ALVATIA: Cottage Styles

ALVATIA: City of Wedburgh

Cottage Styles in Alvatia

Peasant homes in Alvatia follow traditional designs, slightly different in each county.

Construction

The peasant cottage is a cruck-framed, thatch roofed, wattle and daub structure.

The basic elements of cruck framing are the pairs of oak timbers, leaning against each other in the shape of the bow of a canoe. The timbers are set in stone-lined foundation holes set 12 to 15 feet apart, and meet about 11 to 14 feet off the ground. The distance between the "feet" of a frame is also the distance between pairs of frames; we are calling the resulting square section of floor a "bay."

Once the peasant family and the village wright have erected the cruck frames, a ridge beam connects the gable ends together. Each cruck pair is connected partway up by a beam, forming giant letter "A"s. Roughly hewn lumber, or even straight branches, are used to make the open frame for the roof, and the vertical open framing on the sides and ends of the house. The height of the side walls is about half the total height of the building.

The peasants now fill the open framing of the sides and ends with wattle -- a woven mat of small branches, willow, reeds and grass. Openings are left for the doors and windows. The wattle is then covered, inside and out, with daub: a mixture of mud, clay, animal hair, and dung. The walls are left unpainted, and need repair every few years; a hole can be knocked in one by a powerful kick. The components of the daub smell most strongly when a cottage is new, or gets wet after being dry for a season.

The thatcher, meanwhile, covers the roof frame with a thick mat of reeds and rye straw, tied and pegged to the frame. The roof is laid with a steep 45 degree pitch, to encourage water to run off quickly and to tension the thatch. An opening is left in the thatch over the middle of the hall, for a smoke hole. On the sides, the thatch comes down to about 5 feet off the ground (cattle will eat it if it comes any lower). The thatch quickly becomes a home for spiders and other insects; bits of straw drop off from time to time, and the interior of the cottage smells of either wet or dry hay (depending on the season). A well-made thatch roof will last for decades with proper maintenance (renewing the ridge straw every few years). When winter begins, firewood will be stacked almost up to the eaves along the back wall of the house.

In larger cottages, another loft is constructed above the pantry, with a ladder leading down into the hall. This loft space, which will usually have a shuttered window at the gable end, is used for further storage, or another sleeping space (called a solar).

The exterior doors are made from heavy, roughly hewn oak boards. Two iron staps across the boards end in hinges attached to the doorframe. There is often a considerable gap between the bottom of the door and the stone threshold.

These cottages are very flammable.

Contents

One bay of all but the smallest cottages will be the byre (12' by 12' to 15' by 15'). Chickens, pigs, oxen and other animals are stabled here, in three or four flimsy stalls separated by wicker dividers. Another wicker, or wattle-and-daub, wall divides the byre from the rest of the cottage; sometimes a doorway will be left in this wall. The space above the byre is used as a storage loft, with a crude floor of branches and split timber. Sickles, a flail, a scythe, an iron-rimmed spade, a billhook, yokes, a stone maul, a weeding crook and hook, some baskets, a pair of leather gloves, a pitchfork, a wooden rake, a seedlip (seeding-basket with shoulder strap) and other agricultural tools are kept here. If the cottager owns a plow or harrow, they will often be kept in an unused stall. A ladder made of flimsy rungs tied to two fairly straight branches is used to reach this loft. A rough door, wide enough for an ox to use, leads outside from the byre. The dirt floor of a byre in use is thick with mud, hay, and manure at all times, adding to the aroma from the walls and the roof. The byre never has a window.

The center bays of the cottage form the hall (12' x 12' to 15' x 30'). The hard-packed dirt floor is covered with fresh rushes or reeds once a week in most villages. A hearth, built from flat stones, is set into the floor directly under the ridge-beam; the roof beams and thatch above the hearth are quickly darkened with soot from the fire. An iron tripod (wooden in the poorest families) supports an iron cauldron over the hearth. A circular pottery "firestopper" is used to put out the fire. One or two trestle tables are set in the hall, along with a few wooden stools and chest benches. These chest benches hold, among other things, the bedding (of fabric, leather, or skin). In households that work with wool, a floor loom, distaff spindles, shears, iron, dyes in small pots, and carding brushes will be here. If a "main" door outside exists in the hall, it will have a flat stone set in the threshold, to keep the entry from become a mud puddle in winter. Windows are unglazed, but have wooden shutters fitted on metal hinges. With the low eaves of the thatch roof, much of the light within the hall enters through the smoke-hole. Hooks, pegs, and small shelves on the wall and roof beams provide storage for utensils and some foodstuffs.

If more than three bays exist, the last bay will be a pantry (12' x 12' to 15' x 15'). Doors to the outside, front and back, open into this bay, forming a cross passage. They, too, have stone thresholds, to prevent puddles from forming on the dirt floor; in smaller houses, these are the main front and back doors for the family. Windows are rarely built for this bay. The pantry bay (if present) is usually divided from the hall by a wicker, or wattle-and-daub, wall with a door set in it. One side of the pantry (the pantry proper) is used for food storage, and has a few shelves built onto the outside walls; the simple cooking implements are also kept here. The other half of this bay is the buttery, where ale and dairy products are kept in barrels, jars, nets and tubs. A wicker, or wattle-and-daub, wall often separates the pantry and buttery.

Variations and Regional Differences

The variety of Alvatian cottages is expressed by size, features, and construction details.

Cottars will normally live in a two bay house, with no division wall between the byre and the hall. A single door in the byre bay will serve all of the residents, both animal and human. Two windows, one on each side of the hall, admit air and light.

The slightly better off villeins are typically found in three bay houses. The byre, with cross passage and two doors, is separated from the two-bay hall by a wicker wall. Two to four windows open from the hall.

Most freemen possess a four bay home. The byre will be fully separated from the two-bay hall by a wattle-and-daub wall; the hall will have a door to the outside and two or three windows. The pantry bay, still with cross passage and two doors, has a loft usuable for sleeping. Stone fireplaces, with chimneys, are found in a portion of these cottages; if so, there is probably no floor hearth.

Huts of only one bay are rarely used as dwellings, except by absolutely poor peasants. Instead, they house bakeries, breweries, manorial kitchens, stables, etc.

Stairs, built-in benches, and second stories are uncommon but not unknown. Some cottages have been built with rubble and mortar replacing the wattle-and-daub, in the style of some urban buildings.

Buildings of five or six bays normally represent inns, or are found in the lord's manor yard as barracks, etc. At this size, they may be found built in a "L" shape.

In a few areas where timber is not readily available, peasant cottages are built with unmortared stone walls. These buildings are far more durable, but require vastly more labor than cruck-framed buildings. Details of roofing and floorplan remain much the same.

In the county of Irenndil, almost all buildings are painted with whitewash; this helps to waterproof and preserve the wattle-and-daub walls. The ridge-beams here are extended three or four feet past the gables, and carved into strange rams-horn curls.

The prosperous peasants of the Fimark build elaborate ceramic fireplace hoods and tubular chimneys; most houses of three bays or more will have a proper fireplace here. Some will also have tiled floors in the hall and pantry. Trellises of lath, and simple window boxes, decorate the exterior of these cottages.

Along the coast of Axemoor, large flat rocks are placed on the thatch, and tied down; this helps prevent the roof from blowing off during winter storms.

In some of the more remote southern parts of Vilgarth, the woodsmen roof their cottages with shingles.