A SMOKE-BAY HOUSE

Peter Harness, conservation officer in the London Borough of Bexley, writes about the recent discovery in Foots Cray of a late 16th century smoke bay house.

The chance discovery of a smoke—blackened lath and plaster screen in the roof of a Foots Cray cottage has provided the missing link in the history of No. 164 Sidcup Hill. Local historians had long suspected that the building, known as Walnut Tree Cottage, was of considerable age; but no—one suspected just how old it really was. Its white rough—cast exterior, with fake, external beams on the gable end, hides a true timber frame dating from the late 16th or early 17th century. Its special distinction, however, is that it was a smoke bay house.

Smoke bay houses first made their appearance at a time traditionally associated with the ‘Great Rebuilding’ around 1550. On the evolutionary scale, this type comes between the open hall of the Middle Ages and the brick chimney houses of the 17th century. The smoke bay was an attempt to confine the smoke from the fire within a narrow timber— framed bay screened with lath and plaster. The bay would have continued to the apex of the roof, and is today evidenced by

heavy sooting on some remaining timbers, and on plastered panelling within. The use of the bay to heat the hall—kitchen would have presented a considerable fire risk, even though the inside was plastered to protect the timber framing.

Walnut Tree Cottage displays the ‘new look’ house plan, designed around the smoke bay. A central door gave access to a small lobby within the smoke bay. The ground and first floors each contain two rooms, the hall—kitchen and parlour— bedroom on the ground floor with, most probably, storage above. Steps to the storage area may have been accommodated within the service room, which would have been as the dairy or bottle store. Unlike earlier hall houses, the service room is accommodated in the cat—slide outshot to the rear. Ceiling joists in the lower rooms are of slight scantling, compatible with the post—Tudor style. Elsewhere,where original timbers can be seen in the framing of walls and partitions, the material is of similar poor quality and is typical of the degeneration of building timber that took place during the late 16th and early 17th century.

It was within the roof space that the most important evidence of the cottage’s antiquity came to light. Part of the original lath and plaster screen was still intact and, although very friable, it indicated its former use as one of the first chimneys. The remaining screen, surviving in two sections, was only soot— encrusted on one section. This would suggest that the smoke was channelled within the bay, and directed to a specific opening in the roof. The ‘hood’ within the bay would have taken a dog—leg route to avoid the ground floor lobby and first floor cross passage. The majority of the roof timbers have now been replaced, but remaining timbers show a clasped purlin arrangement, with a mortice and tenon apex to the rafters.

Remarkably few changes have taken place over the centuries, although the smoke bay arrangement appears to have been abandoned within 50 years of its construction. It was replaced with a large brick—built chimney on the western gable, and a new staircase was introduced with—