Housing in the 1840’s.
Child Okeford in the newspapers. A series of stories about a previous generation of villagers as related in the newspapers of the time.
1848 LITTLE FONTMELL HOUSE: Mr ROSSITER begs most respectfully to inform his numerous Friends and the Public that he has been favoured with instructions to offer by PUBLIC AUCTION, on Tuesday the 4th of April 1848 and following days, without reserve, at twelve o’clock each day,- The whole of the VALUABLE FURNITURE and other EFFECTS late the property of Lewis Edward St Lo Esq. Deceased. [Article continues]
When the rich left the village [in one way or another] they frequently sold the whole of their households goods. The St Lo’s [sic] were no exception. The original article is too long to reproduce here but from it we can build a picture of the house as it then was. Coming through the front door, for example, we note “stair carpeting, brass rods, Greenwood’s Map of Dorset, mirror in gilt frame, painted chairs with cane seats, floor cloths. Below stairs the kitchen and scullery were to be “found complete with ever requisite” and the “China and Glass” comprised,- “Dinner, dessert and breakfast services; plain and richly-cut glass and various handsome old china”. The Butler’s pantry contained an eight day clock, mahogany tables, chairs and trays and in the cellars were to be found “about 20 dozen [bottles] of excellent port and sherry”, and nearly 6000 litres of cider.
Upstairs the bedrooms contained various “carved mahogany four poster beds” with “hair and straw” mattresses with “Russia” linen and “Marseilles quilts” to cover oneself. Downstairs a whole rain forest had been felled to provide the mahogany needed for the numerous sofa’s, tables, wardrobes, sideboards and chairs [with hair seats] to be found in the dining and drawing rooms. At the windows were “suites of window-curtains for five windows with pins and tassels” and on the walls were “60 rare and valuable scriptural and other paintings by old masters”. In the library were “About 600 volumes of very valuable ancient and modern classical and other works”.
The home of the Agricultural Labourer was somewhat different. In the 1830’s and 40’s the Dorset labourers were acknowledged to be the poorest in the country [Devon came second] and their plight attracted national attention. In 1846 both the London Times and The Illustrated London News [ILN] prepared special reports on conditions around Blandford. They started in Stourpaine, a parish which had attracted much attention, due to the frequent outbreaks of typhus that occurred there. The Times reported: “The first feature which attracts the attention of a stranger on entering the village is the total want of cleanliness which pervades it. A stream, composed of the matter which constantly escapes from pigsties and other receptacles of filth meanders down the each street being here and there collected into standing pools which lie festering and rotting in the sun….The wages here in very few instances exceed seven shillings per week.” Although there are no specific references to Child Okeford the reporter was at pains to note “that the peasant of the Vale of Blackmore and the western parts of the country is as hungry emaciated and squalid a being as the denizen of Stourpain.” [sic]. We have no grounds for supposing that Child Okeford was any different.
The ILN has a drawing of the interior of a cottage,“Near Blandford”, which, unfortunately, we cannot show for copyright reasons but hope that a word picture will do to describe it. In the 1840’s the houses of the poor across much of Dorset were, “built with mud, road scrapings, chalk and straw”; today the survivors have acquired the more dignified term “Cob House”. Such houses were not confined to labourers; John Fisher, Rector of Gillingham described the “dark low underground parlour” of one of his curates who was “living in one of our mud villages with its comfortless walls”. When adequately maintained, ‘cob’ houses, are weatherproof, but the same landowners and farmers who paid those low wages were little inclined to repair them. As a result the drawing shows the large cracks in the walls and the ceiling where the lime render has come down. The occupants of this house have no ‘rare and valuable scriptural’ pictures on their walls – only a few old rags and a straw hat. At Corfe the ILN found the cottage “walls are black with age and dirt” but the cottage near Blandford had at least some lime wash on it’s walls. There are no “suites of window-curtains” – there is after all no window as such. Instead “There is a small opening about a foot square, which is unglazed and serves the purpose of a window.” The reporter noted a rather ripe atmosphere in the house which “to an unpractised nose is almost insupportable”. As to the floor, well it too is made of mud which at some stage has flooded and dried to a cracked and crazed surface, a toddler is picking at it ignoring the solitary toy in the room– a kind of tray with wheels. “The furniture is such as may be expected,- a rickety table and two or three chairs generally forming the extent of the upholstery.” No hair seats here, plain solid wood is the order of the day, the crib is made of old planks nailed together as is a crude dresser on which five pots and one plate reside. As the Times noted “It is perhaps worthy of remark that dishes, plates and other articles of crockery seem almost unknown; there is however the less need for them as grist bread forms the principal, and I believe only kind of food which falls to the labourers lot. In no single instance did I observe meat of any kind during my progress through the parish”. It is doubtful if they could have cooked meat as the fire has no grate and is laid directly onto the mud floor. We are told “A labourer and his family – in all eight persons- are the occupiers of this hovel in which there is but one bedroom”.
The reporter finished his report “In passing through the different villages which lie scattered along the road…. occasionally an open door reveals a mud floor and the usual heap of squalid half clothed children rolling upon it; it serves to remind you that you are in Dorsetshire.”
The original newspapers in which these articles appeared have been digitised by The British Newspaper Archive in association with the British Library. The transcription herein has been made by the author from images downloaded as a part of a paid subscription to the BNA. Further information about the archive can be found at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk