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The Oval House

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

James Walton
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Extract

The place of the oval house in the evolutionary development of folk architecture is of particular interest. Although sporadic in occurrence it has been responsible for one of the principal present-day dwelling types, the hipped-roof. Innocent contends that the round house was the earliest and that the rectangular plan evolved through the intermediate oval stage which was produced by the joining of two circular frameworks. He further postulates that the ridge-pole was devised to connect two such frameworks.

I have already indicated elsewhere that simple rectangular plans have been employed at least from the Iron Age and it is apparent that the rectangular gable-ended structure is certainly as primitive as the circular. Some oval houses undoubtedly resulted from the union of two circular frameworks but the motive force behind this development was a desire on the part of peoples accustomed to building circular huts to emulate the rectangular type. Having seen the increased living space afforded by the rectangular plan, these peoples tried to copy it by joining two of their circular frameworks. This was not the only way in which oval houses originated.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 26 , Issue 103 , September 1952 , pp. 135 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1952

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References

1 Innocent, C. F., The Development of English Building Construction, 1916, p. 8-11.

2 Walton, James, ‘Cruck-Framed Buildings in Yorkshire’, in Yorks. Arch. Journ., vol. XXXVII, 1948, pp. 49-66.

3 Lochlainn, Colm, O., ‘Folkliv, 1937, 2-3, 1938, 2’, in The Irish Book Lover, January, 1940.

4 Kissling, Werner, ‘The Character and Purpose of the Hebridean Black House’, in J.R.A.I., vol. LXXIII, 1943, p. 84.

5 Weule, Karl, Native Life in East Africa, 1909, p. 65.

6 Walton, James, ‘South African Peasant Architecture’, in African Studies, vol. 7, 1948, pp. 139-45.

7 Tolstov, Sergei P., ‘The Early Culture of Khwarizm’, in ANTIQUITY, 1946, p. 98.

8 Piggott, Stuart, ‘Farmsteads in Central India’, in ANTIQUITY, 1945, pp. 154-6.

9 Erixon, Sigurd, ‘Some Primitive Constructions and Types of Lay-out, with Their Relation to European Building Practice’, in Folkliv, 1937, pp. 124-55.

10 Innocent, C. F., op. cit., p. 12.

11 The National Geographic Magazine, 1930, p. 254.

12 Campbell, Åke, ‘Notes on the Irish House’, in Folkliv, 1938, p. 180.

13 A detailed survey of these sites is at present being made by the author.

14 Kissling, Werner, op. cit., p. 82.

15 Hall, Mr and Mrs S. C., Ireland : Its Scenery, Character, etc., vol. III, 1843.

16 Otway, Caesar, A Tour in Connaught, 1839.

17 Kissling, Werner, op. cit., p. 78.

18 Lethbridge, T. C., Merlin’s Island, 1948, p. 81.

19 Lethbridge, T. C., op: cit., p. 81.

20 Peate, Iorwerth C., The Welsh House, 1944, pp. 51-84.

21 Campbell, Åke, op. cit., p. 183.