[sambeau]

To add a little perspective I live in rural England in a small thatched house that appears on a map dated 1420.

That's 30 years before Christopher Columbus was born — and Richard III; 100 years before Queen Elizabeth I was born.

It was built before chimneys were invented: one was fitted at some point, probably at the same time the upstairs floor was put in (you can't have an upstairs without a chimney). The refurbishment date is scratched into the plaster work: Feb 1722.