Great hall

It continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great chamber for eating and relaxing.

The lord's family's more private rooms lay beyond the dais end of the hall, and the kitchen, buttery and pantry were on the opposite side of the screens passage.

It was used for receiving guests and it was the place where the household would dine together, including the lord of the house, his gentleman attendants and at least some of the servants.

Archaeologists have uncovered Anglo-Saxon halls from the highest social levels at the palaces of Yeavering (Northumberland) and Cheddar (Somerset).

[1] In the late tenth century, first floor stone halls began to be built in both France and England, partly for reasons of security.

Many large ground floor aisled halls were built in England following the Norman Conquest, as the key room in the new feudal society.

From the 13th century, improved carpentry techniques meant that roofs could span greater distances, eliminating the need for aisles, and by c.1300, the standard hall plan with the dais and great chamber at the upper end and the entrance, screens passage and services at the lower end had become commonplace.

[2] After this time, the function of the hall began to narrow to solely a dining and circulation space,[3] and architectural developments reflected that, with the rise of the wall fireplace and bay window (also known as an oriel) creating a more pleasant and specialised chamber.

[6] Chimneys were later added, and it would then have one of the largest fireplaces of the palace, manor house or castle, frequently big enough to walk and stand inside.

Where there was a wall fireplace, it was generally at the dais end of the hall with the bay window, as at Raglan Castle, so the lord could get the most heat and light.

[7] The fireplace would commonly have an elaborate overmantel with stone or wood carvings or plasterwork which might contain coats of arms, heraldic mottoes (usually in Latin), caryatids or another adornment.

In Scotland, six common furnishings were present in the sixteenth-century hall: the high table and principal seat; side tables for others; the cupboard and silver plate; the hanging chandelier, often called the 'hart-horn' made of antler; ornamental weapons, commonly a halberd; and the cloth and napery used for dining.

[9] Occasionally the great hall would have an early listening device system, allowing conversations to be heard in the lord's bedroom above.

At the scale of yeoman housing, a restored 15th century hall can be seen in Bayleaf Farmhouse, now at the Weald and Downland Living Museum.

The "high table" (often on a small dais or stage at the top of the hall, furthest away from the screens passage) seats dons (at the universities) and Masters of the Bench (at the Inns of Court), whilst students (at the universities) and barristers or students (at the Inns of Court) dine at tables placed at right angles to the high table and running down the body of the hall, thus maintaining the hierarchical arrangement of the medieval domestic, monastic or collegiate household.

[16] Increasing centralization of power in royal hands meant that men of good social standing were less inclined to enter the service of a lord to obtain his protection, and so the size of the inner noble household shrank.

With the arrival of ballrooms and dedicated music rooms in the largest houses by the late 17th century, these functions too were lost.