The Growth of the English House / A short history of its architectural development from 1100 to 1800

by J. Alfred Gotch

90. Lavenham, Suffolk.

Part of Panelled Ceiling, showing Boss at the Junction of the Wood Ribs (early 16th cent.).

The open timber roof survived in places down to the early years of the seventeenth century. But the fashion of having lofty halls then gradually fell into disuse; halls were surmounted by a room above them, and the need for a handsome roof disappeared, its place being taken by a flat, decorated ceiling.

Ceilings, such as we conceive the word, were not known in mediæval work, at any rate not until late in the fifteenth century. The ceiling was, in fact, the underside of the floor above, and its ornamental character was obtained by a regular disposition of the constructional timbers, and by working mouldings on the latter. The effect was massive and handsome, the ceiling (for want of a better word) being divided into large deeply recessed squares or oblongs by heavily moulded beams. Crowhurst Place in Surrey has a good example of this treatment (Fig. 87). In some instances the underside of the floor joists (i.e., the smaller timbers which rested on the beams and carried the floor boards) was carved, as in the curious example from a house at Lavenham in Suffolk (Fig. 88).

The origin of the ceiling as distinguished from the underside of the floor, appears to be found late in the fifteenth century, or early in the sixteenth, when the practice was introduced of covering the lower sides of the floor joists with flat boarding and dividing the level surface into panels by means of applied mouldings. Such a ceiling is found in the Bede House at Lyddington in Rutland, formerly a country house of the Bishops of Lincoln (Fig. 89). The junction of the ribs was sometimes ornamented with a carved boss such as is shown in Fig. 90, also from a house in Lavenham. This simple method of treating ceilings was developed in course of time into the elaborate plasterwork of Elizabethan houses. The room at Lyddington has a very remarkable wood cornice fashioned after the manner of the fan tracery prevalent at the end of the fifteenth century (Fig. 91). But this kind of ornament was not at all general, and it may be doubted whether any other instance of it can be cited.

91. Lyddington Bede House.

Traceried Cornice in Wood.

Staircases.—There is little to be said about mediæval staircases. They were almost universally of the corkscrew type, the steps winding round a central newel, as at Tattershall Castle (Fig. 43). There was but little opportunity for embellishment, and accordingly none is to be found, the nearest approach being the treatment of the stone handrail already shown in Fig. 44. The steps were usually of stone, the undersides being sloped off to afford as much head room as possible below them. In some instances when the summit of the staircase was reached, the roof of the enclosure was vaulted with some attention to appearances, but beyond this the ornamental treatment did not go. There are a few instances of these staircases being vaulted all the way up in brick, the steps themselves being then built up on the top of the vaulting. This was a clever and ingenious piece of brickwork, but was not especially ornamental. Indeed we have to wait until the time of Elizabeth for any display of fancy in the treatment of staircases; up to that time they were strictly utilitarian in character.

The Walls of mediæval houses were frequently left bare, but when they were covered three methods seem to have been adopted. The earliest was to apply a thin layer of plaster, a method which has survived to the present day. But whereas nowadays the plaster is of sufficient thickness to cover all the irregularities of the wall and to be brought to a perfectly true and even surface, in early times it was quite thin, and although it stopped all the crevices, it retained the main irregularities of the wall, and produced a pleasant variety of effect. The plaster was frequently decorated with coloured lines or simple patterns, and occasionally with figure subjects. The next method was to cover the walls with wainscot, that is, with oak panelling. Of this treatment few, if any, examples survive; but, judging from other Gothic woodwork, the panels must have been of considerable size set in framing of large scantling. This work was also frequently painted in colours and patterns. The third method and the last in point of date, was to cover them with hangings—tapestry or arras, as they were generally called, from the town where they were chiefly manufactured—“the costly cloths of Arras and of Tours,” as Spenser calls them.