![]() ![]() The use of the word continues into modern English as, for example, a water butt and possibly, but not certainly, the occupation of butler. The name is derived from Latin buttis – a “cask” via the Old French bot – “bottle”. Instead, the buttery was used for storing barrels or butts containing ales and wines. The pantry contained foodstuffs and derives its name from Old French paneterie – “bread”. The buttery, despite its title, has no connection with butter. The Enclosed Long HallĪ significant change in house building appeared around 1300 when the open hall design and layout began to enclose internal bays with walls or screens to create separate rooms, or “chambers”, each with a specific function. Typically bay one – the “lower end” – was subdivided into two store rooms – the “pantry” and the “buttery” – neither of which required heating. Kitchens in this period were typically housed in a separate building. Medieval halls were the essence of communal living being home to the owner, his family, his workforce, and house servants. The plan example shown above has five posts per side creating four internal bays. It derives from old French bae – “hole ” and the earlier Latin bado meaning “I am open.” You will see frequent reference to historic buildings being one, two, three, four, and even five bay.Ī bay in architectural terms is the space between each upright and defined as “the distance between two supports in a building with a pitched roof”. Roofs were thatched with straw or reed. Two entrance doors were set opposite each other and an open hearth fire was located centrally whilst avoiding a cross member to minimise the risk of setting the building alight. ![]() The gaps between were filled with additional supporting timbers and panels made from what was the most abundant local solution – wattle and daub, lath and plaster, compacted mud, clunch, or clay bats. Vertical timber posts were set at or into the ground at regular intervals, joined width-ways at the highest point by a cross member or “tie beam” and topped by the roof joists. Internally they were open from wall to wall and from floor to roof. In basic terms, long halls were three to four times longer than they were wide with a pitched roof. Our use of the word hall has somewhat grand connotations but in Old English pre-1150AD – a heall was simply “a roofed space” There is a caveat regarding Chiswick House in as much as it does contain a timber beam dated 1340 but this may have been taken from an earlier building and reused or, perhaps the inner core of the building is, in fact, Medieval. The remainder are predominantly 17th and 18th century. The two oldest half-timbered buildings in Meldreth are Chiswick House and The Green Man in North End – both early to mid-1500s and therefore considered to be Early Modern. Prior to the Norman invasion in 1066 the Anglo Saxons were building wooden-framed open long halls and it is reasonable to assume these were influenced by earlier Roman buildings. Wood was widely available, its cost was low and, compared to stone, it was relatively easy to transport and to use. Buildings have been constructed from wood from time immemorial. To better understand the historic buildings in Meldreth it is worthwhile considering what came before and how Medieval design traditions completely influenced house building in the Early Modern period.
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