House & Household
The centre of the old city was home to the powerful
elite of Exeter merchants. Their houses occupied the long narrow burgage
plots of the medieval town. Surprisingly grand buildings were sometimes
achieved on these crowded sites. Many of the traditional houses belonged
to a distinctive South-West English house type, in which a front block
two rooms deep stood on the street front, with a small courtyard behind,
and a detached kitchen to its rear, often connected to the front by a
gallery. Each had a narrow shop on the ground floor, with working space
behind. On the first floor were the best rooms: hall and parlour; above
were chambers and lofts. These houses were all of ‘mixed construction’
of stone and wood. The sides were solid stone walls which acted as firebreaks,
since fire was a constant danger, whilst the front and back walls were
of timber, often jettied out over the street and rear courts.
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