University of Virginia Library

V.17.5

HOUSE FOR BROOD MARES, FOALS
AND THEIR KEEPERS

LAYOUT AND DESIGN

The House of Foaling Mares (fig. 487) is identical in plan
to that for Cows and Cowherds. In all likelihood it was
meant to be the same size. The narrowing of the parchment
at the southwestern corner of the Plan, where this building
is located, probably forced the copyist to contract the plan
for this house. The room that contains the hearth is designated
"the horsemen's living room" (domus equaritiae:
"the hall of the stables where horses are bred"[637] ); aisles
and lean-to's that accommodate the horses are designated
"stables" (stabula); the cubicles at their end, as "bedrooms
for the attendants" (cubit custodum).

MATING AND BREEDING

Columella, in his book On Agriculture, states that stallions
and mares of common stock may be mated at any time
during the year, but he advises that the nobler breeds be
mated about the time of the spring equinox so that the
mares, who foal in the twelfth month, may be able to

[ILLUSTRATION]

WICKHAM ST. PAUL'S, ESSEX. BARN 2 OF THE DEAN AND CHAPTER OF ST. PAUL'S, LONDON

485.D.3

485.D.2

485.D.1

485.B

485.C

485.A

Descriptions in 11th-century leases of agricultural buildings maintained by the
Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's on outlying estates (The Domesday of St. Paul's
of the year MCCXII . . . W. H. Hale, ed., London, 1858, 122-39) are so accurate
that the structures can be laid out on the drafting board. Since no 11th- and 12thcentury
barns survive, this material forms a unique link between proto- and early
medieval Wohnstallhäuser (above, pp. 45ff) and the earliest surviving medieval
barns (above, pp. 88ff). The example here shown belongs to what we earlier defined
as Variant 3B of the St. Gall house (fig. 333). For reconstruction of two others
(Variant 4), see Horn, 1958, 12, figs. 24 and 25.

PLAN, SECTIONS, AND AXONOMETRIC DRAWINGS SHOWING SKELETAL FRAMING AND EXTERNAL ENVELOPE

rear their young when the pasture is rich and grassy. He
points out that pregnant mares need special care and
generous fodder and ought to be kept in a place that is
both roomy and warm.[638] Modern breeding manuals prescribe
that maternity stalls be 12 feet by 12 feet.[639] If these
were the dimensions of the stalls used in the House for
Foaling Mares and Foals, it would have been able to
provide shelter for eleven mares and their offspring at any
given time. The hay, straw, and grain required for these
animals were usually stored overhead under the slope of the
aisle roof and were fed into the mangers through openings
in the floors of these lofts.