Coursework piece 1 Essays

Coursework piece 1 Essays Coursework piece 1 Essay Coursework piece 1 Essay The candidate uses and develops relevant knowledge in a sustained account of the changes made at Ightham mote over time. The candidates cover the site fully and supports most claims effectively with evidence including annotated illustrations. Some awareness is shown of Ightham Mote as a historical source.Question 1 (9-10 level 4)As Level 3 and the candidates also makes reasonable judgements that show an understanding of the complexity of the site and its past. The candidate may comment on the pace and degree of change. The candidate will give a clear account of the changes and development using a wide range of evidence to support their claim. Answers will also give a clear assessment of the value of the site as a historical source.Question 2 (8-12)Candidates answer discuss a wide range of factors. Answers attempt to assess relative importance and support the points with evidenceQuestion 2 (13-15)Candidate will consider a wide range of factors (as level 3) a nd will reach a substantiated judgement about their relative importance. Answers will show awareness of different types of causes e.g. political, economic social and chance.Question 1Ightham Mote started off by having one front. Now when you look at this country house you can see many changes have been made. Probably the first thing you will notice is that the house has been expanded a lot, there are now four fronts. Many other interior changes have been made to the house.The Great HallThe Great Hall was built in the 1330s. It is known that the room was built in this time as ring tests have been taken out on wood found in the room on the ceilings.A large window was put into the opposite wall to the fireplace by the Haunt family. This window was then changed by Sir Richard Clement. Below is the window. I have explained the changes which have been made.The CryptThe Crypt is probably one of the oldest rooms in the house. It has been built under the Old chapel. It is the room in the hou se which has been changed the least. It has been lefty as it was in the beginning however it shows us what it was like in the times it was used.The Oriel roomThe Oriel room has changed quite a lot since it was first used. In 1330 it was a basic empty room with small window at the front. This was all changed. Windows were added and changed, fireplaces were added and so were separate levels.The Old Chapel and New ChapelThe Old chapel was used every day. It lies above the Crypt and was part of the original building. Only the men were allowed to sit in here during the service. In the room next door the woman sat of the service. There was a hole in the wall so that they could look through and see what was going on. This room had a fireplace inserted after quite a while. It was also changed into two separate rooms. This can be seen by the fact that there are holes halfway up the wall where the floorboards would have been originally. Also we know this because the windows have been changed. Originally there was only one set which went the full length, ceiling to floor however, now there are two sets of windows. One set on normal level and another set a lot further up.When Dame Dorothy moved into the house she moved the chapel into a different room which wasnt used as much. This was then named the New Chapel. She got permission to hold and hear sermons in her own home so that she could use the room. On the next page is a picture of the new chapel.The Drawing roomThis room was added at a later day. The room first came to use when Dame Dorothy owned the house. She felt there was nowhere for her to relax with guests so she changed this room. There have been several changes made to this room.The West frontThere have been quite a few changes to this front over the years. The Haunt family added this front to Ightham Mote in the 15th century. The lower part of the tower is thought to have been built between 1330 and 1340. Here is a picture of this front.Here is a close-up of west side where the drawing room is.The CourtyardThis is the centre of the house. When you first enter the house this is where you will find yourself. From here you can access all rooms on the bottom level. It has been made up by each of the sides of the house that have been added over the years.From looking at this house I have learnt several things. The house has been left as it was. Unfortunately we have little written evidence about the house and when alterations were made. However the house is very useful as the alterations that were made have not been covered up. Therefore we can see how things were made and when they were made/put into the house. We can therefore tell which owners made the changes. So we can try and work out reasons for why they may have made the alterations.The site gives us ideas about what the designs of houses were like over the period of time 1399 and 1889. If shows us how styles and ideas for building has changed. Also interior decorating can tell us ab out the time.Overall I think that the site is very useful and can tell us a lot about the history of the house. If the alterations had been covered up more then I do not think that the site would have been as useful to us. This is because then we couldnt see how it changed and made us realise why it may have been changed.Question 2As I have already explained there are many ways in which Ightham Mote has changed over the years. Many of the changes have been made for specific reasons. The different owners have made all the changes as they have moved into the house to make it their own. The Haunts were the first family to own Ightham Mote in the period of time 1399 to 1519. They ended up running out of money. They were executed for being to close to the king who reigned before the one who was on the throne at this time. The house was bought in 1521 by the Clement family. Sir Richard Clement owned the house until 1544. The final family I have looked at was the Selby family. They bought the house in 1591. The house finally left the Selby family in 1980 this family probably made the most changes to the house.There are probably two main reasons why all of these changes were made to this house. These are the main reasons however there may be other smaller reasons.Religion played a big part in the lives of people around in this period of time. It made many changes in how people lived. People liked to be associated with royalty as it gave them a higher status. This is one of the reasons we think that some of the changes were made to the house. To make them seem closer to royalty. Sir Richard Clement put in the large window with the symbols of the king, the queen and the Tudor rose. He also put in the ceiling in what is now the new chapel. It is thought that he did this because he was expecting the king to come and visit. This shows that people always wanted to impress royalty. The slightly odd thing about this house is that even after Henry VIII had divorced his wife an d had demanded that anything that was in honour of her was destroyed; the ceilings and windows were still left in the house.Status and wealthy ness also played a large part in peoples lives. People liked to show off. Nowadays people show wealth off by their cars and clothes. However, when this house was owned people showed off by their house. Decoration, size and additions to your house showed wealthy ness. This then showed status. The wealthier you were the higher status you were. This meant that people tried as hard as they could to have whatever was in fashion at the time for their house. An example of this is the Oriel window in the Oriel room. Sir Richard Clement bought this and installed it. At the time these types of window had a use however, Sir Richard Clement didnt buy it because of its use, he bought it because it showed wealthy ness. He also put in the gatehouse for decoration. There was no actual need for it however he wanted it to show off his wealthy ness. At a later date, another family added crenulations to the gatehouse. At the time that these were added they were generally put onto buildings as an aid of protection. However the family just put them on to show their wealthy ness and status. We know this because there are little shelters behind them which mean that there would be no room for people to stand behind them.Fashion also was quite important at the time. Changes were also made to the house because of fashion. For example the Oriel window was fashionable at the time. It was popular to have in houses. Therefore Sir Richard Clement bought one to put in because it showed wealthy ness and to keep in with what was in fashion.From this we can see that basically all anyone at the time wanted to do was impress people. Whether it was neighbours or royalty. This shows that people were quite shallow at the time. From the country houses we can tell a lot more than just what changes have been made. We can learn about why people did things and what people were actually like.