So, I’m putting together a map of our covenant. The main body is a Manor House as per pg. 11 of Covenants, suitable for the minor landholder that is our tame noble. I have no idea what would be appropriate dimensions for such a space, though.
I’m not a slave to reality or anything, but I wouldn’t mind some guidelines on how big buildings of the days were. Any ideas? (Google hates me and I can’t find examples.)
It probably has a Great Hall, and attached living quarters for the Lord and his family: servants are probably housed in the Great Hall. Plus it will have a number of outbuildings, a barn, a stable (maybe a mill and chapel) etc. Possibly the magi's laboratories need to be additional outbuildings, as unless they partition the Great Hall there is unlikely to be enough space in the Manor house itself.
Below are some web references, for what they're worth. Note that some of these are 14th/15th century manors which are considerably bigger (although sometimes built around a core building from an earlier period).
Hope that helps.
historylearningsite.co.uk/me ... houses.htm
wwnorton.com/college/history ... /manor.htm
britannia.com/history/wilts/mm-wilts1.html
fordham.edu/halsall/source/chingford.html
Sadly, I know most of that. What I can't find out is how big those manors actually are. I mean, like how many feet. Having never seen one I just don't know.
At this site, I found the floor plans of a 13th century manor house. There's no scale, but you can probably estimate it by looking at the bathrooms.
http://www.gerbestonemanor.com/manor-house-to-hire.php
Hope it helps.
I think it is safe to say that the place looks very different from 13th century manor - both in terms of interior and size.
Hm, that's a shabby 13th century mansion you have that link to. Our covenant's tv-room is twice the size, not to mention the sports and games room. The gun room is smaller though, since those good oldfashioned wands of BoAF don't take up that much space. 8)
Now see, I always have trouble: Do I put the Whips of Weeping Wounds in the gun room? I always feel like they belong in the Games room myself...
Oh. I think that very roughly a two story rectangular building with an interior about 15 feet by 50 feet would be a good start (the walls may be several feet thick). Perhaps a half to two thirds of the floor area would be the Great Hall.
Although there is a lot of room for variation, depending on where the site is, when it was constructed (some manors may already be several hundred years old in 1220), whether it originally had another purpose (was it a military castle?), the wealth of the current and historic owners, and what other buildings are in the area.
If you have access to it: Quiney, A. 1999 "Hall or Chamber? That is the question, the use of rooms in post-conquest houses" Architectural History, 42, pp24-46 has some useful information. Fig 4, is a floor plan of a manor house that indicates which bits were built in 1200.
Awsome, that's the starting point I was looking for. Thanks!
You can try with this site, in the downloads section there are a lot of floor plans, some of manors.