In the last post I caused some confusion by mentioning ground and first floors. I believe they don’t mean the same thing to Americans as they do to me. Since there was more that I could write on the subject of looking up when visiting a medieval site, I thought I’d add another post, with a few more photographs to explain what I mean.
I made this diagram last year to show where the great hall was in Richard II’s palace at Portchester Castle.

King Richard’s Great Hall, Portchester Castle
As you can see, the great hall was above the servants level, which is at ground level. Medieval lords and abbots lived above: on the first floor. Great halls, refectories and solars were upstairs. The halls of men of lower status were on the ground floor.
People had to climb stairs to reach King Richard’s hall. It showed that he was a man of high status. His hall also had large windows, not that you can see them in the photograph. The wall on the right is an exterior wall of the castle, not just of the hall. It has no windows for the sake of security.
When I first started visiting medieval sites properly, I was confused by many of the things I saw. It was ages before I understood even a little about how to look at medieval buildings. This photograph from Rievaulx Abbey will illustrate this well.
This space is labelled ‘Refectory’ and you might wonder, as I did the first time I saw something similar, why there are walls in the refectory. The refectory should have been a large open space where the monks had their meals. The refectory is not at the bottom of the picture, though, but at the top. The walls below are what remains of storage rooms. The refectory starts where the walls change from rough stone to the paler, more finished blocks of stone above. These walls would have been plastered and painted with colourful designs.
This is another refectory, this time in Easby Abbey. Since I was on ground level when I took it, it’s a bit easier to see the vaults below and the magnificent windows of the refectory above.

The refectory, Easby Abbey
The photograph below shows John of Gaunt’s great hall at Kenilworth Castle. It looks very odd when you see a fireplace halfway up a wall, but, once again, the hall sits on top of storage vaults. The huge windows and the fireplaces are the clues that it was in the room upstairs that the lords of the castle spent their time.

Fireplace in the Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
Looking up and asking questions about what you’re seeing at a medieval site is a good way to learn more about how people lived in the Middle Ages.
April Munday is the author of the Soldiers of Fortune and Regency Spies series of novels, as well as standalone novels set in the fourteenth century.
Available now:
You’re right about the confusion: A first floor in the U.S. is at ground level. Which makes perfect sense to us….
LikeLiked by 6 people
I’m sure it does. It’s another thing for me to add to a lengthening list of things that won’t necessarily be understood in the same way in other parts of the world.
LikeLiked by 3 people
The Upstairs/Downstairs social divide seems to have lasted for a fair while.
LikeLiked by 4 people
The servants in a great house or a castle got to sleep upstairs too … on the floor of the great hall.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I need to do Rievaulx. Cool photos.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Rievaulx is definitely worth a visit. It was quite overcast the day I went, but my first view of the whole complex made me stop in my tracks. If you go there, you can do Byland (the one with the tiles) on the same day. They’re only 20 minutes apart.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Ok thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you do, Fraggle, make a point of going to Rievaulx Terrace, which looks over the abbey – great views for your photos (though possibly masked when the trees are in full leaf). Nearby Helmsley and its castle are both wonderful too 🙂
LikeLiked by 4 people
Thanks Mike!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’m glad I didn’t know that when I was there. I had to be in Durham for a meeting and I felt that I rushed my visit quite a bit as it was. From a comment made by the chap in the shop when I left, though, I think my ‘short’ visit was longer than most people’s full visit.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know what you mean; I think, for some, it’s just a tick in a box. Mind you, some places don’t grab me and I feel guilty sneaking out before people who were ahead!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nicely done, April. Just be grateful castles didn’t have 13 floors – in the US they are sometimes missed out entirely. An architect once gave me the very useful advice to ‘look up’ when walking down any high street – above the boring shop fronts, he pointed out, you’ll see the earlier buildings and grab something of the history of a place. I seem to remember we were walking through Tottenham at the time.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Thank you. Yes, ‘look up’ is probably good advice wherever you’re walking.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That business about the 13th floor is also true. I remember as a kid looking at the button panels in buildings and being baffled by their absence.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I felt that way when I visited Washington D.C. When you look up, there’s so much gorgeous history in the architecture of buildings spanning entire blocks!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Fascinating photos and explanations, April. Thank you!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Timi.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for shedding some light on this topic, April. I had no idea Europeans used the terms first and ground floor differently!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I had no idea, either. I hope I’m not causing confusion with other terms that I use.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very informative April, thanks. I feel as if I need to revisit places and look at it in this way.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So do I. I learned it quite late.
LikeLiked by 1 person