What were peasant huts in medieval times made of?

Answer 1

A peasants home in the middle ages would most commonly been framed with timber, and would have had walls made of a material known as "wattle and daub". Wattle and daub is a construction technique where branches and thin pieces of work were woven together into a lattice attached to a frame (the wattle) and then covered by a layer made of some combination of wet soil, clay, straw, sand, and even animal dung (the daub). Whey this dried it would be washed with a plaster, both to help protect it from the elements, and also to lighten the interior due to the while color. The roof was made of thatch, which was made by tying bundles of plant materials such as rushes, sedge, straw, etc, together to form a thick layer. Built by a skillful craftsman a thatch roof is both rain and weather proof.

Windows were unglazed and equipped with shutters. Windows allowed for light and ventilation, but also made it more difficult to keep the house warm in cold weather. Overall, windows were small and few compared to most modern houses.

The wealth of medieval peasants actually varied a good deal. A poor peasant would likely have a small house of a single room. A wealthy peasant would have a larger house of several rooms, and possible even a second story. Such a house would be composed of a main hail with a high ceiling that had either a central stone hearth or a fireplace. At one end there would be two small rooms separated by a passageway. These rooms were a pantry, used for storing bread, other food, and household items such as plates and dishes, and a buttery, used to store barrels (butts, thus the name) of ale or wine. There might be a private room above the pantry and buttery, or in other cases a ground level private room at the far end of the hall.

Furniture would have been basic by modern standards. Chairs were rare, stools and benches were more commonly used for sitting. Tables were usually trestle tables that could be folded and cleared away when not in use. Items would be kept on simple shelves or in chests. Mattresses were basically a sack like device stuffed straw. These might be placed in a wooden bed frame and supported by ropes, or in the case of a very poor person just put directly on the floor.

In some cases structures for housing animals were connected directly to the main house, usually as a separate range running at a right angle to the hall. This was a practical arrangement, as it made the various chores related to caring for animals more convenient, and in winter the body heat of the animals would help warm the home.

Answer 2

The general layout of peasant houses was the same everywhere, but actual construction methods depended on local traditions and materials. In south-west England, for example, stone was widely available and was used for the foundations and the lower parts of the walls, with cob used for the upper sections. Elsewhere wattle and daub was applied to a framework of oak beams.

The houses were rectangular, single storey, thatched buildings with either no internal walls or simple partitions. Thatch was of straw or rushes and there was no chimney, no glass in the windows and either a wooden or packed earth floor.

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Answer 3

it is made of timber