THE DEVELOPMENT of the ENGLISH HOUSE

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 2, Issue 3, 1 September 1923, Page 18

THE DEVELOPMENT of the ENGLISH HOUSE

by REGINALD FORD, f.r.g.s.. f.s. Arc

“No chapter in the history of rational manners would illustrate so well, if duly executed, the progress of social life as that dedicated to domestic architecture.”

I. INTRODUCTORY IN a recent address the Prince of Wales said that "We have only to turn the pages of history to realise that a nation's art is the mirror of its mind; the quality of the one is a true reflection of the quality of the other.'' Architecture —the mother of the arts —has through the ages in an especial manner thus mirrored the advance of civilisations, whether ancient or modern; whether in the East or the West. There is. no surer index of social progress other record so clear and readable the records left by the hands of men as they

strove to erect buildings to house their families or their gods. In the architecture of the Parthenon and PropyUua, for example, the extreme refinement of the Periclean age in Athens has been revealed to a world which has not ceased to wonder. In the words quoted at the head of this article, England great constitutional historian claims a pre-eminent place as a mirror of social progress for the story of the development of domestic architecture.

Beyond its importance as a record of social progress, however, the story of the development of the English house from very humble beginnings to the comfortable homes which we occupy to-day has a great interest in itself.

From my window, as 1 write, I can see one house with a battlemented parapet —a strikingly incongruous feature, it is true —another with a '' -timber '' porch, yet another with a cornice of classical derivation. I can see in various houses windows with heads square and circular, with sashes casement and double-hung. All these, and other details of design and construction which may be observed in our daily walks, indicate some stage in the story of the house, some step in its development first taken perhaps some centuries ago. Surely it will add greatly to the interest of our lives, as we go about our work or enjoy our leisure in our homes, to know something of their derivation from the early hut of our rude forefathers or the castles of our Norman ancestors. For these, with the gableended stone manor houses or the halftimber houses of the Englishmen of later days, have all had some part in the making of the modern, home. In this and succeeding papers the writer hopes to trace the story of the development of the house, to tell in as connected manner as may be something of its growth from the simplest cell to a complex structure; to write of its ancient beauty, of the loving craftsmanship bestowed upon it; also, alas! of its decline to the ugliness of recent years. For it is a fact that a comparison of the houses of almost any old town or village in the Old Country unspoilt by modern development with a 'ike group of modern houses confirms the view that, broadly speaking, the - old is beautiful and the new ugly. In view of the words quoted at the commencement of this paper, the truth of which cannot be denied, this is a matter calling for some serious thinking. As we proceed we may sometimes pause to tell some story attaching to homes which come within our view; for these old English homes are rich in memories. These memories are sometimes .just sweetly human and sometimes nobly stirring; for the story of these homes is intimately .associated with the story of England 's glorious past. One caution must here be given. It must not be understood that the course of development which will be sketched in these papers is that which was followed with mechanical regularity. While the builders would, of necessity, follow a traditional method of planning and style of building,

there would be variations according to personal tastes and preferences. The even course of development, too, would be interrupted by many local conditions. Of these conditions the stage of social progress reached in a particular part of the country would have a great influence. In the Border Counties, for instance, a form of keep, the peel-tower, remained in use for long after such a form had been abandoned in the more settled districts removed from the border. Amongst other factors moulding domestic architecture and complicating the story of its development were the existence, side by side, of widely differing social strata, the intrusion of foreign forms, and the use of varied materials and methods of construction. But if this caution is kept in mind, no harm is done for the purpose in view in dividthe history of domestic architecture into convenient periods. At any one of these periods there would be much overlapping, but, nevertheless, a continuous development may be tiaced. 11. THE BEGINNINGS IN a conversation some years ago a legal friend remarked to the writer that an interesting history might be written upon the influence of the child upon crime. He meant that many crimes had been committed for the sake of children ami their support. Another friendan architect —immediately countered by saying that a more interesting history might be written with the influence of the child upon architecture as its subject; for the provision of shelter and protection of the child had been the motive animating the builders of the first tree shelter or sod hut. One writer has said: "The love of father and mother for child antedated the love of husband and wife. For the child's sake were undertaken the labours by which men emerged from the savage's dependence upon what Nature furnished without other toil than that of gathering her gifts. It was for the child's sake that the field was cleared of weeds, fenced and tilled, and the plants whose seed or roots were most suitable for human food were sought and encouraged. For the child's sake softer clothing than the skins of wild beasts was obtained. And for the child sake a home was devised to protect it against the heat of summer and the cold of

winter. Its little hand has held the marshal's baton in the great march of human progress.'' The earliest forms of house thus devised for the safety and comfort of the child were tree-houses, caves and pits. The tree-houses were not luxurious habitations like that one described in the "Swiss Family Robinson" of our youth, complete with door, glazed window, and even staircase, but huts built of reeds and clay upon a rude platform of branches, such as may be seen in New Guinea (Fig. 1), the Philippines, and other tropical countries to this day. In these shelters the thatched roof kept off rain and heat, refuge could be found in them from floods, and, with the frail ladder made from branches drawn up, the occupants were free from invasion by enemies of their own kind or the ravages of wild beasts. With parts of England covered with dense forests it is not unreasonable to assume that tree-

houses were used by the inhabitants of early Britain as by other primitive peoples. The tree plays a notable part in the sacred traditions of primitive mankind, and in those of the Northern races there are many memories of the connection of the tree with the house. Beaders of William Morris will remember the '' branstock" which grew in the hall of the Volsung King: "So therein withal was a marvel and a glorious thing to see. For amidst of its midmost hall-floor sprang up a mighty tree.

That reared its blessings roofward, and wreathed the roof-tree dear With the glory of the summer and the garland of the year. . . . When men tell of Volsung, they call that war-duke's tree, That crowned stem, the Bran-stock; and so was it told to me.'' From prehistoric times until the present day there have been cavedwellers. In hilly countries openings in the hillside, perhaps enlarged and strengthened, would give ready shelter and safety to the home-makers. In caves have been found the earliest human remains. It is possible that at least in some cases caves were the earliest shelters of mankind, and gave the inspiration to form artificial caves or huts when migration brought a people into the open country, where there were no hillsides, and, in consequence, no caves. The cave-house must have been comfortless — draughty, and smoky. But cavedwellers were primitive folk, inured to hardships, and probably did not complain overmuch. Some years ago the writer visited, in the Spanish Province of Almeria, a veritable cave town. Here were large numbers of people dwelling contentedly and happily in caves, some of the most primitive kind, but some having properlyformed doors and doorways, and fire-

pig. .'i. places with chimneys projecting from the rock like small lighthouse towers. The chimney towers presented an extraordinary appearance when approaching the ' town. In some rare instances the cave-horse had been enlarged by the addition of a room with walls of plastered brickwork and roof of tilestrue examples in execution of the architectural dictum that a house should appear to belong to the site, to grow out of the ground! In the British Isles relics of the cave-folk have been found in Somerset, Derbyshire, Pembrokeshire, and many other parts of the country. After the cave-dwellers in Great Britain came the pit-dwellers. Many examples of pit-dwellings have been found, and examination of the relics found therein has given indications of their inhabitants. ''We can now people these cheerless primitive pitdwellings with their ancient inhabitants, and understand something of their manners of life and customs. Their rude abodes had probably coneshaped roofs made of rafters lashed together at the centre, protected by an outside coat of peat, sods of turf, or rushes. The spindle-whorl is evidence that they could spin thread; the mealing-stones show that they knew how to cultivate corn; and the bones of the animals found in their dwellings testify to the fact that they were not in the wild state of primitive hunters, but possessed herds of cows and goats, and other domestic animals.'' From certain indications it is thought that these pit-dwellings were in use until round about the second and first centuries B.C. In passing, it may be just noted that at Glastonbury and elsewhere in the British Isles remains of lakedwellings have been found. These houses were built, on piles of tree trunks, sharpened with stone or bronze tools, and driven into the beds of rivers or lakes. Upon these piles were erected platforms of timber, brushwood and clay. The dwellings were evidently built of timber, the spaces between the wood being filled with wattle and daub. In the centre of the floor of each dwelling was

a hearth, and the discovery of several small crucibles shows that the inhabitants knew how to work in metal. Amongst the earliest of space enclosing and space covering buildings used by people in a primitive stage of culture, in widely scattered regions, is the conical hut. Conical huts of branches fixed in the ground and tied together at their upper ends are still in use in England and elsewhere by charcoal burners. The sketch, Fig. 2, shows one of these huts in South Yorkshire. This example was 9 feet in diameter at the base and (i feet high in the centre, internal measurement. The poles forming the cone were covered with sods. The circular shape must have been inconvenient, and its size was limited by its method of construction. A later development was to make the house oblong on plan, with straight sides and circular ends. This necessitated the use of a horizontal pole lengthwise of the hut to support' ; the sloping poles of the sides. The introduction of this ridgepole marked the commencement of a method of wooden roof construction which has continued in the same form over since. In the early days it was thought that the ridge-pole or beam supported the rafters, and it was, in consequence, made of a heavy piece of timber, and supported at intervals -by a strong vertical post resting on a stone base, Pig. 3. As the buildings grew in length, a number of these supporting posts were thought to be necessary, and running as they did down the centre of the house, doubtless proved a source of inconvenience to the occupants. Some building genius then discovered that the ridge-piece was really not necessary as a support, but was only required as a matter of convenience, as a means of securing the tops of the sloping poles or rafters. It followed that the vertical supports were not necessary, and another advance was made in planning and construction. At some stage, too, the use of circular ends — the remaining survival of the conical hut—was abandoned, and the dwellings became rectangularstill simple cells, however. A very curious survival of a house of this typewith no side walls distinct from the sloping roof to be seen at Scrivelsby. in Lincolnshire, and is shown in the sketch, Fig. 4. It is known locally as "Teapot Hall." The date of 'its erection is uncertain, but cannot be later than the Middle Ages. It measures 19 feet square on plan. It is an excellent example of the persistence of an early form through a subsequent period in which more advanced forms had become almost universal. For a type of dwelling having vertical side walls was in common use some centuries before the probable date of erection of "Teapot Hall." This type—of which there are actual examples remaining to-day—was the direct ancestor of all modern timber houses. But a description must be deferred until our next paper. Although the Roman occupation, strangely enough, had no influence upon the development of English domestic architecture, it is interesting to note here that side by side with the primitive wooden huts there could then be found villas of advanced forms of construction and decoration. For the Roman carried with him the refinements of his civilisation. lie, too, adapted his dwellings to the climate in which he lived. In England he built houses more enclosed than those in the sunny south, with rooms well protected from the weather, and heated with hypocausts. These were furnaces made beneath the house to heat air which was admitted into the

rooms by earthenware tine-tiles. The Soman gentleman was thus independent of the Power Board of those days! The houses had both summer and winter quarters, and when the

cold weather arrived the family took to the winter rooms heated by the hypocaust.

FIG. 4. The floors were made of tesserae, arranged in beautiful designs, many examples of which have bean found in Great Britain. The halls, too, were decorated with paintings representing the poetry of nature, the stories of the gods, and the legends of his beloved country from which he was exiled. With the beautiful fcesselated pavement, the richly decorated Avails, the statues and fountains, the home of a Roman gentleman resident in Great Britain must have presented a very bright appearance and have formed a great contrast to the primitive dwellings of the native inhabitant. (To be continued.)