Homes of the poor.

This afternoon I went to an excellent lecture given by Dr Eurwyn Williams to the Flintshire Historical Society. He gave a lecture on 'The Building Traditions of the Rural Poor 1750-1900'. It is a topic I knew nothing about, but now when I walk in the countryside I will be on the look out for long derelict cottages. I was especially interested in the tradition whereby the poor would attempt to build a cottage over-night with smoke appearing out of the chimney by dawn. They believed that this gave them legal rights to the land. Sadly it did nothing of the the sort and only resulted in prosecutions that could result in the cottagers being transported to Australia.

A classic Welsh cottage at the Welsh Museum, St Fagans.