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LAYOUT AND DESIGN

Directly west of the House for Horses and Oxen, within
the fences of a large rectangular yard containing four other
livestock buildings, is the House for the Cows and Cowherds
(fig. 483). Its title makes it irrevocably clear that the
animals that find shelter in this structure perform the dual
role of serving as dairy and breeding stock. The house is
entered broadside by a door leading directly into the "hall
of the herdsmen" (domus armentariorum), which is provided
with the customary central fireplace. Ranged on three sides
around this space, in the shape of the letter U, are the stables
for the dairy cows (stabula); the extremities of this stable

[ILLUSTRATION]

479. CHEDDAR, SOMERSET, ENGLAND. LONG HALL OF THE SAXON PALACE. 9TH CENTURY

[after Rahtz, 1962-63, 58, fig. 20]

The house, slightly boat-shaped (most markedly so on the west side) was 78 feet long externally, and 20 feet wide across the middle. Its walls
consisted of closely spaced posts, 9 inches square, set against the outer edge of a continuous trench, and in certain places doubled by a row of
inner posts of lighter scantling sloping inward. The entrances were in the middle of the long walls, with a minor one toward the north end of the
east side. A spread of burnt clay in the southern half of the house close to the center may indicate the location of the hearth.

arrangement are boarded off to form two small cubicles or
"bedrooms for the servants" (cubilia seruantiū).

Both Keller and Willis[627] interpreted the area designated
as domus armentariorum as an "open court" and the square
in its center as "a small house perhaps inhabited by the
overseer." There would be no need to refer to this superannuated
interpretation had it not been rescuscitated lately
in Alan Sorrell's recently published reconstruction of the

houses of the Plan of St. Gall (fig. 283). Domus, as has been
sufficiently stressed in earlier parts of this study, can only
have referred to a covered portion of ground. It is the
author's favorite term for "hall" or "living room" and
cannot under any circumstances be interpreted as "courtyard."
The square in the center, which is common to all
the guest and service buildings on the Plan, is clearly
identified in some of them as "fireplace" and in others as
"louver."[629]

The House for the Cows and Cowherds is 87½ feet long
and 50 feet wide, but whether this is the length of the
original scheme is somewhat doubtful, since in this corner
of the Plan the parchment contracts, and it is possible that
the copyist found himself compelled to reduce the length
of the building in order to adjust to this condition.

The central hall of the cowherds measures 22½ feet by
52½ feet; its aisle and lean-to's have a width of 17½ feet.
The traditional way of housing a dairy herd was to tie the
cows in pairs in stalls 5 feet long and 7 feet wide.[630] The
aisle and lean-to's of the House for the Cows and Cowherds
are wide enough for the animals to be tied up in two rows,
one facing the outer walls (their customary protohistoric
position) and another one facing the inner wall partitions.
If stalled in this manner, the House for the Cows could
have accommodated a total of seventy cows. If they were
tied in a single row against the outer walls only, this figure
would have to be reduced to forty.

[ILLUSTRATION]

480. PILTON, SOMERSET, ENGLAND. BARN OF GLASTONBURY GRANGE. 15TH CENTURY

[Photo: Quentin Lloyd]

Long barns with one or several transeptal porches are very common in the Midlands and southwest of England. They are rarely less than 100
feet long, often come close to 200 feet; and one example, the barn of the Benedictine abbey grange of Abbotsbury, Dorset, attained the astonishing
length of 267 feet. The building type has never been systematically studied. For individual examples see Andrews, 1900, passim; Horn and
Charles, 1966, Horn and Born, 1969, and Charles and Horn, 1973. F. W. B. Charles and Jane Charles recently measured this barn for us. It
is 108 feet 6 inches long, 44 feet wide, and 17 feet high from floor to wall head.