Some Interesting Things Every Child Should Know About The Origins Of The Sash Window

In a home anywhere that has been influenced by English architecture when people open windows they open them by sliding a framed glass pane upwards. There are other kinds of windows but that is the one every child is familiar with even though a child in unlikely to know the origins of the sash window.

Many children never hear the word sash and window in the same sentence until someone reads to them the famous poem Twas the Night Before Christmas. Even though it is a very famous poem and has defined how people think about Santa Claus no one is really sure any more who wrote it. That’s sort of like the way it is with sash windows.

The significant relationship between windows and sashes comes in the line where the author claims to have flown to the window “like a flash” and he says he “tore open the shutters and threw up the sash”. At this point some children with little knowledge of architecture but great powers of imagination require an explanation. They may ask why the author/narrator barfed up his bathrobe belt.

A kind and considerate adult will take time to explain what a window sash is and how it differs from a sash worn around the waist. This good person will explain that a window sash is like a frame that goes around the glass pane and fits into the actual window frame and slides up and down.

If this child is every parent’s dream he will become so enchanted by this exciting new information he will immediately undertake a study of architectural history and learn about Robert Hooke who is credited with inventing the sash window in the 1600s. He might not actually have invented the sash window. And he might have invented a lot of things he didn’t get credit for. Hooke was sharing the world stage with Sir Isaac Newton and rumors say Sir Isaac didn’t always give credit where it was due.

Actually the sliding-up-and-down window concept was in use as early as the thirteenth century but at that time windows were no glazed so what people had was a verticalized sliding wooden shutter. Though imperfect this was still a good thing. You could open the window to let light in without pulling the shutter into the room or shoving it out into the rain and wind.

The sash window as we know it today is a result of the combining of sliding panels, glass panes and counter weights. The weight and pulley system, now largely replaced by a spring balance enables someone of normal strength or less to open the window without doing themselves damage. A good place to ponder the origins of the sash window is at Ham House in England. It has windows that were installed in 1670, some of the oldest in existence.

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