6o LITTLE HUCKLOW : ITS CUSTOMS AND OI-D HOUSES. 



may have been used, in the days when the fireplace was open, 

 for the same purpose as the modern hob is now used — i.e., to 

 put kettles or cooking vessels on. There is another of these 

 projections in the house marked " C '" on the plan of the 

 divided house already described. 



Adjoining the house-place is the scullery, or "bower," as we 

 call it, entered by a doonvay only 5 ft. 3 in. high. To get in 

 you descend a step as you go through the doorway. The 

 floor is of concrete. This room is only well lighted in the 

 morning, and the absence of a window in the south wall makes 

 it rather gloomy and damp. A cellar, here called a pantry, 

 lies beneath the northern half of the floor, which is supported 

 by a stone arch. The cellar steps are guarded by an oak 

 framework reared on a foundation of stone. A small sink- 

 stone, not drawn on the plan, has been fitted into the window, 

 which is recessed at a height of 2 ft. 4 in. from the floor. Oak 

 rafters support the floor above. This room is 7 ft. high. 



The two chambers or upper rooms are approached by a 

 winding stair, formerly known as a " vice " or " turngrees.' 

 We are so accustomed to our modern stairs, and regard them 

 with such indifference, that we are apt tO' lose sight of the 

 difficulty which the means of ascent from a lower to a higher 

 storey presented to the old builders. At Padley Hall, near 

 Hathersage, there was a winding stair, now removed, outside 

 the house ; at Overton Hall, near the same village, the stair- 

 case is a rectangular projection from the building, like a tower, 

 inside which wooden steps go circling round in sets of four. 

 At Garner House, near Bamford, the stone steps were con- 

 tained in a round case, the outer half of which projects from 

 the north side of the building like a segment of a round tower. 

 There is a winding stone stair in a house at Upper Midhope, 

 near Penistone. Examples of such stairs are now rare in 

 English domestic architecture. The outside staircase was, 

 however, frequent in English houses of the thirteenth century, 

 and the upper rooms of an old Egyptian house were reached 

 by such a contrivance.* It is probable that many of these 

 * Maspero's Manual of Egyptian Archeology (Enijlish ed.), p. 11. 



