The Great Hall
By John Goodall
From farmsteads to palaces, great halls can be found in every kind of residence and have been a
defining feature of the English house for more than a thousand years.
An architectural symbol of the household
The focus of daily life for an Anglo-Saxon household, the great hall developed as the principal
domestic interior of the high Middle Ages. In this period great halls may be identified within every
kind of residence, from palaces and castles to merchants' houses and farmsteads. And the great
hall continued to be an important element of grand domestic architecture far into the 17th century.
Even today an old manor house is still often called 'The Hall' in reference to the chamber which
formerly served as its focus.
'In origin, the great hall was a living space...where everyone ate and slept communally.'
Throughout the Middle Ages every man or woman of standing maintained a household of
followers and servants. The bigger this was, the more important the figure who headed it. In origin,
the great hall was a living space for this household, where everyone ate and slept communally.
Such was the hall in which the 8th century hero Beowulf wrestled with the monster Grendel.
But over the course of the Middle Ages everyone, who had the means to, left the hall for more
comfortable apartments of their own. As early as the 14th century this exodus was lamented as
being socially divisive and, in one sense, it left the hall redundant. But because the household
actually remained as important as ever, the great hall did not disappear in consequence. Instead it
became an architectural symbol of the household and a ceremonial focus for its daily life,
particularly meals.
There is considerable variation in the form of great halls both geographically and over time. The
hall was, however, always the largest chamber within a house. In deference to a tradition
stretching back to the Anglo-Saxon period, it was also invariably roofed in timber, never vaulted
in stone like a church.
Westminster Hall
Westminster Hall has long occupied a unique place in the national consciousness as a setting for
state occasions. It is by far the largest great hall ever constructed in England and remains - along
with the principal London railway stations - one of the largest public interiors in the capital.
The hall was built by William Rufus between 1097-99 as part of the royal Palace of Westminster.
Contemporaries marvelled at the scale of the new building, which later served as the setting for
coronation feasts and as the seat of royal government. It was here that the king's principal throne
of marble - the symbol of his power - stood, and where the chief courts of law came to transact
their business.
The roof of Westminster Hall In 1393 Richard II decided to remodel the great hall at Westminster.
Under the direction of the Master Mason Henry Yevele, the walls of William Rufus' building were
given new windows and decorated with a heavy cornice studded with heraldic beasts, all of which
were turned to face the site of the king's throne. This stood in the area of the modern flight of steps.
Presiding in wall niches over the royal dais are statues of Richard's kingly predecessors. The large
blank areas of wall on the interior would have been decorated with tapestries on special occasions.
In the tradition of great hall architecture the king's Master Carpenter, Hugh Herland, erected an
open timber roof over Richard's new hall. His creation is one of the acknowledged structural and
artistic masterpieces of the Middle Ages. To cover the gigantic 69ft (21.1m) width of the hall, he
constructed a so-called hammerbeam roof, which effectively spanned the space in two structural
stages. From the ground the whole roof seems to be supported on the backs of the huge, hovering
figures of angels that are carved on each hammerbeam.
Penshurst Place
The great hall of Penshurst Place was the architectural centrepiece of a magnificent new residence
begun in around 1341 by Sir John de Pulteney, a wealthy London merchant. It is a superbly
preserved building and perfectly illustrates all the classic features of a high medieval great hall.
Essentially the hall is a massively conceived building on a rectangular plan. The side walls are
fitted with tall windows and the whole structure is covered by a huge, open timber roof. The main
trusses of the roof structure are supported on the backs of carved figures, who are playfully shown
labouring under their burden. In the centre of the hall is an open fire, the smoke from which would
have escaped through a louvre in the roof.
Running across one end of the hall is a 16th century timber screen, which probably replaces a lost
14th century original in roughly the same form. This partition creates a narrow corridor within the
body of the hall, the so-called screen's passage. Five doors open onto this enclosed space. To
either extreme of the passage - in the side walls of the hall - are the two main entrances to the
building. Clustered in the end wall of the hall are three doorways to the services: the pantry,
kitchen and buttery.
At the opposite extreme of the interior from the screen's passage was the 'high' end of the hall. It
was here that the table for the head of the household stood, raised on a dais or platform. During
meals the household would have sat in strict hierarchical order at tables ranged beneath the dais
along the sides of the interior.
Little Moreton Hall
Little Moreton Hall in Cheshire is a magnificent example of a timber-framed house built for a
substantial local family, the Moretons. With each storey jettied out over the floor beneath, the
building grows alarmingly in bulk as it rises from the ground. The timber structure of the house
has also been carefully designed to create rich decorative patterns over every external wall surface.
Pictured here is the gatehouse, which stands on the edge of the moat enclosing the whole site.
This spectacular house developed gradually, its principal elements being erected in stages over a
period of about 150 years. The earliest part of the building is the mid 15th century great hall,
which stands in the very heart of the complex. Extending at right angles to either end of this - so
as to create an H-shaped plan - are two wings. The essential arrangement of these was typical of
medieval domestic design: the wing at the low end of the hall contained the services - the kitchen,
buttery and pantry - and there was a series of inner chambers for the Moreton family at the high
end.
One of the most extraordinary features of the house is a spectacular pair of bay windows
projecting respectively from the great hall and family range. Each is decorated with intricately
carved woodwork and a splendid crown of roof gables. An inscription records that they were built
by the carpenter Richard Dayle in 1559 for the then owner, William Moreton.
Find out more
Books
The History of the King's Works: The Middle Ages, Volume 1 by R A Brown, H M Colvin and A J
Taylor, edited by H M Colvin (London, 1963)
The Great Hall by M W Thompson (Cambridge, 1991)
The English Medieval House by M Wood (London, 1965)
The Westminster Hall roof: A New Archaeological Source by L T Courtenay in Journal of the
British Archaeological Association 3rd Series, CXLIII, pp. 95-111 (1990)
The Palace of Westminster in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries by W R Lethaby in
Archaeologia, LX, pp. 131-148 (1906)
Places to visit
Penshurst Place and Gardens Penshurst, Tonbridge, Kent, TN118DG.
Little Moreton Hall Congleton, CW12 4SD
About the author
John Goodall is a freelance writer in the field of medieval architecture. He has recently produced
his first book, God's House at Ewelme (Ashgate, 2001). As well as publishing in academic
journals, he writes architectural articles for Country Life and has produced new guidebooks on
historic properties both for English Heritage and the National Trust.