"Question about Airfix Waterloo Farmhouse kit" Topic

I'm converting an Airfix Waterloo Farmhouse kit I bought on eBay. I'm puzzled by the three very low windows in one wall of the barn. Click the link to see what I'm referring to:

Why are they there? They are far too low to look out of and wouldn't provide much light at that size and height. I've found explanations of other parts of the kit, seen walkarounds of La Haye Sainte farm and even visited it virtually using Google Street View, but purpose of these low windows mystifies me. Can anybody help?

very low windows..first thought I have would be for the chickens.It is a farm aftef all.Let me ask for you on another site.

Hi, i always thought it is a entry/ exit for doves.

U say click the link, what link would that be?

a room for pig or sheep ?

Hi folks. There is no link – TMP now converts links to images and I'd forgotten that because I haven't posted for a while. I'm pretty sure it's neither a dovecote nor a piggery – La Haye Sainte has a dovecote, but it's above the gatehouse, and a piggery that abuts one of the courtyard walls.

I think it was just an oversight, I had one years and years ago, if I remember correctly they are about the right height for the kneeling firing Airfix figures!

Ha ha! Yes, it also occurred to me that it was just yet another rubbish Airfix kit!

link

this ( half way down ) 1979 photo suggests the model is correct ?

Possibly the floor level is lower inside? Has anyone here actually been inside?

The farmhouse is still family owned. You can not enter as it is privat property. But you can take pictures from outside.
I am working 20min distance from waterloo. I will check it next time i dive by.

Greetings

Maybe it was for light rather than viewing?

For those wanting to see the windows on the model and too lazy…

They may have had ramps at one stage to allow chickens to get in and out, assuming behind the wall would be a raised area for the chickens to lay in?

This picture gives an idea of size of the larger single opening to the left of the barn door so the 3 'windows' are indeed small.

Thanks everyone for your help. Because of stenicplus's comment about the ramp, I've convinced myself that the openings are most likely for some kind of chicken coop. I think I'll add a little wire mesh to the first two openings and a small ramp to the one nearest the barn door.

Rudi, it's kind of you to offer to stop there and take a look around but there is no need. If you'd like to do so to satisfy your own curiosity that's fine, but please don't go to all that trouble for me!

I've added some wire mesh and a ramp. Looks like a chicken coop to me!

Would they have used wire mesh in 1815 ?

I'd have thought a wooden door would have been more likely to lock the hens in at night.

Chicken wire (wire mesh) was not introduced until 1844.

Thanks for noticing the wire mesh (hopefully that will come up in a pub quiz one day!) but I'm not recreating La Haye Sainte farm as it might have been in 1815. I'm actually putting together a present-day farm using the Airfix kit as a starting point.

This is one of the photos I took of the interior of the farm in 2008.
The window openings are the same height as the low door in the wall. I remember the doorway seemed just under my height 5'8".

Hope this helps.
Chris

Thanks, Chris. The barn is actually rather large, isn't it? It doesn't seem that big in pictures taken from the road.

@ dwight shrute
Great link. I enjoyed the post thanks.

Interesting,

The window openings are the same height as the low door in the wall. I remember the doorway seemed just under my height 5'8".

would suggest we were quite wrong, either that or they had very big chickens then

I seem to recall that in the 1700s and 1800s the average height was significantly smaller than now due to poor nutrition and health. This article PDF link would indicate the great barn could be from around 1700 (if it was built after destruction in 1694), this would suggest that they are windows after all.

Just read the PDF link above, and the footnotes offer the following:

7. The top of east wall of the barn had in 1815 three large round holes, which still exist. Additionally there were three smaller square openings to the left of the gate. In the west wall there are five of such openings, as well as a small door. All these date from after 1815.

So that would seem to suggest that they didn't exist in 1815 at the time of the battle. Obviously the picture indicate four square opening and the small door, but that error doesn't overrule the issue that they probably post date 1815.

npm

I would agree they are indeed window openings on the real barn. On the Airfix kit, however, they can't possibly be. They're far too low when compared to windows and doors elsewhere on the same kit. I'm sticking with my imaginary chicken coop!

We shouldn't overanalyze this one. The model is an approximation of a scaled down La Haye Sainte. The windows just inadvertanly shrunk with the rest of the kit no doubt. Still a good kit in my opinion. Have memories of this one,

I seem to recall that in the 1700s and 1800s the average height was significantly smaller than now due to poor nutrition and health.

Many old houses (and medieval castles!) had low doors. There are probably two reasons. Yes the average height was smaller than now (but there was some tall individuals). The other reason is that people accepted to bend their head when entering a house. A small door meant that the warmth of the house did not get out so fast than with a large door (door isolation was no good). Nowadays, people would not accept to enter their house by a door smaller than themselves, and it would be against the law for an architect to build and sell such a house; but in the past it was common practice.
BTW, king Charles VIII of France died because his forehead hit the stone lintel of a door in Amboise castle 1498.