47 Medieval Houses Facts: This Innovative Approach Will Surprise You!

The Middle Ages of European history was from the 5th-15th century when medieval houses were built.

Medieval houses stand unique with vast houses like monasteries, castles, manor houses, and even mud huts. Medieval houses varied in size and appearance depending on the owners' wealth.

The lord of the manors inherited the medieval manor house. Manor houses are huge mansions with a broadway for entry.

Later, wealthier people built their houses with very costly bricks, so most chose half-timbered houses called Tudor houses. Early peasant's homes were built with mud, simple sticks, and straw with a single room they shared with their family and their animals.

A natural disaster of famine killed a large number of the peasant population in the black death of 1348, which led to the demand for workers in the field. Landowners offered high wages to harvest their crops.

Peasants could choose landowners who paid them the highest salary, which improved their living, allowing them to afford better homes. Peasants started living in houses made of wattle and daub.

If you find this article interesting and want to know more about housing and structural homes, check out our articles on Mayan houses facts and Brazil houses facts.

Highlights Of Medieval Houses

The society in the middle ages of Europe was based on a feudal system, where the large areas of land were given to the nobles and divided between the local lords with English heritage and an individual manor.

The Medieval house that nobility and lords lived in was well built and furnished, whereas the medieval houses the peasants lived in were dark and cold.

The early medieval housing had weak designs with poor materials used by the peasants, and these houses were not substantial for them to use fire inside to cook or stand the bad weather and had to undergo lots of repairs.

Later, peasants' living improved with workers' demands due to the black death.

A new building style with wattle and daub was invented that allowed peasants to build taller and broad medieval houses. This medieval house was made of wattle, timber, and mud.

They were not very spacious, they still protected them as a shield from weather, and they could use fire inside the house to cook. Medieval housing also has a hole in the top with a thatched roof used as a chimney to let the smoke out.

The fire helped them feel warm and cook inside the house. So the new design was successful and a protective shield from weather and fire.

The Medieval house of Noblemen was substantial and still stands as evidence of their super quality. These Medieval housings were made of stone, unlike the ordinary people.

In the 13th century, the earliest form of medieval period cottages was built for the nobles. Such splendid cottages are still strong and exhibited in the open museum in England.

The early medieval homes of the nobles had two rooms, one room was for the lord of the manor and his family to sleep, and another room was with fireplaces used for heat, cooking, and eating, servants slept in the great hall.

Their crops and animals were locked up in primordial barns outside the house. The buildings were strong, made of stones, and protective.

Later the nobles upgraded to medieval period houses built with bricks. As bricks were very expensive, they were used only for walls, and timber was used for interior and support.

Tudor houses were also built during the medieval period. It's half-timbered made of wood for walls, interior, and tiles for roofs with chimneys and windows. Tudor medieval house had two floors, added floor for the servants or a separate building.

Cleaning the houses was done with water, and early tools such as broom, brushes, and sponges were used. Wealthy people hired a maid to do the job.

Construction Of Medieval Houses

People in the medieval period built their own houses with available materials like a wooden frame, straw-thatched roof, and walls with branches. Later in the middle ages, the rich used stones and bricks, and the most wealthy built a stone castle.

Medieval Castles were giant and made from stone. The castles are three kinds, the motte and bailey castle, the concentric castle, and the stone keep castle. Castles have an interior with a staircase, hallways, bedrooms, storerooms, a chapel, barracks for knights, and a gatehouse.

Medieval architecture had a timber frame, panels filled with wattle and daub. Twigs were weaved in and out to make the wattles, which will be daubed with a mixture of clay, cow dung, mutton fat, and straw.

Once dried, cow hair and lime plaster were used to patch the cracks. Bricks and shaping natural stone were very expensive, so was used only by the rich.

Townhouses in East Grinstead were two stores, with small frontage and 12 ft (3.2 m) wide. The 14th century was popular with jetties which made more room for the upper story, also protecting the lower level from the intense weather. Wealden houses were more popular, which was substantial.

Ideation Of Medieval Houses

Classical, medieval architecture style has influenced, merged, and redefined their ideas, styles in our homes and the neighborhood deep with their roots. Traveling back in times, in the fifth century after the fall of Rome and before Renaissance culture and fashion flourished.

Church buildings were dominant, but architecture on the domestic with clustered thatched-roof houses in villages and Italian tiled-roof hill towns, windows, walls framed with stacked stone or timber frames.

Many styles were adapted from medieval architecture, adding their classical details to materials used, characteristics, simple form, massing, or their irregular shape marking their roots in folk or vernacular architecture. Some of these architecture styles include saltbox houses, gothic revival style, tidewater houses, transitional gothic style, shingle style, Tudor style, and Queen Anne.

Security Precautions: Medieval Houses

In the Medieval period, people were not secure as they are today, and people were in chaos, continuous danger, and threat for various things.

In the middle ages, thatched roofs led to a fire, a severe problem, so a new law was passed in 1221 prohibiting the use of thatch, and it started to use wooden shingles for the roof.

If the lords of the manor needed an army for the king, or the nobles wanted them to protect their keep (fortified tower), or if there was a warning of an assault, they had to fight. This led to many death and insecurity in their lives.

To secure themselves, they chose measures as taking over a castle or massive attacks.

Such as our home security forces which focus on security or alarming before the intrusion of a thief or criminal instead of repelling. Today we have advanced technologies to keep us secure and protected from intruders.

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