Living at Home: People, Spaces, and the Changing Domestic Environment in Early Modern South-West England

Abstract

The domestic housing of early modern south-west England, c.1500 to c.1750, has been under-studied compared with other regions of England, with limited consideration of the broad changes in the physical layout of domestic houses. Current research, drawing on proxemics and Environment-Behaviour Studies, shows how changes to the layout and rooms of early modern houses has a strong relationship with changes to social relationships and cultural behaviours, as well as economic, political, religious, and geographical influences. Current research also shows how the domestic housing of other regions underwent change in accordance with existing theories, such as the ‘Great Rebuilding’ or ‘Closure’. This study investigates the changes in the physical layout of rural and urban vernacular and gentry houses of Devon and Cornwall, c.1500 to c.1750. It examines changes to domestic behaviours such as cooking, eating and drinking, and hospitality. It asks to what extent was the pattern of change unique to the South West, whether trends observed in other regions are applicable to the South West. Over two thousand probate inventories, and modern plans of over one hundred rural, urban, and gentry houses are studied and the evidence entered into a number of databases. These recorded key information dependent on the type of source, such as room names, the number of rooms, the material culture recorded, the plan-form of recorded buildings, and the number of chimneys. Analysis of these sources reveals several patterns in rural, urban, and gentry houses which highlight the regional distinctiveness of housing in the early modern South West. Central amongst these patterns was the strong influence of late medieval ways of living and layout of houses, as seen in the continuing importance of the cross-passage in houses of the gentry, yeomanry, and husbandmen, from the fifteenth century into the mid-eighteenth century. This continuing influence of medieval plan-forms and architectural features is contrasted against a high degree of change in how houses were lived in, with a noticeable ‘decline of the hall’ and ‘rise of the kitchen’ as well as changes in the material culture of the household.