ABSTRACT

Houses were built to meet the various requirements of the occupants in terms of protection from the weather, a place to sleep and cooking facilities, usually an open fire. Larger houses would also offer a place for gatherings. The early and simpler houses had less division of space and indeed, in some rural buildings such as longhouses, there was little separation between the space for people and that for the animals. However, where the economic circumstances permitted, there were opportunities to enlarge and diversify space and purpose. An examination of the layout plans of houses can therefore tell us about the history of a house, its age and purpose. Brunskill (1981) identifies five main types of plans for vernacular houses as H-shaped hall houses, Wealden houses, cross-passage, baffle entry and double-pile houses: