Welsh Journals

Further "Queries, Hints, and Suggestions" for the Study of Local History in Powys-land by R. U. SAYCE Part III MATERIALS The nature of a building can be influenced by a number of things, for example, by the use to which it is to be put, by the rank or wealth of the builder, the skill of the workers, by climatic conditions, and the nature and accessibility of the materials to be used. The latter consideration may depend in turn on the kind of transport available-rivers, roads, canals, railways; pack-horses, sledges, carts, motor lorries, It is not easy to write a concise account of the effects of this tangle of influences. since we can only describe one line of thought at a time, while the reality with which we have to deal-presents a good many intertwining threads which frequently change their associations. The following few pages contain notes touching on some of the materials used in building houses; they are intended to be only stepping-stones towards deeper study. Whenever possible, builders would, unless influenced by other weighty con- siderations, use materials that lay reasonably near at hand. Dr. Singleton found during his study of the smaller houses of Lancashire and Cheshire that "except in a few special cases building materials were never transported more than a few miles, and if it was possible the craftsmen chose materials available in the immediate vicinity of the site." The earliest stone houses, i.e., those prior to about A.D. 1500, were built of material picked out of the beds of streams or off the surface of the land (Journ. Manch. Geog. Soc., LV, 1949-50). Much the same practice was followed in Wales in olden days and also into more recent times. The old Welsh rarely quarried stone; this was done only by the Latin monks, or for structures built in English style. The local people collected what lay about, and this gave their houses the appearance of having grown naturally out of their surroundings (H. Hughes and H. L. North, The Old Cottages of Snowdonia, Bangor, 1908). The larger stones were used for the lower parts of the walls, where they could be easily handled, and the size decreased as the walls rose. Nigel Harvey mentions a similar use of material that was plentiful locally-before the coming of railways and lorries-in the con- struction of English farms (op. cit., p. 5).