board with one routed edge, and then one or more mouldings applied on top. Even a design with simple holes eg a trefoil would be fairly easy, but the more complex swagged designs would be hard.