Old Normandy Farmhouses

This impressive manor or "manoir" located at Archelles, Normandy clearly belonged to a wealthy family. The manor was built to resemble a small castle. It has decorative turrets and the driveway passes through a gate into the inner court yard. Based on the decorative stonework it is unlikely that this building was actually meant for defense.

One interesting thing is that there are piles of hay stacked right up to the walls of the manor house. This means that every bit of land was worked; there was no decorative lawn around this farmhouse. This picture was taken some time in the late 1800's. The hay would have been cut by hand, by labourers using a scythe.

The manoir at Archelles was built in the 16th century, at around the same time as The Manoir d'Ango. It was also during this century that the best and most interesting of the French half-timber work was done, and although we have no definite information, the two examples here illustrated date from about this time. The construction in these buildings is doubtless the same as that commonly used in others of this character—a strong framework of timber filled in with brick masonry and then plastered. Many of the French town houses built in this way were very elaborate and were adorned with exquisite carved wood ornament.