Building record DRK 056 - Kopsey Cottage, Drinkstone Green

Kopsey Cottage is a well preserved ‘openhall’ house of the early-15th century that contains a number of historic features. The central sitting room was originally open toits roof in the manner of a barn, and heatedby a bonfire-like open hearth burning on its floor; the timbers of the roof, now hidden in the attic, are still thicklyencrusted with centuries-old soot. Unusually for a building of this period the house retains its original proportions and was not extended to accommodate its inserted chimney; it is therefore possible to identify an exceptionally small medieval parlour, and the mechanismwhereby smoke was permitted to escape through a ‘gablet’ at the end of the thatched roof. Unlike many contemporary structures the timber frame, which consists largely of elm rather than oak, was rendered externally from the outset, and contained few decorative features; it probably belonged to a mid-ranking husbandman with perhaps thirty or forty acres, who built with economy rather than ostentation uppermost in his mind. At thirty-nine feet in length by seventeen inwidth, however, its proportions were perfectly respectable in comparison withthe houses of local smallholders, which typically extended to only thirty feet by twelve. The original floors were lower by some two feet than those of today, and the medieval ceilings at each end of the central hall have been raised accordingly; in consequence, considerable archaeology may survive beneath the present floor level. Like many similar houses built as a single dwellings in the Middle Ages Kopsey Cottage had been divided into two or three labourers' cottages by the 18th century, and illustrates the dramatic change in social and domestic expectations over the period (S1).