After cruck timber houses, open hall houses became popular. Like cruck houses these were not ordinary houses, but usually belonged to high status people such as lord of the manor or maybe a high ranking vassal. They were called open hall because they had a large two story high hall in the centre.  Most had a passageway with doors at either side of the house. This opened into a large hall where the owner or tenant could sit in some splendour. The open fire was right in the middle of the room. Cooking however was mostly done in a different cookhouse, separated from the main building by a gap. This was a wise precaution when there was a very good chance of fire destroying the place.

Mostly this type of house had 2 story living accommodation at each end of the main room.  The bedrooms were often quite impressive and in cold weather the beds could become places where people more or less lived. It wasn't uncommon to have business meetings in a bed! If you look carefully you can see two little beds under the large bed. These pulled out and could be pushed back under the main bed to save space. Who do you think slept in these?

There is an open hall walkthrough here. It gives a reasonable impression of a house in the middle ages and it requires broadband as it is quite large at about 6Mb. This is an improvement on the original which was 10Mb although there is one I like more that comes in about 9.5mb here.  When I get time I'll re build it and reduce the download size if possible.  The first time you play any of these through they may be very jerky. This is to save you having to look at a preloader for a long time. The second time you run the movie it will be much smoother. You can move to the beginning and the end with the buttons. There is also a drag bar just under the movie. You can use that to go to different parts of the walkthrough. A rather smaller run through along nearly the same path is available here. It needs re-rendering at a more normal walking pace, but gives you an idea. There is also a broadband slideshow here. It takes a little while to get going. It also needs some work making the download size smaller. The same house has been modernised here. It is easy to spot the changes!

Again, when I get time, I'll re-light the model as this is far too severe and the shadows would not have been as dense. Then the lighting needs rendering to texture and exporting into Shockwave or some similar technology so you will be able to walk around all the rooms at will while getting a more accurate impression of what living in the middle ages was like.

If anyone wants me to do this anytime soon please get in touch using the feedback page.