Great chamber

[2] After the Norman Conquest, plans of large houses became more integrated, and the great chamber assumed its standard place at the end of the hall.

Old Soar illustrates another development of the time, the addition of smaller rooms attached to the great chamber - in this case, a garderobe and a chapel.

In magnate houses, the great chamber was the centre of elaborate later medieval rituals, as the room in which guests were entertained and intimate meals were eaten.

As the great chamber became a reception room, it was designed more for impressing visitors, as at Haddon Hall, where it gained an elaborate new roof and oriel window.

[7] The presence of the great bed defined the chamber, being partly seen as an extension of the owner's personality in a way that was not the case in the fully-public hall.