The mid-14th century great hall at Penshurst Place, Kent. Penshurst Place is an historic building near Tonbridge in Kent, 32 miles (50 km to the south east of London, England. KENT (1400 AM) is a Radio station broadcasting a Adult Standards/MOR format

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. A room, in Architecture, is any distinguishable space within a structure A palace is a grand residence especially the home of a Head of state or some other high-ranking Public figure. Nobility is a government-privileged title which may be either hereditary (see Hereditary titles) or for a lifetime A castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. A manor house or fortified manor-house is a Country house, which has historically formed the administrative centre of a manor (see Manorialism The English country house is generally accepted as a large House or Mansion, once in the ownership of an individual who also usually owned another Great As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar 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. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain.

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. A minstrels' gallery is a form of Balcony, often inside the Great hall of a Castle or Manor house, and used to allow Musicians (originally 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.

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). For the Ronin Warriors character see Dais (Ronin Warriors. Desert Senna ( Senna covesii) is locally known as "dais" 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. Fireplace mantel or mantelpiece, also known as a chimneypiece, originated in Medieval times as a hood that projected over a grate to catch the Smoke Plasterwork refers to Construction or ornamentation done with Plaster, such as a layer of plaster on an interior wall or plaster decorative moldings A coat of arms or armorial bearings (often just arms for short in European tradition is a design belonging to a particular person (or group of people Heraldry in its most general sense encompasses all matters relating to the duties and responsibilities of officers of arms. Origins The origins of the term are unclear It is first recorded in the Latin form caryatides by the Roman architect Vitruvius. 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.

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 (or "high room"). 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 an external staircase tower. The upper hall often contained 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. A Laird (Lord is a Hereditary title for the owner of a landed estate in Scotland. 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.

Examples

Many great halls survive. Two very large surviving royal halls are Westminster Hall and the Wenceslas Hall in Prague Castle. Prague Castle (Pražský hrad is a Castle in Prague where the Czech kings Holy Roman Emperors and presidents of Czechoslovakia Penshurst Place in Kent, England has a little altered 14th century example. Penshurst Place is an historic building near Tonbridge in Kent, 32 miles (50 km to the south east of London, England. KENT (1400 AM) is a Radio station broadcasting a Adult Standards/MOR format England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland 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. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. This article is about the stately home and related attractions Burghley House is a grand 16th-century English Country house near the town of Stamford in Lincolnshire, England. Bodysgallen Hall is a Manor house in Conwy county borough, north Wales, near the village of Llanrhos, at 53°17'47 Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Crathes Castle is a 16th century Castle near Banchory in the Aberdeenshire region of Scotland. 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. The English country house is generally accepted as a large House or Mansion, once in the ownership of an individual who also usually owned another Great

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. The University of Oxford (informally "Oxford University" or simply "Oxford" located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England is the The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University) located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the Durham University is a University in Durham, England. It was founded as the University of Durham (which remains its official and legal name University College, commonly known as Castle, is a college of the University of Durham in England So do the Inns of Court in London and King's College School in Wimbledon. The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations to one of which every barrister in England and Wales (and those judges who were formerly barristers London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. King's College School Wimbledon or KCS, is one of Britain 's leading independent boys' schools 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

See also

• Manor house
• Tapestry