Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, LIII, 1954. In the 18th century there were many clay cottages in eastern and northern Cumberland They were generally built in a day or two, and are said to have been durable for 150 or 200 years. A man about to marry invited his neighbours to help in building his house. Each helper brought his spade and a day's food. Some neighbours, instead of working themselves, sent gifts (or 'boons') of food, such as butter, cheese, milk, tobacco, salmon, eggs, veal, pigeons, ale, etc., and so the work proceeded. The Rev. Parry Jones (op. cit. p. 83) has told us that some of the cottages in Carmarthenshire were 'home-made,' without any professional assistance, though help was given by neighbours. The local art of building was well known. He says, however, that the simple cottages of which he speaks have nearly all disappeared, and that the art of building them is in decay. Similarly, according to Professor Estyn Evans, the traditional farmhouse of Ulster is also disappearing; it used to be built according to unwritten laws, and to be sanctioned by traditional beliefs about what was lucky and proper. What is the history in our homeland of each of the many crafts, such as those of the carpenters, stone-masons, bricklayers, thatchers, wood-carvers, etc. ? Their services were almost certainly used first at the building of the greater edifices, and would then in all probability be called on for the manor houses and the larger farms, and eventually for the cottages. There seems to be much work for us to do in tracing the developments in each of the crafts in our county.