River house

A River house, also called a Hall house, is a type of combined barn-living quarters dwelling that emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries in Lathadu. It is timber-framed and built using post-and-beam construction. Initially, River houses appeared in marshes, but later spread throughout the Lathadun riverlands. They were distributed throughout the country and eventually spread limitedly into Ordrey, which developed a separate sub-style called the Low Ordrish house.

Emergence
The River house owes its emergence to a combination of economic and stylistic circumstances. Before its invention, the folk of the eastern Aarnieu River Delta marshes lived in older farmhouses, a type of unit farmstead. These small buildings had enough space for the farmers because they did not have to store large harvests. Cereal farming was only possible on a few higher-lying areas, whilst the poorly drained marshes were generally only suitable as grassland and pastureland. As drainage technology improved with the use of watermills and windmills, the fertile marshy areas could be dried out and used for grain farming; in order to store the growing quantities of harvest, a house with greater capacity was needed. At this time, bricks were becoming an increasingly popular building material stylistically, meaning that the wealthier landlords regularly built theirs of brick as a sign of wealth and style.

Design
The typical River house consists of a living space and an adjoining working area with stable and barn. By extending the roof downwards in the rear part of the house, side bays are created so that the barn becomes wider than the living area. The center of the stable and barn section forms the Bay, a storage area for hay, harvest products, and tools, which gives this type of house one of its alternate names. In one of the side bays are compartments or stalls for keeping cattle. The walkway running in front of them was called the cow passage. At the far end there traditionally is the privy. At the gable end of the working area are two doors: a large barn door on one side that gives access for wagons to the threshing floor, and the Bay, a small double door on the other side. The latter derived its name because it was the door through which cattle dung was taken and carried to be removed.

There is often a semi-circular window in a metal frame over the large barn door which was designed in the form of a stylized half moon. The front part of the middle section, at the gable end, in which the horse stable is housed, is surrounded by a dividing wall and given a cover, so that an additional floor is created on which extra hay for winter feeding is stored. The weight of the roof is not carried by the outside walls, but by an internal group of posts and beams. The roof covering the living area is traditionally made entirely of red clay tiles. By contrast, the lower third of the barn roof is covered with tiles, but the upper two-thirds are thatched. The roof is usually in the shape of a half-hipped roof. Where only one end is half-hipped is the wind-facing gable end (usually the barn gable). The hip is often surmounted, even today, by a decorative staff with a bag of herbs attached, or wappin, a device that echoes the mystical beliefs of earlier times.

One feature of many older River houses is the so-called Up-room, a room in the living quarters that is higher than the rest because it sits above a half-sunken cellar. This can often be recognized from the outside of such buildings by the window arrangement. The River house structure is found, albeit often with major or situation-specific modifications such as a side entrance, both on large farm buildings as well as on smaller buildings, including those of farm laborers.

Other uses
The restructuring of agriculture and the closure of some smaller farms has provided opportunities for River houses to be used for other rural purposes. For example, in the village of Kennougheyder in eastern Lathadu, a former River house has been converted into a primary school. In Gallvergagh in southern Lathadu, the local bank has moved into a former River house. Regional conservation societies run educational establishments out of the structures regularly, showcasing their regions’ histories and cultures. Especially common usage for out of use River houses are to hose festivities in Lathadu’s countless annual festivals.