The Late Saxon Home
In 1995, prior to the construction of some new houses, Wessex Archeology excavated the post holes and midden (rubbish hole) of a late Anglo Saxon timber home in the centre of Bradford. As you can see in the image below, the site (marked with the yellow arrow) was tucked away off Rosemary walk.
I used the size and placement of the postholes to intuitively calculate the loads, and reconstructed the home, on it's site in 1011 (as you can see in the image below of the same area, also marked with a yellow arrow). Excuse the discrepancies of perspective between the Google satellite image of today, (above) and a birds eye view in 1011 (below), but the images should give you a good idea of where the home is.
Let's come down from the birds eye view, and take a closer look.
In the image above, we're looking at the south facing rear of this single storey home. On the ground near the rear wall we see a midden (rubbish hole) with a lid. Though still not pleasant, so the front door is around the other side :) In fact, where it should be, on this single storey slope clinging wooden home.
The collection of items found on site by Wessex Archeology, indicated this wasn't an ecclesiastical house, but a fairly typical family home.
The collection of items found on site by Wessex Archeology, indicated this wasn't an ecclesiastical house, but a fairly typical family home.