Norton sub Hamdon

Local History Society

The Houses of the labourer in Somerset

Following my article on "Roger Langdon, an inhabitant of Chiselborough" I was given an article from "The Builder" (a learned trade periodical) dated 7th December 1872 which was written as part of a campaign for the reform of housing amongst the labouring classes in this country. The article describes, in some detail, the appalling conditions in which working people lived and the treatment they suffered at the hands of their landlords. It is of interest to us as it contains examples of typical housing from Chinnock, Chiselborough, Montecute and Stoke sub Hamdon.

I have had to be very diplomatic in deciding which extracts to use as the writer certainly pulled few punches in his description of both the houses and their inhabitants. I certainly cannot quote in full the paragraph describing Chiselborough of whom the nicest comment is 'the existence of such a place as this is a disgrace to our boasted civilization.' His descriptions of the inhabitants are even more insulting .....fortunately things have changed.

Cottages in West Chinnock

(from 'The Builder' 7th December 1872)

The investigator appears to have had trouble obtaining his material for on one occasion the landlords' bailiff harassed him from the village of Chiselborough, an act I can only imagine encouraged him to write even more scathingly about the suffering of the 'oppressed masses'. The writer openly states that he had 'no hesitation in adding that some of the worn cottages we visited are the property of Lord Ilchester and Lord Portman'.

In his descriptions of the properties within the villages he does accede to the view that 'the appearance of the cottages in Chiselborough, externally, is respectable.....' However, within the dwellings both the materials used in the construction and the scant layout of the rooms did little to provide for the comfort or safety of the inhabitants. He describes a typical cottage 'by the roadside in Chinnock'.

'The only portion of these cottages now inhabited now consists of two rooms, a kitchen below, and a small bedroom above, whose windows are in the gable end, with entrance door up a passage. The height of the kitchen is 6ft 3ins; breadth a little over 9ft; and length 13ft. The bedroom has a ceiling broken through in three or four places, through which the rain from the thatch above trickles down the walls. It is only in the central part of the bedroom a person of ordinary height can stand upright. There is hardly 3s worth of property in the sleeping compartment in the shape of bedding. An old tick, with scarcely any stuffing, and a few rags, composed a bed, spread upon the floor in one angle of the room, and a wretched frame, - the caricature of a bedstead, - occupies another corner of the apartment..' With so little room stairs were steep and narrow often resulting in accidents and injuries; particularly for the old and infirmed. And to make matters even more hazardous, especially for the very young, the unguarded mouth of the house well was often inside the kitchen. The Ham stone floors were allowed to fall into dangerous repairs where the rainwater would collect to form 'miniature lakes or pools.'

Living within these two small rooms 'were the labourer and his wife, with families varying from five to eleven, the infant and the marriageable daughters or sons are all huddled together, even admitting there is no lodger.'

Invariably the husband and the older sons, by whom I mean any boy over eight years old, would be labourers for the local landowner. About this time the labourers' wages were raised to between 9s and 10s a week. However, to compensate for this the farmers withdrew the labourers' perk of two pints of cider a day. The writer considered this to be no small loss as 'no vinegar that we have tasted was more sour' and he 'found it impossible to swallow the second mouthful.' The wife and daughters would be employed as home workers in the glove industry, working in the confines of the kitchen. For up to fifteen hours work they could be paid as little as 6d. With rents of 1s 6d a week it could take a wife over forty hours of work before she saw any money with which to buy food. No wonder the children were put to work as soon as they were big enough. The family's problems were probably compounded if the husband enjoyed his drink (remember in the last issue Jim the labourer and his frequent visits to the Chiselborough pub run by Temperance Patch in Roger Langdon's account of his time on the farm).

Cottages in West Chinnock

(taken from 'The Builder' 7th December 1872)

One delicate subject that I have not touched upon is the provision of toilet facilities. The writer remarks - 'as to "conveniences" we found instances where one place of accommodation had to meet the wants of a whole row of cottages.' We must remember that this 'place of accommodation' was nothing like our present day 'accommodation', being only a shack with a hole in the ground. In Montecute 'the sewerage in one place passes along an open ditch, immediately behind a row of cottages, and winds its way into the fields, where it is absorbed in the soil.' In times of rain the water, and the sewerage, soaks under the floor of these ill conditioned dwellings.' Imagine the conditions in the kitchens as the sewerage rises through the floor, it does not bear considering.

Finally, 'when death takes place in any of these cottages the living must either cook, eat, drink, and work in the presence of the dead below, or sleep in the one bedroom with the corpse above.' I will say no more.

Although there is no way of telling I wonder if any of the houses described in the article still survive 'til today. If they do then they could certainly tell their present occupiers some harrowing tales. I must thank Penny Cudmore for finding the publication from which I have extracted the above article. If anyone has more information about life in the villages mentioned I would be interested in seeing it.

John Jones February 2001