THE NORTH CRAY MEDIEVAL HOUSE

The Medieval Hall House was re-discovered at North Cray in the 1960s when they were building a dual carriageway. The North Cray medieval house is a typical medieval house. The timbers were painted red, following evidence that this was done when the house was originally built. Built-in the 15th century, the house was disassembled and re-erected at the Weald & Downland Living Museum just outside Chichester in West Sussex. Located in the museum are many historic buildings set in over forty acres of the beautiful South Downs. The buildings from a time period extending from Anglo-Saxon to Edwardian times, approximately 950 AD to 1910 AD.

The Medieval Hall House was re-discovered at North Cray in the 1960s when they were building a dual carriageway that ran from the original North Cray Road, which was, back then, a narrow lane. The London Borough of Bexley wanted to demolish the Medieval house but decided to dismantle it instead. They had the idea of re-erecting it locally. So, put the timbers in storage. No progress was made, however, ten years later they donated the timbers for re-erection at the Weald & Downland Living Museum near Chichester.

The site chosen was the village area of the museum, because the building’s original environment was having been in a village setting. The side and end elevations originally faced a road, so the construction was a perfect candidate for the Museum’s corner site next to the Upper Hall from Crawley, West Sussex.

Maybe the most unforeseen feature of the building is the exterior timbers have all been highlighted red. A few of the timbers of the house had red paint surviving in shielded locations, and hints were found in one position in particular. Where they could only date from the original construction of the building. Verification has progressively been gathering to show red paint was often used on the timbers of medieval buildings. The result is similar to that which can still be seen in French and German towns, where the tradition has survived to this day.

Another uncommon feature is that most of the original timbers are elm and not oak. Elm and other timbers were frequently used in later eras, but oak is by far the most usual timber found in surviving medieval buildings. So, the North Cray house is rare in this regard. Elm is a hardwood that is comparable in many ways to oak when freshly cut and worked, but it is much less able to fight the combined assault of woodworm and bad weather.

The inner timbers of the structure are extraordinarily well conserved, but the external timbers have had to be largely replaced and repaired in its reconstruction. The lower part of the front wall is a speculative reconstruction, as the original was totally destroyed when the jetty was underbuilt in brick. In the 16th and 17th periods, the house experienced a typical series of alterations. First, a divider frame was interleaved next to the main truss in the hall, forming a smoke bay. It is not known whether the hall was floored over at the same time. But undoubtedly the smoke bay included an upper floored area on one side, where meat may have been hung and smoked.

The next modification, possibly in the early 17th century, was the supplement within the smoke bay of a large brick chimney stack similar to those in the Pendean and Walderton houses within the Museum complex. At this juncture, the hall was unquestionably floored over as the stack included a chamber fireplace. In its final form, before being disassembled, the façade of the building was used as a grocer’s shop, and the rest was split into two small cottages.