How did rich Tudor houses differ from the middle ages?

Answer 1

The biggest difference in Tudor houses from the houses of the Middle Ages was that the architecture of the Tudor houses took advantage of chimneys, which allowed fireplaces to be distributed throughout the house.

The chimney was invented in the 12th century, but they were uncommonly used for quite a while because they were expensive, required expertise to build, and needed regular maintenance. They were gradually adopted, and gradually had their effects on architecture.

The medieval houses typically had open fires on hearths in the middles of rooms. Smoke was vented upwards through the room and out through holes in the walls or roof. The result, in terms of architecture, was that any room with a fire had to be very high. It was not usually possible to build rooms on a higher level in such a space, so the room nearly always went to the roof. Since few such rooms could exist in a single building, there was usually only one. In a manor house or castle keep, this room was the great hall, usually a huge space partitioned into smaller areas for offices, living quarters, dining areas, and so on.

In Tudor architecture, the chimneys made it possible to have individual rooms heated. The members of the family of the lord of a manor could not only have private rooms of their own, but each could be heated with a fireplace. A room could be designated to be a library or office could be heated with a fireplace. The great hall lost many of its functions, and was likely to be much smaller, with a much lower ceiling, and less drafty, with cleaner air, because it was heated by fires in one or more fireplaces, instead of on a hearth in the middle of the room.

There are links to pictures below. The first is a medieval great hall. The other two are half-timbered manor houses of the medieval and Tudor periods. The chimneys on the medieval house were probably added long after the house was built.