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The mid-14th century great hall at Penshurst Place, Kent.

A great hall was the main room of a royal palace, a nobleman's castle or a large manor house in the Middle Ages, and in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries. At that time the word great simply meant big, and had not acquired its modern connotations of excellence. In the medieval period the room would simply have been referred to as the "hall" unless the building also had a secondary hall, but the term "great hall" has been predominant for surviving rooms of this type for several centuries to distinguish them from the different type of hall found in post-medieval houses. Great halls were found especially in France, England and Scotland, but similar rooms were also found in some other European countries. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... The 14th century great hall at Penshurst Place showing the screens passage, from Ancestral Homes of Noted Americans by Anne Hollingsworth Wharton (1915). ... The 14th century great hall at Penshurst Place showing the screens passage, from Ancestral Homes of Noted Americans by Anne Hollingsworth Wharton (1915). ... The Great Hall at Penshurst Place, circa 1915 Penshurst Place is an historic building near Tonbridge in Kent, 32 miles (50 km) to the south east of London, England. ... For other uses, see Kent (disambiguation). ... A room, in architecture, is any distinguishable space within a structure. ... The quintessential medieval European palace: Palais de la Cité, in Paris, the royal palace of France. ... The Lords and Barons prove their Nobility by hanging their Banners and exposing their Coats-of-arms at the Windows of the Lodge of the Heralds. ... For other uses, see Castle (disambiguation). ... Ightham Mote For the London district, see Manor House, London. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... This article is about the country. ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ...

A typical great hall was a rectangular room between one and a half and three times as long as it was wide, and also higher than it was wide. It was entered through a screens passage at one end, and had windows on one of the long sides, often including a large bay window. There was often a minstrel's gallery above the screens passage. At the other end of the hall was the dais where the top table was situated. The lord's family's more private rooms were beyond the dais end of the hall. Even the royal and noble residences had few living rooms in the Middle Ages, and a great hall was a multifunction room. 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. At night some members of the household might sleep on the floor of the great hall. A minstrels gallery (sometimes minstrels gallery; plural minstrels galleries) is a form of balcony, often inside the great hall of a castle or manor house, and used to allow musicians (originally minstrels) to perform, discretely hidden from the guests below. ...

Activities in the hall

Medieval feasts, wedding celebrations, receiving visiting nobles, and holiday festivities would all be celebrated in the castle's great hall. Elaborate tapestries and silks would line the walls and while Middle Age castles could be rather dark, the largest windows would be found here. Small wooden or stone benches were placed underneath these windows so guests could enjoy the view. Great Hall furnishings could be sparse, but they were very practical. Long wooden tables and benches would be covered with white linen during feasts, but could be taken apart easily for dancing and entertainment. This article is about tapestry the textile. ... Torn linen cloth, recovered from the Dead Sea Linen is a material made from the fibers of the flax plant. ...

Castle lords and their families would be seated at a table on a raised wooden or stone dais at the far end of the hall. Stone floors in the castle's Great Hall were rarely covered with carpets, though wealthy lords might cover them with tapestries. Straw and rushes were the usual coverings, but later in the Middle Ages herbs like marjoram, camomile, basil, sweet fennel, mint, germander and lavender would be added to help with the aroma. These coverings were swept regularly, but new materials would be soon added to cover up the more nasty fragments on the floor: bone fragments, spittle, animal excrement, beer and grease. Light for evening feasts and celebrations would be provided by candles and oil lamps. It was not unusual for guests to sleep in the hall after a night of merrymaking. The name Chamomile or Camomile is ambiguous and can refer to several distinct species. ... For other uses, see Basil (disambiguation). ... Binomial name Foeniculum vulgare Mill. ... “Mint” redirects here. ... Species Teucrium canadense Teucrium chamaedrys - wall germander Teucrium cossonii - fruity teucrium Teucrium cubense Teucrium fruticans - bush germander Teucrium glandulosum Teucrium laciniatum - lacy germander Teucrium marum - cat thyme germander Teucrium polium Teucrium pyrenaicum Teucrium scorodonia et al. ... Species About 25-30, including: Lavandula abrotanoides Lavandula angustifolia Lavandula canariensis Lavandula dentata Lavandula lanata Lavandula latifolia Lavandula multifida Lavandula pinnata Lavandula stoechas Lavandula viridis Lavandula x intermedia The Lavenders Lavandula are a genus of about 25-30 species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae, native from the...

Architectural detail

A plan of a manor house called Horham Hall. All of the basic features of a great hall are present: a screens passage (above the porch in the plan); a dais; a bay window (not essential but very common). The main staircase is at the dais end and photos show that the hall was the full height of the two storey house.

The great hall would often have one of the larger fireplaces of the palace, manor house or castle, frequently large enough to walk and stand inside it. It was used for warmth and also for some of the cooking, although for larger structures a medieval kitchen would customarily lie on a lower level for the bulk of cooking. Commonly the fireplace would have an elaborate overmantle with stone or wood carvings or even plasterwork which might contain coats of arms, heraldic mottoes (usually in Latin), caryatids or other adornment. In the upper halls of French manor houses, the fireplaces were usually very large and elaborate. Typically, the great hall had the most beautiful decorations in it, as well as on the window frame mouldings on the outer wall. Many French manor houses have very beautifully decorated window frames on the large mullioned windows that light the hall. This decoration clearly marked the window as belonging to the lord's private hall. Dais (French dais, estrade, Italian predella), originally a part of the floor at the end of a medieval hall, raised a step above the rest of the building. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Mantelpiece. ... Plasterwork refers to construction or ornamentation done with plaster, such as a layer of plaster on an interior wall or plaster decorative moldings on ceilings or walls. ... Heraldry is the science and art of describing of coats-of-arms, also referred to as achievements or armorial bearings. ... Heraldry is the science and art of describing of coats-of-arms, also referred to as achievements or armorial bearings. ... A caryatid (also spelt Karyatid), is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. ...

In western France, the early manor houses were centered around a central ground-floor hall. Later, the hall reserved for the lord and his high-ranking guests was moved up to the first-floor level. This was called the salle haute or upper hall. In some of the larger three-story manor houses, the upper hall was as high as second story roof. The smaller ground-floor hall or salle basse remained but was for receiving guests of any social order. It is very common to find these two halls superimposed, one on top of the other, in larger manor houses in Normandy and Brittany. Access from the ground-floor hall to the upper (great) hall was normally via a staircase tower. The upper hall often had the lord's bedroom and living quarters off of one end.

Occasionally the great hall would have an early listening device system allowing conversations to be heard in the lord's bedroom above. In Scotland these devices are called a laird's lug. In many French manor houses there are small peep-holes from which the lord could observe what was happening in the hall. This type of hidden peep-hole is called a judas in French. A lord is a male who has power and authority. ... Lug or LUG can refer to: // Lug is a place in Serbia. ...

Examples

Many great halls survive. Two very large surviving royal halls are Westminster Hall and the Wenceslas Hall in Prague Castle. Penshurst Place in Kent, England has a little altered 14th century example. Surviving 16th century and early 17th century specimens in England, Wales and Scotland are numerous, for example those at Longleat (England), Burghley House (England), Bodysgallen Hall (Wales), Muchalls Castle (Scotland) and Crathes Castle (Scotland); however, by the late 1700s the great hall was beginning to lose its purpose. The greater centralization of power in royal hands meant that men of good social standing were less inclined to enter the service of a lord in order to obtain his protection. As the social gap between master and servant grew, there was less reason for them to dine together and servants were banished from the hall. In fact, servants were not usually allowed to use the same staircases as nobles to access the great hall of larger castles in early times; for example, the servants' staircases are still extant in places such as Muchalls Castle. The other living rooms in country houses became more numerous, specialized and important, and by the late 17th century the halls of many new houses were simply vestibules, passed through to get to somewhere else, but not lived in. Clock Tower and New Palace Yard from the west The Palace of Westminster, on the banks of the River Thames in Westminster, London, is the home of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, which form the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... Entrance to the Prague Castle at night The Prague Castle (Czech: Pražský hrad) is the castle in Prague where the Czech kings, Holy Roman Emperors and presidents of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic have had their offices. ... The Great Hall at Penshurst Place, circa 1915 Penshurst Place is an historic building near Tonbridge in Kent, 32 miles (50 km) to the south east of London, England. ... For other uses, see Kent (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... This 14th-century statue from south India depicts the gods Shiva (on the left) and Uma (on the right). ... This article is about the country. ... This article is about the country. ... A drawing of Longleat in the early 18th century by Leonard Knyff. ... Burghley House Burghley House is a grand 16th-century English country house near the town of Stamford in Lincolnshire. ... Bodysgallen Hall is a manor house in north Wales near the village of Llanrhos. ... Muchalls Castle, Aberdeenshire Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. ... Crathes Castle is a castle near Banchory in the Grampian region of Scotland. ... Events and trends The Bonneville Slide blocks the Columbia River near the site of present-day Cascade Locks, Oregon with a land bridge 200 feet (60 m) high. ... ...

Many colleges at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham universities have halls on the great hall model which are still used as dining rooms on a daily basis, the largest in such use being that of University College, Durham. So do the Inns of Court in London and King's College School in Wimbledon. The "high table" (often on a small dais 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 reproducing the hierarchical arrangement of the medieval household The University of Oxford (informally Oxford University), located in the city of Oxford, England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and has a reputation as one of the most prestigious universities in the world. ... Affiliations 1994 Group European University Association Association of MBAs EQUIS Universities UK N8 Group Association of Commonwealth Universities Website http://www. ... University College, commonly known as Castle, is a college of the University of Durham in England. ... Combined arms of the four Inns of Court. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Kings College School Wimbledon, or KCS, is an independent boys school in Wimbledon, south-west London. ...

See also

• Manor house
• Tapestry