English Domestic Architecture

Many forms of houses developed in Great Britain, which will serve here as exemplars for the evolution of European domestic architecture. The castle, an elaborate form of fortified residence, is discussed elsewhere in the encyclopedia, as is the Chateau.

 

In the Bronze Age, people at Skara Brae on the Orkney Islands lived in one-room stone houses with a central hearth; the houses were connected by passageways and used a variety of furnishings made of stone. The long house, which was common in the Iron age throughout Europe, consisted of a living room with a central hearth and a stable or byre for domestic animals. During the Dark Ages round huts made of wood or stacked stones without mortar were also common. The only surviving Anglo Saxon structures are ecclesiastical stone buildings.

 

After 1066 the Normans brought to England a type of stone house known as a keep. The high walls and small, narrow windows of the stone keep made it easier to keep out enemies and enabled its inhabitants to devote more time to domestic life. The keep, which had bedrooms, fireplaces, primitive lavatories, and a stable, was organized on several floors around a large central hall.

 

In the early Middle Ages the hall house, consisting of a single large room divided into naves and aisles by timber columns and with an interior hearth, was the common dwelling of landowners. At the end of the middle Ages the hall house, the cruck-built house, which employed large curved timbers instead of posts and rafters, and the Norman two story stone houses contributed to the development of the English rectangular house.

 

The Tudor of Elizabeth house developed during the 16^th century. Built with a timber frame, which was filled in with watt ling and clay daub that were in turn coated with plaster, the Tudor house reflected the innovations in timber construction that took place during 15^th century, and servants' quarters on one side and family bedroom and parlor on the other. In the middle was a large common room. The peace that followed the Wars of the Roses (1455-85) enabled builders to make more extensive use of glass windows.