Found primarily west of the Hayle River in Cornwall, and on the Isles of Scilly, Courtyard Houses as a ‘type’ have been recognised by that name since about 1933. They date from the Iron Age and were in use for several hundred years, through the Romano-British period.
Each house follows a distinctive design: a paved entrance into an area with 4 or sometimes 5 distinct ‘rooms’ leading off it. Anti-clockwise from the entrance, these are usually: a small round room, a long narrow room (sometimes divided into two), a large round room opposite the entrance, often containing a fire hearth, and finally a bay area. There may also be a smaller oblong ‘storage’ room next to the entrance. The central ‘courtyard’ also often includes a stone water channel, usually paved over. The outer walls are often quite thick in places, and the overall shape of each house is an oval.
Whilst each house is unique, they all conform to this general basic pattern, allowing some suppositions to be made about their construction and use.
The large round room is accepted as a general living room, used for food preparation, dining and sleeping. The long narrow room is usually quoted as stabling for livestock (which I personally doubt – some of the rooms are far too narrow), and the bay area may have been covered by a lean-to roof, again for livestock shelter. In excavations, very few finds have been found that were not concentrated in the large round room, or immediately adjacent to it.
In many of the large round rooms, as well as a fire hearth, hollowed out stones have been found. It has been suggested that these are either quern stones for grinding, or the base for a supporting pole for the roof.
Whilst the perceived wisdom is that the side rooms would have been roofed, and the central courtyard open to the air, Jacqui Wood (Cornish Archaeology 1997) put forward a theory that the entire structures may have been covered with a single roof, and raises the possibility of an upper floor gallery.
The houses usually occur in settlements rather than singly, and many are accompanied by a ‘fogou’; a Cornish Soutterain or underground passage. At Carn Euny, the main fogou is accompanied by a spectacular beehive hut storeroom and is entered from the main house of the settlement. At Chysauster the fogou is set downhill a short distance from the nearest house.
There are as many as 40 possible settlements in Penwith alone, several of which are disputed or destroyed. Carn Euny and Chysauster have been excavated are both open to the public.
Further information:
Carn Euny – Cornwall Heritage Trust
Carn Euny – Historic Cornwall
Chysauster – Historic Cornwall
Romano-British Settlements – English Heritage (PDF)
5 comments
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05/06/2012 at 20:09
Shining Diamond
What a fascinating place and defo on my wishlist of places to visit.
The stones with the hollows are puzzling?. Why bother to do that for a post support when you simply sink them into the ground?. Don’t look like quern stones either (too small and deep). Something ritual perhaps?, to hold something sacred. I’m thinking of those strange stone spheres with the carvings on that sometimes crop up?
We may never know
06/06/2012 at 06:14
Alan S.
I’d agree they look too shallow to support anything as substantial as a roof. During the first excavations (by W C Borlase) ‘rubbing stones’ were found beside many of the hollow stones, which certainly suggests use as a quern. Your idea sounds intriguing, but none of the sculptured balls have been found in the area, as far as I’m aware.
16/06/2012 at 00:57
lorageneva
Reblogged this on lorageneva and commented:
I found this post highly intriguing. I found myself wondering the date they suspect these courtyard houses were in use and if that has any bearing on the use of the “round” type houses. I also wonder which peoples were thought to live in these. Celts? Romans? Picts? Norse? Angles? Saxons? There were many peoples in Britain through the time periods stated. Interesting…..
16/06/2012 at 06:25
Alan S.
As regards construction, and relationship to roundhouses, Jaqcui Wood suggests that the individual rooms may have been built first, and the adjoining walls then I filled to give the overall oval shape. So definitely a connection to roundhouse builders if that’s the case. As for occupants, the perceived knowledge is that they were ‘Romano-Britsish’. Make of that what you will…
16/06/2012 at 15:58
lorageneva
Interesting! Thank you for the information! Obviously, more research to come 🙂