Herefordshire Through Time
Herefordshire Through Time
Not only the merchant class did well during the Tudor period. Wealthier farmers and yeomen too benefited financially in the years between the mid 16th century and the Civil War. For the farmer, labour costs were cheaper than prices received on goods sold and conversion to pasture land saved on wages. The surplus generated was often invested in new farm buildings, farmhouses and cottages. In fact, the architectural historian W.G. Hoskins named this period "The Great Rebuilding", although more recent scholarship holds that there was a continuous process of building and rebuilding from the Tudor period through the 18th century.
As previous building styles were often copied and houses added to over the years it is difficult to tell accurately when a house was built, unless of course there is documentary evidence available. Dendrochronology, the process of dating wood by the counting of tree rings and comparing these to a local data bank, can pinpoint the date a particular log was cut and used, however, Tudor builders did not waste good materials and often medieval timbers were re-used in buildings of a later period.
A higher standard of living led to improvements such as an increased use in glazed windows, more fireplaces and a multiplication of rooms. According to Eric Wood, the typical farmer's house now had three to six rooms, and the bigger yeoman's eight to ten.
A recent study of ten village houses in Pembridge demonstrates the way in which buildings changed over time. Many of the examined houses, even those that appear to be of brick, are based on a cruck-framed, medieval hall construction and date from the 15th century.
Our romanticised view of cottages in the English landscape was not shared by our Tudor forefathers, who had a much more practical outlook on the value of land. Unlike today, cottages were built for farm workers, craftsmen and small-holders, that is the less well off. And, as mentioned elsewhere, the houses of the poor, which were built with inferior building materials, did not survive. Squatters built one-room shacks on the roadside or on common land, but of course these do not qualify as cottages.
Cottages in Herefordshire were more often than not built with timber and wattle and daub, and thatched. Only cottages built with better quality materials could support a second storey. In the west of the county, stone and slates were more prevalent. In fact, in the area bordering onto Wales we can still see longhouses, a form of domestic dwelling which would have had space for animals - the byre - in one end and living accommodation for people in the other end. In the Tudor period, chimneys made of stone or brick were added to both cottages and longhouses.
It is important that we do not imagine Tudor cottages to be like modern ones in terms of comfort. More often than not they were damp, cold and dark. Privies, if there were any, were outside and of course there was no water source inside the house. In fact those living in village cottages then would be astounded by the prices they fetch today.
[Original author: Toria Forsyth-Moser, 2003]