11/08/2025
This beauty of a Saxon longhall is based on a late 9th century building excavated in the early 1960s at the Kings of Wessex school in Cheddar (Somerset).
The site was probably owned by the Saxon kings of Wessex and represents a high-status residence.
The longhall would have been the building where the owners ate, possibly slept and where all important formal functions took place.
It may have been enclosed by a protective bank and ditch, within which were at least three other smaller square buildings and possibly even a bell tower. These may have been used for accommodation for servants, storage, cooking, or stabling animals.
The longhall is 5.5m wide, 15m long and just over 5m in height. It is slightly ‘bow sided’, being half a metre wider in the middle than at the ends, and is ‘hog backed’, being higher in the middle of the roof.
These two characteristics are typical of Anglo-Saxon longhalls and occur in more extreme forms in Viking buildings of this period.
A small room at one end of the building had its own external door and may represent a bedroom for the owners, or perhaps just a storeroom ~ swheritage org uk
The smell of woodsmoke is gorgeous.
You can visit this beauty at Avalon Marshes Centre, Shapwick Road, Westhay, Glastonbury, Somerset, BA6 9TT
