Where is the oldest house in Britain?

To be fair, no one is quite sure. But there are some serious contenders.

Saltford Manor House, Saltford, Somerset, is a Norman house dating from around 1150. In 2003, it won a Country Life contest to find the ‘oldest continuously inhabited house in Britain’.

In the mediaeval period, the Earls of Gloucester owned the land on which the manor was built, but it’s most likely that a tenant constructed the building. The manor would have originally formed a 2-storey ‘chamber block’, providing high-status rooms at the first-floor level, lit by the surviving early windows and heated by a fireplace. These rooms would have been used in conjunction with a hall, which would have sat elsewhere on the site. One window has traces of a medieval decorative painting, probably from the 14th century.

Meanwhile, The Jews House, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, is thought to have been built around 1170.

It’s called the Jews’ House because of a 19th century tradition that a Jewish merchant originally owned the building. The medieval Jewish synagogue was located nearby, and documentary records suggest that members of the Jewish community of Lincoln may have lived there in the 12th and 13th centuries. Originally, the building had a series of small shops on the ground floor with a residence above it. Traces of the original window openings and chimney stack survive on the first floor, and the original doorway on the ground floor. The building was altered in later centuries, but the use of the ground floor as a shop has continued. The Jews House is 1 of 2 surviving buildings from the 12th century on Steep Hill in Lincoln. The other is the Norman House. 

The Bishop’s Palace, Hereford, Herefordshire, was once a grand hall and offers a rare glimpse at the timber construction techniques of the period. The earliest part of the building has been dated to 1179 using tree-ring dating (dendrochronology), which makes it one of the earliest precisely dated houses in England.

The arcade of the original hall survives buried in the later phases of the palace. Some of the massive posts which formed the arcade are visible behind later pillars on the ground floor.The top of the arcade is now visible in the roof space. This is highly decorative, with extra details nailed onto the structural timbers. The hall would have been used as the main ceremonial space where the bishop’s household would have eaten and socialised, and guests would have been entertained. 

Burmington Manor, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, has been tree-ring dated to 1195. The building was probably built by the Grenville family, who held the estate in the early 13th century.

Like the Bishop’s Palace in Hereford, Burmington has a 12th century arcade surviving inside the building, although this uses a mixture of timber and stone.It also has some original stonework surviving in the elevations of the building, including a contemporary window opening.The surviving evidence suggests that the building originally had a large hall open to the roof at one end and a smaller first-floor chamber over an undercroft at the other. The surviving window would have lit the smaller chamber. 

Prebendal Manor House, Nassington, Northamptonshire, was built around 1200 on the site of an 11th century timber Anglo-Saxon hall.The earlier hall was reconstructed in stone around 1200. Two doorways survive from this earliest phase, with other stonework in the walls. One of the doorways formed part of the hall’s cross passage, and the other led to a separate chamber block attached to the hall’s northern end.

In the 15th century, the hall was altered, and a taller building was made, with much larger windows on the western side and a new roof structure. It was changed again in the 16th century when the fireplace was inserted and the roof structure modified.The service wing was rebuilt in the 15th century and modified in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Frewin Hall, Brasenose College, Oxford, 12th century Early undercrofts and cellars sometimes survive, even where the rest of a building has been totally reconstructed. They can be hard to date accurately, but some survive from the 12th century. The undercroft at Frewin Hall in Oxford is a typical example.

The structure above was rebuilt in the late 16th century. Although now part of Brasenose College, it was originally part of a townhouse belonging to a wealthy individual. The undercroft has an inserted late 12th century column at its western end, which suggests that the rest of the structure might be even earlier, possibly built in the first half of the 12th century. It was originally lit by high-level windows that would have been above ground level, and the remains of narrow access stairs may have originally connected the undercroft to a contemporary building above. 

A settlement at Star Carr, North Yorkshire, 9,000 BC If you’re not concerned about the house still standing, the very oldest is likely the remains of a Mesolithic hut at Star Carr near Scarborough in North Yorkshire. Excavations in 2008 found a structure at the early Mesolithic settlement site, which has been interpreted as a hut. It was possibly a seasonal shelter for hunter-gatherers.

Source: Heritage CallingHeritage Calling and Historic England Archive.