Surely two good things about windows for light (and fresh air) as opposed to doors is that they don't create a floor level draught, so don't raise dirt, and do freshen the air at breathable height where smoke accumulates?
I agree with you; I don't believe there were no windows. Small windows, obviously, and probably few of them; but I suspect that many Anglo Saxon houses let in so many draughts through the walls that windows were less of a problem than we think; also, chimneys create enormous draughts - but did many Anglo Saxon houses have chimneys?
My little cottage was unbelievably draughty, despite having walls over a foot thick! That's probably at least part of why I find it so hard to believe AS houses weren't. Also, I think it would be very hard work to maintain an Anglo Saxon house so it stayed draught-free, even if it started that way, and I don't know that people at the time would have seen that as important. NZ has incredibly cold and often draughty houses, and people here don't seem to see it as a particular problem - they just wear more clothes (and have dogs that sleep on the bed to act as hot water bottles in winter
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Oh, sorry, I was misled by your mention of walls. A lot of the reconstructions have wooden walls that are practically like lacework, with all sorts of holes where a knot has fallen out or the planks have not been properly butted up together - and I just can't see people actually living with that, even in a shed it would be impractical, walls with that many holes in would surely just rot away.
In my experience, the draughts in old cottages creep under doors or round windows and down chimneys or take advantage of temperature differentials, but they don't come *through* the walls.
(My Gran had a very old timber-framed cottage. There were draughts, as you'd expect in a single-glazed building, but it was a lot warmer than our Victorian house next door, which was phenomenally draughty and chilly as it had bigger windows, more doors, and stone walls that were nothing like thick enough.)
... I think you are right about draughts though. I find I am much less sensitive to them than Pp, who grew up in a properly insulated house with double glazing!
The Year 1000 by Lacey & Danziger says (p43) "The Englishman's own home was certainly a wooden structure, based on a framework of sturdy beams stuck into the ground and fastened together with wooden pegs.... Roofs were thatched with straw or reeds, while windows were small gaps cut into the walls and covered with wattle shutters"
For this last comment they reference Daumas, A History of Technology and Invention Vol 1, p489,
(That reference may refer to the windows themselves or to a comment they go on to make about glass composition and manufacture, which I haven't bothered typing out because it's irrelevant to this discussion.)
I agree with you; I don't believe there were no windows. Small windows, obviously, and probably few of them; but I suspect that many Anglo Saxon houses let in so many draughts through the walls that windows were less of a problem than we think; also, chimneys create enormous draughts - but did many Anglo Saxon houses have chimneys?
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In my experience, the draughts in old cottages creep under doors or round windows and down chimneys or take advantage of temperature differentials, but they don't come *through* the walls.
(My Gran had a very old timber-framed cottage. There were draughts, as you'd expect in a single-glazed building, but it was a lot warmer than our Victorian house next door, which was phenomenally draughty and chilly as it had bigger windows, more doors, and stone walls that were nothing like thick enough.)
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"The Englishman's own home was certainly a wooden structure, based on a framework of sturdy beams stuck into the ground and fastened together with wooden pegs.... Roofs were thatched with straw or reeds, while windows were small gaps cut into the walls and covered with wattle shutters"
For this last comment they reference Daumas, A History of Technology and Invention Vol 1, p489,
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