Once a year, over a few days in the summer, a covering of sour milk was poured over the earth floor and allowed to set. It eventually hardened like linoleum and proves easy to keep clean. Rushes were added for insulation in winter and to absorb dirt and spillage; swept out regularly. I know this because my neighbour still does this with their Tudor barn.
Omg that is a true treat to hear these details. I would never have guessed but always wondered about the dirt floors. Thank you for sharing this . 👍🏼❤️
Thank you for all your lovely comments. We live in a Tudor house ourselves and are constantly amazed by the amount of people who photograph the Victorian 'mock' Tudor building opposite! So, we thought we would share the secrets with you to spot 'the real Tudor' from the 'mock Tudor'.
Loving these little tidbits of factual information. It's a great bit of information, that I've always wondered about.. In the states the only thing I've toured are old civil war plantations , Biltmore or old presidents homes . I love your rich history. I've always been drawn to the Europeans and the History it mirrors . The old ones that still stand and the ones we have been told about and shown through art and journals.👍🏼❤️.
When people romanticize about wanting to live in the medieval or even Victorian past, I think about what I would miss: indoor flush toilets; hot baths, showers, cooking and clean laundry on demand; bug and rodent-free, brightly lighted living spaces; and most of all - modern pain-free medical and dental services. Oh, yes, and this iPad and Internet!
Exactly. Life was not all that great. Everyone sat in one common room. No privacy.. They didn't have chimneys, but a hole in the roof. But at least the thatched roofs eventually allowed the smoke to clear out because air could make it's way through them, water droplets, not so much. The floors were dirt. Of course, some people weaved together reeds to form a crude floor that had to be replaced each year. Before laying down the floor, it was important to scattered certain aromatic herbs on the ground to get all the bugs at bay. Lice was rampant. As you note, so were rodents. Traveling about on the road was very dangerous because they lurked with "highway" men who would rob you--or worse.
Years ago there was a British "reality" show aired on PBS. The participants had to live exactly as those in the Victorian era! From clothing down to their weekly budget and availability of groceries, cleaning supplies etc.. They supplied a local market with period items the housewife could purchase. The amount of labor a Victorian housewife had to do daily was astounding. Hands raw from lye soaps, laundry with a wash board, shoveling coal to make meals or heat water.. diet choices were very limited for the city dweller of meager income (the average person of the day). I remember the husband had a regular day job, so he walked to work everyday in full period garb. It was actually fascinating. I found it. "The 1900 House" here on RUclips.
The reason I was given for jettied floors was very pragmatic. Due to the use of mechanical jointing of timber with mortice and tenon joints etc there is a limit on how many sections of timber can be connected at a junction without cutting so much timber from studs, plates and joists which would weaken the structure. Therefore the walls are offset to limit this issue, placing the upper floor outboard of the lower not only means there is weather protection but due to the turning moment/loading of the joint it aids in the structure locking together.
That sounds very credible. A further reason I was told a long time ago is that it stopped bouncing in the floor joists, which were laid broad side up, as opposed to more modern joists which are laid narrow side up. Having two opposing and offset points of contact at each end of the joist was supposed to make them more rigid.
@@chriswoodworth1894 I think that as the jetty means that there is a turning moment around the ground floor walls at the ends it must almost have a similar effect to post tensioning concrete floor slabs by putting in a tensile force to the top of the floor what you say sounds reasonable too
I heard that the development of jettied upper floors came about due to the cost of land lease/rent/tax(?) for a property based on the area of ground floor used. So jettied upper floors came about as a way to increase interior space while dodging increased charges.
@@nathanhobson1142 I think this is the most known explanation, but I think it might be something of a popular myth, or only partially the reason. It's the same with the popular 17th century Dutch ship design called "Fluyt". It had a small upper deck and was wider below. Again people started saying the shipping taxes were based on the upper deck size, so they changed the ship design, but it's more like a joke and not the real explanation.
Lucky you to live in a Tudor house, however the window tax was brought in by William lll, 1696-1851 which is why you will see some houses of that period with bricked up windows.
Excellent work. We live in a Tudor house - or at least, I've traced it backto 1540, it may well be a bit earlier. however, it's stone - there's not many 'typical' B&W Tudor period propertties here in somerset, but a lot of stone ones. Good point on the (lack of) foundations though - this can put people off, but in my vew it's been here for 500 - odd years, it's not going anywhere fast! All it means for us is a few rather scary, but harmless, cracks in some window mullions.
Is that the area with more orangey-red stone? I read about one area that has a lot of tudor houses left but they're a different colour due to being near a high quality quarry?? Might not be Somerset tho, my memory is bad 😅
@@sophroniel Somerset - South Somerset, Most villages around here are made of Ham Stone. It's orange/yellow and looks lovely. Plus, walls 18" thick make for excellent insulation!
I've read that a properly prepared and installed thatched roof lasted (and lasts) about 20 years, which compares well with the 20-25 years of modern shingles used in North America. As to toilet habits, while people in Tudor England may have behaved as you say, outhouses and privies were common. I've seen them marked on historical plans (some drawings from the era, others figured out archeologically) of streets, alleys, closes, and palaces. They were labeled either 'privy', 'privies', or 'jakes'. Inns often had them outside the inn, and I've read they were probably used as public toilets. With the frequent rain and the dirt roads, I'd think most people would have been happy to do what they could to keep from adding human feces to the muck in the streets. I've also heard fairly recently a couple of different things about throwing household garbage and chamber pots into the street. First is, the refuse was carried to a ditch in the middle of the street where all of that was supposed to go -- an open sewer, which isn't great, but it's a lot better than scattering about. Most of all, it wasn't dumped willy-nilly out of upstairs windows on people below. There were some examples of people doing this as protest against specific officials as they passed by that were published on broadsheets as editorial cartoons and/or written about, and people in later times misinterpreted that as the everyday custom. Dogs and pigs did root in the ditch for edible scraps, which could spread the garbage about a bit. Many settlers here in the US had packed dirt floors in their (first) houses as they spread west. This lasted long enough that elderly people just a few decades ago remembered these floors and/or had older relatives who had lived with them. They were not dusty, but were swept as other floors as part of regular housekeeping. People even put rugs down on them, often due to their main drawback, which is that they are cold in cold weather. OTOH, they helped cool a house in hot weather.
You do realize how awful the weather was/is in England, most of the time? Do you think the majority of the villagers went back and forth to public privies? In the heyday of the Palace of Versailles, men frequently relieved themselves in the corridors, behind a door or in a corner. They also had “pissing walls.”
@@quicklykay You miss my point, which is that there were privies available to people when they were out and about, like modern public toilets, so they did not have to relieve themselves in the streets.
@@LynxSouth People were not has inhibited about peeing etc in the street as they are today, to them it was normal. Even in the Palace of Versailles people peed in the corridors etc as the 'privies' were too far away. Also can you imagine the state of these public privies? I doubt they were regularly cleaned out and would have smelt horrifically, people probably avoided them.
@@janetpendlebury6808 Outdoor toilets in state and national parks in the summertime can reek to the point people can hardly breathe, but they'll still stand in line to use them even when there are all sorts of convenient bushes around. It's what your society expects of you and what it will allow that determines almost all behavior. I'm sure their behavior differed somewhat from today's, and also varied by country, region, city, town, village, century, decade, the preferences of whichever church and civil official was in power, as well as individual standard _just as it does today._ I've known about the behavior at Versailles for decades. How aristos with a centuries-long international reputation for decadence and depravity behaved in northern France didn't dictate social mores and habits among ordinary folk in York or Edinburgh in previous centuries any more than it does now.
Once worked in a house built around an old oak tree. The staircase was attached to the trunk, the limbs were visible in places and formed support for floor joists etc. Then a conventional timber frame was built around the whole lot, with wattle and daub walls. Owner said this was quite common at the time, tho rare to find now. Cannot remember the age/period of the house. Location Cheshire area, England, UK.
That Lopsided House with orange colured plaster at 9.25 m is in Lavenham Suffolk. It is said that the Nursery Ryhme, '' There was a Crooked man, who lived in a Crooked house, he Walked a Crooked Mile' etc, was inspired by this house. It has a incredible lean, I can't see how anyone could live in it, though it looks well kept.
We saw the Tudor house with an inside privy (a hole on a seat connected to a wall on the second story which you'd use and it all went down to a patch of ground below) which you showed in a photo--at the Weald and Downing Living Museum. =) Also the fire in the middle of the room before the wider use of brick fireplaces was also in that house. They had a little section of the wall open and you could see the sticks. It amazes me how long they've lasted! When were in Canterbury we saw more Tudor buildings and wondered if the wooden beams ever had to be replaced---500 years without much rot especially in England where they get rain so often seems incredible.
An extremely interesting video, thoroughly researched and highly informative. One small point, however:- the term "threshold" is a mis-hearing of the Old English word "threscold", which merely meant "point of entry", and had nothing to do with holding anything. Later, people trying to find an explanation of the new version of the word must have assumed that rushes and other floor coverings were called "thresh" - which may or may not be the case, but I have to say that I find it extremely unlikely - and they then invented an "explanation" that suited their theory.
Exactly. One does not thresh rushes anyway, anymore than you could winnow them. They were called thresh because it looked similar to wheat reaching the threshing point, if i remember correctly?
Tudor is not medieval. it is early modern age. Henry VII ended the medieval period by defeating the Plantagenet's. You assertion that hoses are white washed is also incorrect. Areas have traditional colours. Yellow and pink being two of them. The easiest way to tell if a house is Tudor/Jacobean is to look at the main supporting beams and see if they sit on Pad Stones. This helps preserve the wooden frame but over time the bottom of the uprights does decay causing the twisting of the frame. Also wattle and daub is a heavy clay soil mixed with manure and a binding agent like straw or horse hair.
I’m so delighted that I stumbled upon your Channel! Your videos are extremely interesting and sometimes funny, (I was referring to your “War of The Roses” video I just watched but, I didn’t comment. Sorry about that but it is 3:55 AM. I’ve since had my morning coffee.) You’ve done a wonderful job explaining and editing... Your commentary is spot on and your voice is pleasant. Thank you 😊
Small nitpick about chimneys: brick fireplaces, in the beginning, were part of the problem, as it was more the lack of a flue that circulated too much sooty air (aka carbon & unburned fuel) in the chimney space, which could set itself alight and set the roof & rooms ablaze, whether it was chimney or not. It was, I believe , after a village/town burning down twice within 5 years (possibly was stratford on avon??) that the first health & safety law went on the books; it mandated that chimneys must be swept half-yearly, and then it changed to quarterly a few years later, and you had to do it more often if you had X amount of chimneys. TL;DR bricks didn't save chimneys, flues did.
Cleveland, Ohio during the early 20th century became the home of a great deal of europeans. The east side is filled with buildings that take a great deal of inspiration from tudors In spite of Clevelands demise and the particularly heavy architectural damage to it's East side a great deal of its beautiful historic and timeless buildings have been saved. They're now staying to take more design ques from these earlier eras instead of the 21st century look that's so forgettable and sterile. I much appreciate the architecture so many of those across the pond had brought over, thank you!
the oldest house I have lived in was ~1880, Nieder Ulm, outside Mainz My Mom hated that her measuring cups showed sloping ingedients when put on the counters Our current house is ~1893, yeah out of square + sloped; have done what I can towards seismic resistance with 1928 concrete foundation
Seems to me: I was soooo lucky to have spent time in Stratford Upon Avon. While in Anne Hathaways' Cottage they were explaining Dinner. Because the Women wore many skirts and undergarments they would put a "piss pot" under those garments so they didnt have to leave the table! When dinner was done the food and plates were removed. The table top was designed so that it tipped up and all scraps etc could be swept onto the floor. The floor had hay on it. They would sweep the hay out and replace with fresh hay. Mice and rats were a problem as well as 💩 and pee on the street causing health havoc in Shakespearean times. The tour and Stratford itself cannot be justly described. Ya just dony forget it.
Good information, thank you. people did not live as long back then, either. Reading was not as common. The printing press and inking process and paper use for it was developed after the 1480s, which is the equivalent of our internet era, so there were a lot of smartypants types around just like there are now.
I live about that simply in a similar climate, west of Seattle. I'm tempted to build a crucks style mini cottage here in my forest. In part, because my Mother's family name was Crooks, who emigrated to western Pennsylvania maybe 300 years ago. Did they build them, back then? Getting the thatch though, without using plastic or buying something absurdly expensive, still figuring that out. Maybe corn, maize, stalks?
Whilst it is true that upper floors of Tudor houses were larger than the ground floor to save on the cost of land, I was taught an additional reason for 'jetties', which may or may not be true but it makes sense. Most humble houses had a single room in which they lived, slept and cooked. The concept of internal walls was fairly new and radical... even for the wealthy so the only 'supporting walls' were the outside walls with nothing to support the weight of additional furniture upstairs. By increasing the length of beams to support the upper floor and building the upper walls on the overhang, it created a counter stress to the beams so they tended to bow upwards slightly in the middle. This increased the weight bearing capacity of the floor to support the heavy furniture used in these times. Internal walls were a later addition to these houses as privacy became more important. This theory is borne out by the fact that, where a third floor is added, this, too, would overhang the second floor despite making no difference to the 'footprint' of the house. Where later houses were built specifically to accommodate several rooms on the same level (invariably for the wealthiest) the overhang design is absent as it is a redundant feature. It might be true or it might not... but it certainly makes sense.
Thank you. Just to refine the initial description, timber framed buildings were not universally black and white . The entire structure was often lime washed, often tinted pink or yellow. The oak eventually weathered to a silver grey.the universal ‘black and white’ image is largely a Victorian invention. Compacted earth floors were not ‘dirt’ - the surface more resembled a modern screed. Most Tudors slept in their shirt, shift or a purpose made night shirt or gown. The process of timber framed building ‘slumping’ started earlier as they were constructed from ‘green’ oak which split or warped as it dried out . Single roomed ‘open hall’ houses were not universally small - they were often quite tall and with the later addition of chimneys allowed an upper story to be inserted within the original building
Actually, in Tudor times the wooden structure of the houses was made from green oak and was never tarred in that period, the Victorians made the decision to tar the wood which caused deterioration of the wood due to it not being allowed to breath due to the tar covering and hence the wood rotted.
Very densely packed with information. The only thing I would like to see improved was to give some citations for the information provided as well as indicate the location of the homes shown in the video (if known).
I've read not all of the dirt floors were just dirt though I've forgotten what was added to the dirt. After the mystery ingredients were added the mixture was pounded down so there was a floor like layer. Logically, I would presume something that would lessen the floor turning to dust in the summer heat.
Very interesting. I wish you would have gone into the construction and composition of a thatched roof. In the States we never see them, and it seems very to me odd to me that they are still used.
Cycling around the Suffolk countryside, I see many thatched buildings; frequently pink rather than white. As I understand it, the pink colour originally was achieved using pigs' blood. You even occasionally see a modern-build with a thatched roof.
one reason Tudor houses became so crooked was from oak beams which hadn't been seasoned properly before construction. Green beams would twist as they dried after construction.
The wattle and daub between the wooden frames where covered by whitewash ( if the owner could afford it). This protected the daub from being washed away.
There are many buildings in Germany constructed in that post-and-beam style. Famous ones include the town hall in Michelstadt (1464) and the Faust house in Bad Kreuznach (1507), once the home of Johann Faust, the alchemist and hustler who inspired the legend of Heinrich Faust recounted by Goethe and others.
Yes, they are by no means exclusively English, or from the Tudor era. They occur in France, the Low countries, Germany, and, I think, further east. From memory the oldest ones still standing are from the 1200s, however based on the pattern of post holes, the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons may have built in a similar way. They did become less common in the 1600s and on as suitable timber was over-harvested and harder to get.
The timbering in Tudor (and earlier) houses would not have been black. 'Green', that is un-dried, oak was used which was pale and every year the walls - beams included - would get a coat of lime wash to waterproof the plaster or daub of the walls. As a result when the wash was fresh the beams would not be prominent and the wood, when exposed, tended to be grey both through the natural weathering of the oak and the lime applied. Tarring the beams only began when the Victorians started "restoring" old properties and as they had waterproof renders for the walls lime wash was not needed and instead tar applied to protect the exposed wood. Window tax was not introduced until 1696, almost a full century after the end of the Tudor period. Windows were taken as 'movable property' because of the wealth represented by the very expensive glass they were made up of. Wood frame glazed windows were made separately from the apertures in the walls and were nailed on to the outside, making them relatively easy to remove. This feature of windows tacked to the outside was one of the things that allowed the Great Fire of London to spread so rapidly (along with thatched roofs) and was made illegal for that reason. The resulting style of window fixed to the _inside_ of walls can be seen in London houses built after that time. Earth floors were _not_ dirty. Heavily tamped earth usually topped with a layer of rammed clay made for a very hard, dry, stable and smooth surface that could be, _and was,_ regularly swept. Rushes were put down for warmth and _to protect this surface._ Not changing you rushes regularly was a sign if slovenliness and 'immorality!' Oh, and the idea of the threshold being to keep the rushes in is, I'm afraid, a folk etymology. The word can be traced back to Old English _þrescan,_ to tread, and is unlikely to be anything more subtle than the step up to the interior which would be slightly raised in level to prevent rainwater from flowing in. You can often tell whether a building was originally tiles or thatched by the eaves. Tiled roofs had deep overhanging eaves to keep rain off of the walls while thatched roofs had little or no structural eve as the necessary overhang was provided by the depth of the thatch itself.
If you don’t bang your head on every doorway it’s a fake! My bald head knows this! To add to that I used to go to the same school as Shakespeare in Stratford upon Avon. I live many miles (and centuries) away now but it always brings back memories as you just don’t get this type of history in New Zealand
It's important to realise that there have always been dirty and clean people. I find it to be a crass generalisation to lump all "people" together into this dirty camp, when there are recorded laws dating to the 14th century prohibiting defecating in the streets. There have always been both kinds.
These houses are bad replicas of classical Turkish residential houses originally found in the Ottoman lands in the 13th century. They were seen in Turkey by travelers and traders in the Middle Ages and later imitated in all European countries. Especially in Germany, France and England. Because in history, politically and economically powerful countries, especially their architectures and lifestyles, have always been imitated. Just like today's American skyscrapers are built in all countries.. (You can search for classical Ottoman wooden houses and see how the originals look, especially in the Anatolian town called Safranbolu)
Since you are detailed in explaining things, was that a one time tax when buying the windows to install, hence taking them with you when moving, much like in Germany today, not providing kitchens in apartments so if you bought them, you took them when you moved! Otherwise I don’t get why they would take the windows with them?
The window tax was a later, Stuart, imposition. As no one liked paying taxes, and frequently would lie anyway about their finances, it was introduced because it was easy to assess from the outside of a house. There was no need to question an irate owner about his finances and thus no risk to the assessor! Richer people tended to have bigger houses and thus more windows. No escape.
![Sean Rii, Karyon, Sharzkii - Taungule [My Love] (Official Music Video)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/eJoMuypbSzQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Once a year, over a few days in the summer, a covering of sour milk was poured over the earth floor and allowed to set. It eventually hardened like linoleum and proves easy to keep clean. Rushes were added for insulation in winter and to absorb dirt and spillage; swept out regularly. I know this because my neighbour still does this with their Tudor barn.
Omg that is a true treat to hear these details. I would never have guessed but always wondered about the dirt floors. Thank you for sharing this . 👍🏼❤️
Thank you for all your lovely comments. We live in a Tudor house ourselves and are constantly amazed by the amount of people who photograph the Victorian 'mock' Tudor building opposite! So, we thought we would share the secrets with you to spot 'the real Tudor' from the 'mock Tudor'.
I always thought this music was so pleasant. Can listen to it the whole day through. Great video too!
Lovely work on the video, thank you.
Loving these little tidbits of factual information. It's a great bit of information, that I've always wondered about.. In the states the only thing I've toured are old civil war plantations , Biltmore or old presidents homes . I love your rich history. I've always been drawn to the Europeans and the History it mirrors . The old ones that still stand and the ones we have been told about and shown through art and journals.👍🏼❤️.
When people romanticize about wanting to live in the medieval or even Victorian past, I think about what I would miss: indoor flush toilets; hot baths, showers, cooking and clean laundry on demand; bug and rodent-free, brightly lighted living spaces; and most of all - modern pain-free medical and dental services. Oh, yes, and this iPad and Internet!
No maltesers! Life would NOT be worth living!
Exactly. Life was not all that great. Everyone sat in one common room. No privacy.. They didn't have chimneys, but a hole in the roof. But at least the thatched roofs eventually allowed the smoke to clear out because air could make it's way through them, water droplets, not so much. The floors were dirt. Of course, some people weaved together reeds to form a crude floor that had to be replaced each year. Before laying down the floor, it was important to scattered certain aromatic herbs on the ground to get all the bugs at bay. Lice was rampant. As you note, so were rodents. Traveling about on the road was very dangerous because they lurked with "highway" men who would rob you--or worse.
There is a reason why they don’t build Tudor houses anymore: comfort.
I agree!!
Years ago there was a British "reality" show aired on PBS. The participants had to live exactly as those in the Victorian era! From clothing down to their weekly budget and availability of groceries, cleaning supplies etc.. They supplied a local market with period items the housewife could purchase. The amount of labor a Victorian housewife had to do daily was astounding. Hands raw from lye soaps, laundry with a wash board, shoveling coal to make meals or heat water.. diet choices were very limited for the city dweller of meager income (the average person of the day). I remember the husband had a regular day job, so he walked to work everyday in full period garb. It was actually fascinating. I found it. "The 1900 House" here on RUclips.
The reason I was given for jettied floors was very pragmatic. Due to the use of mechanical jointing of timber with mortice and tenon joints etc there is a limit on how many sections of timber can be connected at a junction without cutting so much timber from studs, plates and joists which would weaken the structure. Therefore the walls are offset to limit this issue, placing the upper floor outboard of the lower not only means there is weather protection but due to the turning moment/loading of the joint it aids in the structure locking together.
That sounds very credible. A further reason I was told a long time ago is that it stopped bouncing in the floor joists, which were laid broad side up, as opposed to more modern joists which are laid narrow side up. Having two opposing and offset points of contact at each end of the joist was supposed to make them more rigid.
@@chriswoodworth1894 I think that as the jetty means that there is a turning moment around the ground floor walls at the ends it must almost have a similar effect to post tensioning concrete floor slabs by putting in a tensile force to the top of the floor what you say sounds reasonable too
I heard that the development of jettied upper floors came about due to the cost of land lease/rent/tax(?) for a property based on the area of ground floor used. So jettied upper floors came about as a way to increase interior space while dodging increased charges.
@@nathanhobson1142 I think this is the most known explanation, but I think it might be something of a popular myth, or only partially the reason.
It's the same with the popular 17th century Dutch ship design called "Fluyt". It had a small upper deck and was wider below. Again people started saying the shipping taxes were based on the upper deck size, so they changed the ship design, but it's more like a joke and not the real explanation.
@@nathanhobson1142- cite s source.
You were taxed on the size of you main floor. Increasing the size of upper levels increased your floorspace without increasing your taxes.
Lucky you to live in a Tudor house, however the window tax was brought in by William lll, 1696-1851 which is why you will see some houses of that period with bricked up windows.
Excellent work. We live in a Tudor house - or at least, I've traced it backto 1540, it may well be a bit earlier. however, it's stone - there's not many 'typical' B&W Tudor period propertties here in somerset, but a lot of stone ones.
Good point on the (lack of) foundations though - this can put people off, but in my vew it's been here for 500 - odd years, it's not going anywhere fast! All it means for us is a few rather scary, but harmless, cracks in some window mullions.
Is that the area with more orangey-red stone? I read about one area that has a lot of tudor houses left but they're a different colour due to being near a high quality quarry?? Might not be Somerset tho, my memory is bad 😅
@@sophroniel Somerset - South Somerset, Most villages around here are made of Ham Stone. It's orange/yellow and looks lovely. Plus, walls 18" thick make for excellent insulation!
I've read that a properly prepared and installed thatched roof lasted (and lasts) about 20 years, which compares well with the 20-25 years of modern shingles used in North America.
As to toilet habits, while people in Tudor England may have behaved as you say, outhouses and privies were common. I've seen them marked on historical plans (some drawings from the era, others figured out archeologically) of streets, alleys, closes, and palaces. They were labeled either 'privy', 'privies', or 'jakes'. Inns often had them outside the inn, and I've read they were probably used as public toilets. With the frequent rain and the dirt roads, I'd think most people would have been happy to do what they could to keep from adding human feces to the muck in the streets.
I've also heard fairly recently a couple of different things about throwing household garbage and chamber pots into the street. First is, the refuse was carried to a ditch in the middle of the street where all of that was supposed to go -- an open sewer, which isn't great, but it's a lot better than scattering about. Most of all, it wasn't dumped willy-nilly out of upstairs windows on people below. There were some examples of people doing this as protest against specific officials as they passed by that were published on broadsheets as editorial cartoons and/or written about, and people in later times misinterpreted that as the everyday custom. Dogs and pigs did root in the ditch for edible scraps, which could spread the garbage about a bit.
Many settlers here in the US had packed dirt floors in their (first) houses as they spread west. This lasted long enough that elderly people just a few decades ago remembered these floors and/or had older relatives who had lived with them. They were not dusty, but were swept as other floors as part of regular housekeeping. People even put rugs down on them, often due to their main drawback, which is that they are cold in cold weather. OTOH, they helped cool a house in hot weather.
You have to keep in mind that modern thatch roofs tend to be chemically treated to prevent the growth of moss and lichen.
You do realize how awful the weather was/is in England, most of the time? Do you think the majority of the villagers went back and forth to public privies? In the heyday of the Palace of Versailles, men frequently relieved themselves in the corridors, behind a door or in a corner. They also had “pissing walls.”
@@quicklykay You miss my point, which is that there were privies available to people when they were out and about, like modern public toilets, so they did not have to relieve themselves in the streets.
@@LynxSouth People were not has inhibited about peeing etc in the street as they are today, to them it was normal. Even in the Palace of Versailles people peed in the corridors etc as the 'privies' were too far away. Also can you imagine the state of these public privies? I doubt they were regularly cleaned out and would have smelt horrifically, people probably avoided them.
@@janetpendlebury6808 Outdoor toilets in state and national parks in the summertime can reek to the point people can hardly breathe, but they'll still stand in line to use them even when there are all sorts of convenient bushes around. It's what your society expects of you and what it will allow that determines almost all behavior. I'm sure their behavior differed somewhat from today's, and also varied by country, region, city, town, village, century, decade, the preferences of whichever church and civil official was in power, as well as individual standard _just as it does today._
I've known about the behavior at Versailles for decades. How aristos with a centuries-long international reputation for decadence and depravity behaved in northern France didn't dictate social mores and habits among ordinary folk in York or Edinburgh in previous centuries any more than it does now.
That was lovely! Learned so much i never knew about Tudor houses!
Once worked in a house built around an old oak tree. The staircase was attached to the trunk, the limbs were visible in places and formed support for floor joists etc. Then a conventional timber frame was built around the whole lot, with wattle and daub walls. Owner said this was quite common at the time, tho rare to find now. Cannot remember the age/period of the house. Location Cheshire area, England, UK.
That Lopsided House with orange colured plaster at 9.25 m is in Lavenham Suffolk. It is said that the Nursery Ryhme, '' There was a Crooked man, who lived in a Crooked house, he Walked a Crooked Mile' etc, was inspired by this house. It has a incredible lean, I can't see how anyone could live in it, though it looks well kept.
Great explanation of Tudor houses. Appreciate your calm and elegant delivery.
I adore your Chanel & content. It’s perfect for my attention span.
Congratulations! Your channel is really good and insightful.
Greetings from Uruguay 🇺🇾
Thank you for all the wonderful examples of Tudor buildings and the overview of Tudor life. Looking forward to more from your channel.
We saw the Tudor house with an inside privy (a hole on a seat connected to a wall on the second story which you'd use and it all went down to a patch of ground below) which you showed in a photo--at the Weald and Downing Living Museum. =) Also the fire in the middle of the room before the wider use of brick fireplaces was also in that house. They had a little section of the wall open and you could see the sticks. It amazes me how long they've lasted! When were in Canterbury we saw more Tudor buildings and wondered if the wooden beams ever had to be replaced---500 years without much rot especially in England where they get rain so often seems incredible.
Well done! Concise, informative and interesting! Thank you.
I love your channel and it helps with school alot
An extremely interesting video, thoroughly researched and highly informative. One small point, however:- the term "threshold" is a mis-hearing of the Old English word "threscold", which merely meant "point of entry", and had nothing to do with holding anything. Later, people trying to find an explanation of the new version of the word must have assumed that rushes and other floor coverings were called "thresh" - which may or may not be the case, but I have to say that I find it extremely unlikely - and they then invented an "explanation" that suited their theory.
Exactly. One does not thresh rushes anyway, anymore than you could winnow them. They were called thresh because it looked similar to wheat reaching the threshing point, if i remember correctly?
Tudor is not medieval. it is early modern age. Henry VII ended the medieval period by defeating the Plantagenet's. You assertion that hoses are white washed is also incorrect. Areas have traditional colours. Yellow and pink being two of them. The easiest way to tell if a house is Tudor/Jacobean is to look at the main supporting beams and see if they sit on Pad Stones. This helps preserve the wooden frame but over time the bottom of the uprights does decay causing the twisting of the frame. Also wattle and daub is a heavy clay soil mixed with manure and a binding agent like straw or horse hair.
This was really great! Thank you! I learned alot
I’m so delighted that I stumbled upon your Channel! Your videos are extremely interesting and sometimes funny, (I was referring to your “War of The Roses” video I just watched but, I didn’t comment. Sorry about that but it is 3:55 AM. I’ve since had my morning coffee.) You’ve done a wonderful job explaining and editing... Your commentary is spot on and your voice is pleasant. Thank you 😊
Absolutely beautiful and interesting, lovely voice
Small nitpick about chimneys: brick fireplaces, in the beginning, were part of the problem, as it was more the lack of a flue that circulated too much sooty air (aka carbon & unburned fuel) in the chimney space, which could set itself alight and set the roof & rooms ablaze, whether it was chimney or not. It was, I believe , after a village/town burning down twice within 5 years (possibly was stratford on avon??) that the first health & safety law went on the books; it mandated that chimneys must be swept half-yearly, and then it changed to quarterly a few years later, and you had to do it more often if you had X amount of chimneys.
TL;DR bricks didn't save chimneys, flues did.
Thank you. Realise how lucky I am to live in 21st century! Tudor houses look so beautiful but hard to inhabit unless a large manor house.
Also a lot of half timbered houses were yellow or pink, not white.
I had a tudor house once. There was a frontdor and a backdor.
I love your videos!!
Aww! Thank you so so much. :)
I really enjoyed this video
Thank you I've always wondered how to spot a Tudor home. It's very interesting in how Hampton court was ahead of its time really. By Cardinal Walsey.
Remember the good 'ol 1980's,
When things were so uncomplicated?
I wish I could go back there again,
And everything would be the same...
Yeah, it was absolutely cool.
1960's for me, great music
@@recoveringsoul755 that's a little bit of 'ticket to the moon' by ELO
Cleveland, Ohio during the early 20th century became the home of a great deal of europeans.
The east side is filled with buildings that take a great deal of inspiration from tudors
In spite of Clevelands demise and the particularly heavy architectural damage to it's East side a great deal of its beautiful historic and timeless buildings have been saved. They're now staying to take more design ques from these earlier eras instead of the 21st century look that's so forgettable and sterile.
I much appreciate the architecture so many of those across the pond had brought over, thank you!
Tudor style homes were popular in the 1920s all over the US,
That was great! I subscribed.
Such a great channel
Really appreciate that - thank you! :)
the oldest house I have lived in was ~1880, Nieder Ulm, outside Mainz
My Mom hated that her measuring cups showed sloping ingedients when put on the counters
Our current house is ~1893, yeah out of square + sloped; have done what I can towards seismic resistance with 1928 concrete foundation
7:22 the word threshold comes from “the rush hold.” That makes so much sense now 😂😅
Seems to me: I was soooo lucky to have spent time in Stratford Upon Avon. While in Anne Hathaways' Cottage they were explaining Dinner. Because the Women wore many skirts and undergarments they would put a "piss pot" under those garments so they didnt have to leave the table! When dinner was done the food and plates were removed. The table top was designed so that it tipped up and all scraps etc could be swept onto the floor. The floor had hay on it. They would sweep the hay out and replace with fresh hay. Mice and rats were a problem as well as 💩 and pee on the street causing health havoc in Shakespearean times. The tour and Stratford itself cannot be justly described. Ya just dony forget it.
Great thanks!
That was really nice. 🙂
I love the jettied features.
Suitable for keystage 1 and 2. Also for old ladies lol. This one really enjoyed it thank you
Good information, thank you. people did not live as long back then, either. Reading was not as common. The printing press and inking process and paper use for it was developed after the 1480s, which is the equivalent of our internet era, so there were a lot of smartypants types around just like there are now.
They are the most beautiful 😅f houses to me. love the black timbers
The last ones made me reliefed. Now my handcut miniatures look realistic
Very informative. Thank you.
I live about that simply in a similar climate, west of Seattle.
I'm tempted to build a crucks style mini cottage here in my forest.
In part, because my Mother's family name was Crooks, who emigrated to western Pennsylvania maybe 300 years ago.
Did they build them, back then?
Getting the thatch though, without using plastic or buying something absurdly expensive, still figuring that out.
Maybe corn, maize, stalks?
really good
Whilst it is true that upper floors of Tudor houses were larger than the ground floor to save on the cost of land, I was taught an additional reason for 'jetties', which may or may not be true but it makes sense. Most humble houses had a single room in which they lived, slept and cooked. The concept of internal walls was fairly new and radical... even for the wealthy so the only 'supporting walls' were the outside walls with nothing to support the weight of additional furniture upstairs. By increasing the length of beams to support the upper floor and building the upper walls on the overhang, it created a counter stress to the beams so they tended to bow upwards slightly in the middle. This increased the weight bearing capacity of the floor to support the heavy furniture used in these times. Internal walls were a later addition to these houses as privacy became more important. This theory is borne out by the fact that, where a third floor is added, this, too, would overhang the second floor despite making no difference to the 'footprint' of the house. Where later houses were built specifically to accommodate several rooms on the same level (invariably for the wealthiest) the overhang design is absent as it is a redundant feature.
It might be true or it might not... but it certainly makes sense.
Er... I wrote this before reading the comments below explaining exactly the same concept. Sorry for being repetitive.
Thank you. Just to refine the initial description, timber framed buildings were not universally black and white .
The entire structure was often lime washed, often tinted pink or yellow. The oak eventually weathered to a silver grey.the universal ‘black and white’ image is largely a Victorian invention.
Compacted earth floors were not ‘dirt’ - the surface more resembled a modern screed.
Most Tudors slept in their shirt, shift or a purpose made night shirt or gown.
The process of timber framed building ‘slumping’ started earlier as they were constructed from ‘green’ oak which split or warped as it dried out .
Single roomed ‘open hall’ houses were not universally small - they were often quite tall and with the later addition of chimneys allowed an upper story to be inserted within the original building
What do I have to find videos of the INSIDE of these types of houses/shops?
Actually, in Tudor times the wooden structure of the houses was made from green oak and was never tarred in that period, the Victorians made the decision to tar the wood which caused deterioration of the wood due to it not being allowed to breath due to the tar covering and hence the wood rotted.
Very densely packed with information. The only thing I would like to see improved was to give some citations for the information provided as well as indicate the location of the homes shown in the video (if known).
Thankyou .
Tudor houses have such charm
Lovely , beautiful houses , very interesting.My favourite house architecture
I've read not all of the dirt floors were just dirt though I've forgotten what was added to the dirt. After the mystery ingredients were added the mixture was pounded down so there was a floor like layer. Logically, I would presume something that would lessen the floor turning to dust in the summer heat.
Lots of things were used, soured milk, whey, linseed and other oils, even just water.
Very interesting. I wish you would have gone into the construction and composition of a thatched roof. In the States we never see them, and it seems very to me odd to me that they are still used.
Cycling around the Suffolk countryside, I see many thatched buildings; frequently pink rather than white. As I understand it, the pink colour originally was achieved using pigs' blood. You even occasionally see a modern-build with a thatched roof.
one reason Tudor houses became so crooked was from oak beams which hadn't been seasoned properly before construction. Green beams would twist as they dried after construction.
A myth. Timber framing in oak uses green unseasoned wood. Seasoned oak is too hard to work with hand tools.
@@richardwebb2348 an interesting point. I wonder why some twisted more than others...
Tudor houses explained in 10 minutes, as slowly as we could manage
Interesting info. Btw why's there's so many Tudor like houses in Germany?
Thank you. I thought the white paint between the wooden frame of the house was a Victorian addition.
The wattle and daub between the wooden frames where covered by whitewash ( if the owner could afford it).
This protected the daub from being washed away.
There are many buildings in Germany constructed in that post-and-beam style. Famous ones include the town hall in Michelstadt (1464) and the Faust house in Bad Kreuznach (1507), once the home of Johann Faust, the alchemist and hustler who inspired the legend of Heinrich Faust recounted by Goethe and others.
Yes, they are by no means exclusively English, or from the Tudor era. They occur in France, the Low countries, Germany, and, I think, further east. From memory the oldest ones still standing are from the 1200s, however based on the pattern of post holes, the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons may have built in a similar way. They did become less common in the 1600s and on as suitable timber was over-harvested and harder to get.
With the construction of brick fireplaces, outbreaks of fire were fewer, not "less".
Yes and it’s “the number of chimneys”, not the “amount”. I wouldn’t normally comment but it is an educational video
Good video. Learnd loads.
Though I thoroughly enjoyed the video, I'm still not really sure what a tutor house is, mainly because I don't know the alternative.
Will Sommers: the original "Mock Tudor".
I believe we call them called 'English Cottages' here in the U.S.
Sorry dog and cat, you must live outside now because you make me appear as a peasant by living in the same house!
I WANT ONE!
Dammit, I'm 400 years too late.
I understand the historic significance of the old buildings but some of those don’t look safe.
Is Liberty London a Tudor building?
No
00:14 "Beshween 1495 ann shistennow three . . . *_braaap!_* "
9:13 Is that an old Tudor house? A: Clearly! It goes swayback. ;-)
If they were worried about straw blowing out the door into the street, and so built thresholds, why were they throwing their garbage out the window?
They didn’t want to keep the rubbish, they did want to keep the rushes.
Who is the narrator? Sounds like Sarah Pascoe
The timbering in Tudor (and earlier) houses would not have been black. 'Green', that is un-dried, oak was used which was pale and every year the walls - beams included - would get a coat of lime wash to waterproof the plaster or daub of the walls. As a result when the wash was fresh the beams would not be prominent and the wood, when exposed, tended to be grey both through the natural weathering of the oak and the lime applied. Tarring the beams only began when the Victorians started "restoring" old properties and as they had waterproof renders for the walls lime wash was not needed and instead tar applied to protect the exposed wood.
Window tax was not introduced until 1696, almost a full century after the end of the Tudor period. Windows were taken as 'movable property' because of the wealth represented by the very expensive glass they were made up of. Wood frame glazed windows were made separately from the apertures in the walls and were nailed on to the outside, making them relatively easy to remove. This feature of windows tacked to the outside was one of the things that allowed the Great Fire of London to spread so rapidly (along with thatched roofs) and was made illegal for that reason. The resulting style of window fixed to the _inside_ of walls can be seen in London houses built after that time.
Earth floors were _not_ dirty. Heavily tamped earth usually topped with a layer of rammed clay made for a very hard, dry, stable and smooth surface that could be, _and was,_ regularly swept. Rushes were put down for warmth and _to protect this surface._ Not changing you rushes regularly was a sign if slovenliness and 'immorality!' Oh, and the idea of the threshold being to keep the rushes in is, I'm afraid, a folk etymology. The word can be traced back to Old English _þrescan,_ to tread, and is unlikely to be anything more subtle than the step up to the interior which would be slightly raised in level to prevent rainwater from flowing in.
You can often tell whether a building was originally tiles or thatched by the eaves. Tiled roofs had deep overhanging eaves to keep rain off of the walls while thatched roofs had little or no structural eve as the necessary overhang was provided by the depth of the thatch itself.
Always used to pee in a bucket when I was building mock Tudor houses.
If you don’t bang your head on every doorway it’s a fake! My bald head knows this!
To add to that I used to go to the same school as Shakespeare in Stratford upon Avon.
I live many miles (and centuries) away now but it always brings back memories as you just don’t get this type of history in New Zealand
More than
One door, less than three doors.
A Tudor house
A thatched roof today is very costly. And can last upto 40 years.
That depends on the choice of materials. Norfolk reed is longer lasting than straw.
Chewduh
It's important to realise that there have always been dirty and clean people. I find it to be a crass generalisation to lump all "people" together into this dirty camp, when there are recorded laws dating to the 14th century prohibiting defecating in the streets. There have always been both kinds.
These houses are bad replicas of classical Turkish residential houses originally found in the Ottoman lands in the 13th century. They were seen in Turkey by travelers and traders in the Middle Ages and later imitated in all European countries. Especially in Germany, France and England. Because in history, politically and economically powerful countries, especially their architectures and lifestyles, have always been imitated. Just like today's American skyscrapers are built in all countries.. (You can search for classical Ottoman wooden houses and see how the originals look, especially in the Anatolian town called Safranbolu)
They used to sleep in night shirts.
Wow, they changed you taxes per window, that's crazy 🤣
What’s the rush, 10 minutes? Why not cover this topic in greater depth, explaining how Tudor homes developed from the hall house, etc.?
Clicked to hear something interesting about Tudor houses.
Instead, I heard a narrator who sounds too bored to talk about it.
I need a 30 second explanation
People were taxed on the 'number' of windows in a house, not the "amount" of windows.
Since you are detailed in explaining things, was that a one time tax when buying the windows to install, hence taking them with you when moving, much like in Germany today, not providing kitchens in apartments so if you bought them, you took them when you moved! Otherwise I don’t get why they would take the windows with them?
The window tax was a later, Stuart, imposition. As no one liked paying taxes, and frequently would lie anyway about their finances, it was introduced because it was easy to assess from the outside of a house. There was no need to question an irate owner about his finances and thus no risk to the assessor! Richer people tended to have bigger houses and thus more windows. No escape.
:38
"how can you tell real Tudor houses from fake?"
:Me
"If they're in America ..."
I have a 2dor car.
I must be a Tutor because I sleep in the all together.🛏
'Tudor'!
I still have questions…
Why did Tudors sleep naked? In the medieval period we hardly ever see this except when with a lover. What changed?
The threshold keeps the thrash or straw from blowing out into the street, it literally holds the thresh. I never knew this before
The Tudor Dynasty began in 1485, not 1495.
Yes, 22 Aug 1485 to 24 March 1603. Who suggested 1495?
There's usually tu dors...one in front and one in back. You could have a threedor house if you wanted.
Correction, the ladies slept in their shifts while men would sleep in their undershirts.
Window taxes.
Lil Morton hall man that sounds like a rapper
'Little Morton Hall'.