I have been favoured by the Earl of Roseberry with plans of the new labourers’ cottages he has built on his property in Scotland, which have been highly approved by the Highland Society, who have inserted the plans for publication in their “Transactions,” vide Appendix. I have been favoured by James Monteath, Esq., with a model of the cottages erected by his father, Sir Stewart Monteath, Bart., for his labourers at Closeburn. The plan of these cottages presents an important improvement, by which one fire-place is made to warm two apartments on the same floor, and by means of an air pipe warms the air in the two rooms above them. I was informed that it admits of a further improvement in practice, namely, of some means of closing the access of the warm air to the sleeping-rooms during summer.
The best plans I have obtained of tenements in actual occupation of the rural manufacturing population appear to be those at Turton, and those erected at Bollington. The best plans of labourers’ tenements in towns are those supplied by Mr. Hodgson, and the Committee of Physicians and Surgeons at Birmingham; the drawings and working plans of which I have appended.
In several of the plans for the rural districts there is one appendage of the cottage of which the best-informed witnesses consider they ought invariably to be divested, namely, a pigsty. The medical witnesses strongly object that it is injurious to the health, especially in rows of cottages, as it occasions accumulations of filthy refuse. Other witnesses, such as the Rev. Thomas Whately, object that the pig is not economical to the labourer, and that it furnishes a temptation to dishonesty. His evidence on that subject, and on the other more important question of large cottage allotments, will be found in the Appendix.
Mr. Loudon has favoured me with two drawings and plans of model cottages, which need no other explanation than the specification. These comprise the best examples that have come under observation during the present inquiry of tenements in occupation that are well approved on trial.
Every detail, however, of the materials with which the cottage is constructed, and the mode of its construction, deserve, and there is little doubt will obtain, most careful attention, for it is only by considering their comforts in detail that they can be improved, or the aggregate effect on the immense masses of the community can be analyzed and estimated. For example, it has been mentioned that a decided difference is perceptible in the health and condition of workmen of the same class who live in houses made of brick as compared with those living in houses made of stone.
A gentleman who has attentively observed the condition of the working classes in the north of Lancashire, and the north of Cheshire, states that the general health of the labourers in the north of Lancashire is decidedly inferior. This inferiority he ascribes to several causes, and, amongst others, to damp cottages, and—
“Wood and wattled houses, such as our forefathers built, are the driest and warmest of all; brick is inferior in both these requisites of a comfortable house; but stone, especially the unhewn stone as it is necessarily employed for cottages, is the very worst material possible for the purpose. I prefer the Irish mud cottages. The evil arises from two causes. The stone is not impervious to water, especially when the rain is accompanied by high winds; and it sucks up the moisture of the ground, and gives it out into the rooms; but principally, stone is a good conductor of heat and cold, so that the walls cooled down by the outer air are continually condensing the moisture contained in the warmer air of the cottage, just as the windows steam on a frosty morning; besides, the abstraction of heat in stone houses must be a serious inconvenience. The effect of this condensation must be, and is, to make clothes, bedding, &c., damp, whenever they are placed near the wall, and therefore extremely prejudicial to those who wear the clothes or sleep in the beds. Of course I do not attribute all the damp of our cottages in this neighbourhood to the stone; much of it is due to the wet climate, wet soil, and building so near the ground; but the stone, as a material of building, must bear a considerable share of the blame. I believe, too, it is partly the cause of the very great difference of cleanliness of the Cheshire farming people and ours of the same class.
“Indeed the Cheshire people were brought up to wooden cottages: brick was of later introduction. The greater facilities and inducements to cleanliness in a dry house would, in the course of time, form a more cleanly people, and superior healthiness would follow.”
Mr. Parker observes, that the construction of the cottages in Buckinghamshire is frequently unwholsome:—
“The improper materials of which cottages are built, and their defective construction, are also the frequent cause of the serious indisposition of the inmates. The cottages at Waddesdon, and some of the surrounding parishes in the Vale of Aylesbury, are constructed of mud, with earth floors and thatched roofs. The vegetable substances mixed with the mud to make it bind, rapidly decompose, leaving the walls porous. The earth of the floor is full of vegetable matter, and from there being nothing to cut off its contact with the surrounding mould, it is peculiarly liable to damp. The floor is frequently charged with animal matter thrown upon it by the inmates, and this rapidly decomposes by the alternate action of heat and moisture. Thatch placed in contact with such walls speedily decays, yielding a gas of the most deleterious quality. Fever of every type and diarrhœa are endemic diseases in the parish and neighbourhood. Next to good drainage and thorough ventilation, the foundation of a cottage is the most important consideration. A foundation, to be good, must not only be sufficiently strong to bear the superstructure, and of sufficient depth to cut off all connexion with the surrounding vegetable mould and that beneath the floor, but also be constructed of materials calculated to resist moisture. The best materials for this purpose are concrete and sound bricks, partially vitrified in the kiln or clamp. If such bricks be well laid with mortar composed of sharp sand, containing no vegetable substances, and the concrete be free from earthy particles, well mixed and firmly thrown together, the admission of damp will be entirely avoided. Stone, chalk, bricks which are not thoroughly burnt, impure mortar, and wood, have all a tendency to absorb moisture, which, if once received by such materials, ascends, or ‘creeps up,’ as it is technically called by builders, and thus affects the whole building. To avoid this “creeping up,” builders are in the habit of placing a tire of slate in foundations above the surface mould, a remedy of a temporary character only, for the action of damp entirely destroys slate. Roman cement has also been used for this purpose, but the sand mixed with this material renders it in some degree porous. It has lately been suggested that a course of well-burnt bricks set in asphalte would effectually prevent this absorption of surface-water, and a favourable opinion of this plan has been expressed by two intelligent architects.”