- - - Chapter 7 - - -

- The Times 1215-1272 -

Baron landholders' semi-fortified stone manor houses were improved and
extended. Many had been licensed to be embattled or crenelated [wall
indented at top with shooting spaces]. They were usually quadrangular
around a central courtyard. The central and largest room was the hall,
where people ate and slept. If the hall was on the first floor, the fire
might be at a hearth in the middle of the floor. Sometimes the lord had
his own chamber, with a sleeping loft above it. Having a second floor
necessitated a fireplace in the wall so the smoke could go up two floors
to the roof. Other rooms each had a fireplace. Often the hall was on the
second floor and took up two stories. There was a fireplace on one wall
of the bottom story. There were small windows around the top story and
on the inside of the courtyard. They were usually covered with oiled
paper. Windows of large houses were of opaque glass supplied by a
glassmaking craft. The glass was thick, uneven, distorted, and greenish
in color. The walls were plastered. The floor was wood with some
carpets. Roofs were timbered with horizontal beams. Many roofs had tiles
supplied by the tile craft, which baked the tiles in kilns or over an
open fire. Because of the hazard of fire, the kitchen was often a
separate building, with a covered way connecting it to the hall. It had
one or two open fires in fireplaces, and ovens. Sometimes there was a
separate room for a dairy.

Furniture included heavy wood armchairs for the lord and lady,
stools, benches, trestle tables, chests, and cupboards. Outside
was an enclosed garden with cabbages, peas, beans, beetroots,
onions, garlic, leeks, lettuce, watercress, hops, herbs, nut trees
for oil, some flowers, and a fish pond and well. Bees were kept
for their honey.

Nobles, doctors, and attorneys wore tunics to the ankle and an
over-tunic almost as long, which was lined with fur and had long
sleeves. A hood was attached to it. A man's hair was short and
curled, with bangs on the forehead. The tunic of merchants and
middle class men reached to the calf. The laborer wore a tunic
that reached to the knee, cloth stockings, and shoes of heavy
felt, cloth, or perhaps leather. Ladies wore a full-length tunic
with moderate fullness in the skirt, and a low belt, and tight
sleeves. A lady's hair was concealed by a round hat tied on the
top of her