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Most of the villages we know today were in existence in early Norman times (1066 and all that) and each one was centred around a large estate or farm, held by a Lord from the King and called a MANOR. The peasants who were born within the area owned by the Lord of the Manor were bound to remain there, working their own share of the land but also working on the Lord's much larger share at certain times of the year.
The Lord lived in the manor house with his servants and the peasants lived in small huts covered with twigs or thatch. A person who had given good service to the King or his Lord was sometimes rewarded with his own piece of land. He was known as a YEOMAN, or Yeoman Farmer, and built his house in a distinctive style; in Kent they are known as ‘Kentish Hall Houses’ or ‘Yeoman Hall Houses’, in Sussex they are generally referred to as ‘Wealden Hall Houses’.
Several examples of this type of house are still standing today. Most have been greatly modified and modernised and extensions and extra bits have been added to them but, in many cases, the original building can still be discovered..
The frame of a hall house would be constructed first from sturdy pieces of oak hewn to shape by hand. There were no foundations, the house stood on large pieces of stone on the level, hard earth which also served as the floor. When the frame was completed the walls would be filled in with wattle, pliable twigs woven together, and plastered with mud, mixed with some unpleasant stuff; this material in known as ‘Wattle and Daub’. The original roof would have been thatched, if suitable reeds or straw were available. In some areas, where clay was plentiful, the roof may have been covered in locally made tiles.
Though glass had been discovered, it was a very expensive luxury available only to the very wealthy and was not normally used in houses of this type. Windows at this time were just rectangular holes in the wall with shutters to keep out the wind and rain. At each end of the roof there would also be an opening, to let out the smoke from the fire which burned on the floor in the centre of the hall. By modern standards this life would have been very uncomfortable, the house would be draughty, dark and smoky. The original roofing timbers of these old houses are invariably well preserved, the soot and smoke from the fire protected them from moisture and woodworm.
The main body of the hall, which was usually open to the rafters, was where the servants prepared and ate their meals and, at night time, slept; their livestock also shared the ground floor of the building. The Yeoman and his family lived on a raised section at one end of the building, over a large store room.
During the 15th and 16th centuries fireplaces with a chimney began to take the place of the open fire. They were usually massive brick constructions, often almost as wide as the end walls of the building, built with ovens and spits for preparing the food. Now that the smoke no longer drifted up into the roof it became possible to build rooms above the hall and the layout of houses became very similar to houses of today, two floors, with living rooms downstairs and bedrooms above.
Old Fred’s derelict Hall House had been converted into a barn a long time ago; the outside was covered with timber planks, called ‘weatherboards’ and a large extension, a more conventional barn, had been added. The derelict state of the building completely hid its long and interesting past
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