Tudor houses

Despite retaining the medieval taste for a Gothic style, the Tudors drove change in how houses were constructed through the late 15th and 16th centuries. How It Works finds out how this process worked

Tudor houses were built following a half-timbered design. First stone foundations were laid and encircled with a raised, hole-filled step, into which timber frames were slotted. The original frame was hoisted into place by manpower alone and then used as a lifting platform to pull up the next frame with ropes.

The frames were typically made out of oak, as the wood was common in Britain at the time and strong considering how easy it was to cut by hand. Due to the beams being cut by the hands of carpenters, they were often rather uneven and – as can be seen today – this led to a slightly bumpy, off-kilter finish.

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Next the chimney was installed, which for the time was revolutionary. Before Tudor architecture became standard in the 16th century, buildings tended to be heated using the ‘great hall’ design, where a single large room would house an open fire and disperse smoke through holes in the upper walls and roofing.

This led to a heated but smoky main room and was impractical. The enclosed fireplace and chimney structure allowed Tudor houses to disperse smoke efficiently, allowing for smaller rooms to be heated. During this stage the first floor was boarded and stairs were installed, both made from wood, and the jetty support beams were prepared.

Once the building’s frame, chimney and floorboards were fitted, the gaps in the timber frames were filled with wattle panelling and then wind and waterproofed with daub – a sticky binder substance. Wattle panelling is characterised by a latticework of thick wooden sticks interwoven to create a flat surface. Daub is a rather primitive form of plaster which is made from a mix of wet soil, sand, clay, straw and animal dung.

When combined these completed the walls of a Tudor house. The building was then roofed, either in thatch – which was common for secular buildings at the time – or crudely tiled, as well as having its windows installed. Glass creation in

“Daub is a primitive form of plaster made from a mix of wet soil, sand, clay, straw and animal dung”