The Growth of the English House: A short history of its architectural development from 1100 to 1800Gotch, J. Alfred (John Alfred)
History
The Growth of the English House: A short history of its architectural development from 1100 to 1800
Gotch, J. Alfred (John Alfred)
Architecture -- England; Architecture, Domestic
It consisted of two main floors (Figs. 8, 9); beneath the lower
was perhaps a store-room, although this is not certain. The debris
with which the lower part of the building is filled has not been
investigated; excavation might determine whether there ever was a
cellar, and also whether there was any internal communication with
a natural cave or passage which undoubtedly passes through the rock
beneath it, and from which a tortuous and difficult descent can be
made to the great Peak Cavern which is approached along the gorge so
frequently mentioned. Above the upper chamber was the roof, originally
of steep pitch (see section, Fig. 9), but which may have been raised
and flattened so as at once to form a third chamber and to give more
convenience for the purposes of watching and defence.
At its best, at any rate, the keep can only have contained four rooms,
and it is quite possible that it only had two. The upper and better
of these was that into which the entrance door opened (at D, Fig. 8),
a door some 6 or 8 ft. from the ground, and doubtless approached by
a wood ladder. Near this door a circular staircase of about 5 ft. in
diameter led up to the roof and down to the lower room (Fig. 9), which
was dimly lighted by two small windows, but otherwise was devoid of any
feature whatever. The floors were of wood. The upper room, about 22 by
19 ft. in size, was also lighted by two small windows; in one wall was
a _garde-robe_ (G) with a shoot corbelled out from the wall; in another
was a small mural chamber (M) occupying one corner of the building and
lighted by a very small window on two of its sides. So far, this keep
is just like many others, although on a small scale; but here there is
no sign of a fireplace or flue. Some means of warming the place, and,
on occasion, of cooking, there must have been; and the probability is
that a fire was contrived on the floor, and that the smoke was carried
away by a flue of wood and plaster. It would not have been beyond the
ingenuity of the time to provide a hearth to carry the fire.
[Illustration: 10. The Peak Castle, Derbyshire (1176).
South-west Face.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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