Ancient Web: House Greydragon Built a Fourteenth-Century DIY Library

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

Living in the fourteenth century sounds romantic until somebody asks how you will move the bed, the tent, the chest, and a bench to the next medieval reenactment. House Greydragon has spent years treating those questions as engineering problems.

Visit House Greydragon.

The site's creators describe their work as an effort to recreate aspects of medieval life through the Society for Creative Anachronism, or SCA. Rather than merely displaying costume photographs, the homepage leads to measurements, patterns, illustrated instructions, classroom notes, and source material for historical crafts. Its last-updated notice reads December 2017.

The encampment is a workshop

The furniture index, last updated in 2005, includes medieval chest designs, portable take-down storage, rope and canopy beds, benches, Glastonbury chairs, and gothic-style furniture that disassembles for travel. One link promises to show how an entire encampment fits inside a Honda Accord LX—a detail few museum labels think to explain.

The pavilion section goes deeper. It focuses on circular hub-and-spoke tents, with plans attributed to reenactors including Dafydd ap Gwystl and Lady Sorcha. There are downloadable canvas calculators in U.S. and metric measurements, patterns for roof panels, stake-layout advice, and photographs of completed pavilions.

The pages also ask what historical evidence supports the designs. They compare paintings of medieval tents, a documented pavilion from Basel, and images of a Portuguese governor's sixteenth-century tent. The archive distinguishes attempts at historical interpretation from the practical needs of modern SCA camping; neither should be mistaken for a perfectly proven recreation.

Other branches cover equestrian equipment, late-fourteenth-century clothing, brewing recipes and judging standards, tournament paraphernalia, and event photographs. The homepage credits members and occasional outside contributors rather than presenting everything as the work of a single anonymous expert.

Some linked outside instructions have moved or vanished. Yet the internal galleries retain a wonderful combination of material culture, trial and error, and personal logistics.

The old web was especially hospitable to communities that needed to share elaborate instructions too specialized for a mass-market magazine. House Greydragon demonstrates how an enthusiast's knowledge could become a practical workshop manual for strangers.

Explore the furniture plans and pavilion construction reference.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.