DOI article:
Powell, Alfred: On old english country cottages and reconstruction
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41874#0072
ON OLD ENGLISH COUNTRY COTTAGES AND RECONSTRUCTION
the folk who use them, or mis-use them, that has brought so much dis-
credit on them. It stirs one to impatience to see the miserable .muddles,
the dark holes and corners ; to enter the stuffy rooms and “feel” the dirt
of some of these old houses. For often, given nice ways and understand-
ing, all this can be minimized, can even be spirited away. And though it
may mean effort, yet there is certainly great reward, both to the dweller
and to the onlooker, in the sight and being of a cottage, well built three or
four hundred years ago and still in order, with all its features mellowed,
rounded off by years of usage and weather; showing, too, the homely evi-
dences in its roses, its jasmine, its garden flowers, its tiny straight path
from wicket-gate to shadowy porch. Surely this is a bit of England that
we all love and that many have had in their hearts through these years of
horror in strange lands.
And the purpose of this article is to tell those who do not know it that
these old buildings, tough and strong still in their joints of good English
oak, sturdy still in their thick walls of stone or mud or brick, can be made
vastly more comfortable, lighter, airier, can have their roofs raised and
floors dried, without spoiling their beauty, and at greatly less outlay of
cash than is involved in building anew the same amount of accommoda-
tion. It has been proved beyond question that these alterations can be
carried out, new windows inserted, and all necessary work done, by sym-
pathetic careful treatment, without serious detraction from the beauty or
authenticity of the ancient work. The Society for the Protection of
Ancient Buildings, the National Trust, and many private owners, can
give full information and statistics as to work of this nature successfully
executed for them.
In a day when every one thinks he can live by machinery instead of
handiwork—a flagrant and obvious mistake, admitted by many eminent
manufacturers and machine makers—there is also this to consider : is a
table more or less interesting and permanently useful; is a set of fire-irons,
a bedstead, a chest of drawers, a coloured picture, a piece of jewellery,
more or less interesting and “valuable” when produced by machinery or
when made by hand ? And is a house not also subject to the same eternal
law of human nature ? There can be but one answer, and in it lies one of
the great secrets of human happiness. To live in houses “run up,” as we
say, on economic lines, standardized to the point of boredom, is a degra-
dation. However difficult, however impossible it may seem to us under
present conditions to achieve, we need homes, houses to be proud of and
that we can be touched by, houses suitably built of suitable materials which
will be a continual encouragement towards right views of life and
work.
Old houses bear the evidence of having been made by “quick” human
60
the folk who use them, or mis-use them, that has brought so much dis-
credit on them. It stirs one to impatience to see the miserable .muddles,
the dark holes and corners ; to enter the stuffy rooms and “feel” the dirt
of some of these old houses. For often, given nice ways and understand-
ing, all this can be minimized, can even be spirited away. And though it
may mean effort, yet there is certainly great reward, both to the dweller
and to the onlooker, in the sight and being of a cottage, well built three or
four hundred years ago and still in order, with all its features mellowed,
rounded off by years of usage and weather; showing, too, the homely evi-
dences in its roses, its jasmine, its garden flowers, its tiny straight path
from wicket-gate to shadowy porch. Surely this is a bit of England that
we all love and that many have had in their hearts through these years of
horror in strange lands.
And the purpose of this article is to tell those who do not know it that
these old buildings, tough and strong still in their joints of good English
oak, sturdy still in their thick walls of stone or mud or brick, can be made
vastly more comfortable, lighter, airier, can have their roofs raised and
floors dried, without spoiling their beauty, and at greatly less outlay of
cash than is involved in building anew the same amount of accommoda-
tion. It has been proved beyond question that these alterations can be
carried out, new windows inserted, and all necessary work done, by sym-
pathetic careful treatment, without serious detraction from the beauty or
authenticity of the ancient work. The Society for the Protection of
Ancient Buildings, the National Trust, and many private owners, can
give full information and statistics as to work of this nature successfully
executed for them.
In a day when every one thinks he can live by machinery instead of
handiwork—a flagrant and obvious mistake, admitted by many eminent
manufacturers and machine makers—there is also this to consider : is a
table more or less interesting and permanently useful; is a set of fire-irons,
a bedstead, a chest of drawers, a coloured picture, a piece of jewellery,
more or less interesting and “valuable” when produced by machinery or
when made by hand ? And is a house not also subject to the same eternal
law of human nature ? There can be but one answer, and in it lies one of
the great secrets of human happiness. To live in houses “run up,” as we
say, on economic lines, standardized to the point of boredom, is a degra-
dation. However difficult, however impossible it may seem to us under
present conditions to achieve, we need homes, houses to be proud of and
that we can be touched by, houses suitably built of suitable materials which
will be a continual encouragement towards right views of life and
work.
Old houses bear the evidence of having been made by “quick” human
60