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On the Manor House, Colerne. By the Rev. Wynter E. 
BLATHWAYT, M.A. 
(Read February 22nd, 1899.) 
The Manor House at Colerne shares the fate of many another 
in the country of having seen better days. We find scattered 
about numbers of them, which point to having been places of 
greater importance formerly than they are at present. 
Where the owner of the land lived there he had his hall. At 
first it would be probably very like a barn, as uncomfortable to 
our ideas as a barn would be, though having some kind of fire- 
place and more light, with certainly not less air and draught. 
It was here the owner and his immediate retainers lived, where 
they gathered to feast and where they stayed when within doors, 
Adjoining the hall would be the ladies’ bower for the women folk, 
later on to grow into the withdrawing room. As luxury increased 
further accommodation would be added for sleeping; and 
gradually other buildings would spring up, joining on to those 
already existing. In many cases the hall, where the lord showed 
hospitality, administered justice, appointed his thralls their tasks 
and received his dues, would form one side of a courtyard, the 
other rooms, store buildings and stables going to make up the 
quadrangle. The door into the hall would be the main entrance 
into the house and opposite another would lead into the court. 
The rooms, windows and doors looking into the courtyard, 
there would be few openings to the outside, so giving a greater 
feeling of security, and a possible means of defence against 
unwelcome visitors ; though such a place would be very different 
to the castles introduced by the Normans, which afforded a com- 
plete system of defence, against the attacks so common on the 
continent, whence the pattern for the castle came. 
While this paper professes to be on the Colerne Manor House 
itself, it has wandered off, and will do so again, for some account 

