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Cottage yard
A medieval longhouse was a two-roomed house lived in by a peasant family. The parents and children all lived
together in one room. Sometimes a platform would be built over this room. The family climbed up a ladder to reach it.
It was used as a bedroom, and to store food.
The family's oxen lived in the other room. In winter, when not grazing in the fields, the family cow probably lived there too.
A whole family lived in one room and kept their animals in the other. The people who lived in the cottages at Thrislington did not live all together in one room. The cottages had three or more rooms, many of the rooms had hearths.
Archaeologists believe that when a house has more than one hearth, it might mean that it is lived in by an extended family, perhaps including grandparents, aunts, uncles and even servants.
See reconstructions of the plough team in action, return
to previous cottage reconstruction image,
or step into the cottage entrance.
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