Carew Manor Great Hall

Carew Manor School, Church Road, Beddington, Surrey

Carew Manor Great Hall

The great hall at Carew Manor is the only grade 1 listed building in the Borough of Sutton. The picture shows the hall in the mid-19th century when Carew Manor was still a country house. The most striking feature of the Great Hall is its arch-braced hammer-beam roof. The hammer-beams are the horizontal timbers which project inwards from the top of the wall. The timbers which rise vertically from the ends of them are called hammer-posts, while the arch-braces are the long curved members which run from the wall, through the hammer-post and hammer-beam, to meet the collar in the centre of the hall.

Hammer-beam roofs were quite widely used in the late mediaeval and Tudor periods. Examples can be seen in many East Anglian churches, at some Oxford colleges, in the halls of the Royal palaces at Westminster, Eltham, Hampton Court and in less prestigious houses. There is a good deal of variety in both structure and decoration. The roof at Beddington appears to be very similar to that at Eltham in Kent, which was erected in the late 1470s as part of Edward IV's remodelling of the palace. The resemblance is, however, superficial, as the structure of the Beddington roof is very unusual. Local archaeologist Barry Weston has studied the roof and has found that it is made of small carved pieces of wood applied to an underlying timber frame. The hammer-post is made of two pieces of timber, and the curving arch-brace passes between them. Normally the brace would continue downwards until it meets the wall post, but, at Beddington, it bends to one side and joins the underside of the rafter just above the wall. The original line of the brace is continued with a separate piece of wood. From within the hall all this is hidden, as the main timbers are covered with mouldings which give a false impression of thickness, and the timbers which bend aside to meet the rafters are hidden behind plaster panels. This arrangement is highly eccentric, and is, so far as we know, unique. The reason for it is a mystery, although it would allow the use of smaller and therefore cheaper timber. There appears to be a decorative moulding along the outer edge of the hammer posts which is largely concealed by other mouldings laid on top of it. This strange arrangement may suggest that the design of the roof has been altered at some stage early in its life. Another puzzling feature is the stone corbels which appear to support the roof. The only finished one of these is in the north east corner, the others become progressively less complete towards the south end of the hall, suggesting that construction came to an unplanned halt, though the circumstances surrounding this are unknown.

What was the rest of the hall originally like? An idea can be formed from documents and from comparisons with other halls of a similar age. The existing windows are Victorian. In mediaeval halls the windows were generally set high in the wall so that a tapestry could be hung below them. One end of the hall, the south end with the coat of arms, would have been divided off by a screen similar to the one which still exists at Penshurst Place in Kent. A passage would have run across the hall behind the screen with the main outside door opening into one end of it. The screen probably had three openings which were matched by three doors on the opposite side of the passage in the south wall of the hall. The two doors at each side opened into the pantry and buttery, from which food and drink were served, while the central passage ran between the service rooms to the kitchen. The screen and passage were generally only half the height of the hall, and there was often a gallery above from which musicians could play during meals. At the other end of the hall the floor was usually raised slightly to form a dais. There would have been a large open hearth in front of this from which the smoke would drift up until it found its way out through a louvre in the roof. The louvre is mentioned in some sixteenth century accounts, and two timbers which probably supported it can still be seen connecting the purlins in the second bay from the north end of the hall.

The prestige and power of a mediaeval magnate was displayed by the size of his household and the number of his retainers. The latter were also of practical use, as they extended the lord's influence and provided the nucleus of a fighting force to be used either in the service of the crown or in pursuit of the lord's own interests. In the civil wars of the fifteenth century a large household was particularly useful. In 1420-21 Richard Nevill, Earl of Warwick, one of the greatest land owners of the time, had a riding household - more or less a personal body guard - of 75, and these would be accompanied by a much larger number of other servants. This multitude had to be fed, but dinner was a ceremonial and highly ritualised affair which expressed the status of the lord, the magnificence of his household, and the position of each member within it. The lord sat at high table on the dais with his household arranged on forms a few inches below him. The food would have been brought in procession down the passage from the kitchen to the high table, where the lord was served with intricate formality by several household officials after which his retainers could eat. The Carews were an important county family rather than great feudal lords and their household would have been no more than a pale shadow of Nevill's but they no doubt aped the pattern set by their social superiors so far as they could afford. We have already suggested that Richard Carew, who had the house from 1493 to 1520, was the most likely builder of the hall. He lived in a period of change, for the social patterns described above were breaking down. The lord was tending to dine in his private chambers leaving the household in the hall presided over by the steward. The changes were very slow; but the hall at Beddington was probably built as a traditional symbol of status, rather than a room which functioned in the traditional way.