A Medieval Manor House

A Medieval Manor House

accommodation, aviary, buttery, chapel, children, dining-room, enemies, fifteenth century, fortification, gardens, great hall, hall, housing, kitchen, Lord, Lord of the Manor, Manor, manor-house, medieval housing, medieval social relations, pantry, residence, tower, tunnel

In this article from a regular children’s column in the Sunday Times called “The Girls and Boys Club”, a standard and idealised description of medieval manor houses is provided. According to the author, a fifteenth-century manor house was a grand residence that featured a great hall, a huge kitchen with adjoining pantry and buttery, a large dining-room, a private chapel, an aviary, a tower, courtyards and beautifully landscaped gardens. It was presided over by a lord and is described as a ‘little town’ because it housed hundreds of people. An interesting but unexplained comment towards the end of the article also suggests that manor houses had underground tunnels because in the ‘bad old days’ of the medieval period, the Lord of the manor ‘was likely to make enemies almost overnight, through no fault of his own’.

Anon.

National Library of Australia

The Sunday Times

6 October 1935

Newspaper Article;
PDF

English

Newspaper Article