THE HOUSING PROBLEM IN THE COUNTRY-
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] • Sin,—During the last few weeks I have been gathering from cottagers and others in purely rural districts in Sussex and
Surrey, and at least four miles from any town, feats which sadly demonstrate the irony of such articles as have frequently appeared of late in the Press and elsewhere on the decline of the birth-rate in London and the large towns, and of the population in rural districts.
An intelligent village tradesman with whom I had some con- versation told me that there was a premium in the neighbourhood on unmarried men who could be crowded in as lodgers. Many of these would like to marry if they could find cottages ; and he mentioned the case of a farm going begging, and of farmers becoming bankrupt, because there was no labour to work the land on account of the absence of houses.
In passing I visited some well-built new cottages with two bed- rooms each, and living-room and scullery downstairs. There were tiny strips of garden, but not nearly sufficient on which to dispose of household slops, excreta, &c., in a sanitary manner. The cesspools have to be emptied every two days ; and I was in- formed that there was nowhere to put the contents except on the tiny patch of garden. It is not difficult to foresee that in a few years the premises of these cottages will be in an extremely insanitary condition, and the soil saturated with filth. The cottages are let at 5s. a week each. A very poor grass field quite out of sight, and at a considerable distance from the mansion, bounds the cottage gardens, and one of the occupiers (a tradesman) would much like to obtain an acre of this field for fruit cultivation. Although this would pay the owner much better than the present arrangement, he prefers to keep his property intact rather than have the extra money. A builder with whom I conversed took strong exception to the stringency of the local bye-laws, which, he said, made it very difficult for a working man to build his own cottage if he ever found it possible to do so. However this may be, my own observations led me to the conclusion that the sanitary authorities could not well be more remiss than they are at present about sanitation and the disposal of sewage, &e.
Another resident in the neighbourhood told me of an excellent man—one of the fast-disappearing hedgers and ditchers—whose cottage was required by a new owner, and who would have to leave the neighbourhood and go, he knew not where, because there was no other house. A village tradesman wished to engage a valuable married assistant, but could not do so because there -was no cottage to be found, and his business and the convenience of others suffer seriously in consequence, so much so that he may be compelled to retire. Some of the labourers bicycle out several miles to their work from the neighbouring towns, but the majority cannot afford this on account of the enhanced rent, 'unless they crowd into one or two rooms. It is hardly to be wondered at if the cottagers often yield to the strong pressure and financial advantages of erowding a lodger into a cottage already too full !
I saw one wretched dilapidated hovel, with dangerous and railless ladder stairs, and low ceilings black from smoke—only fit to be condemned—in which a child had died in the spring from double pneumonia in a room in which the rain was flowing in through wide crevices in and under the back door, and after lying awhile amongst the broken bricks of the floor, all that did not soak in found its way out at the front door. One of the doors always has to be open on account of the smoke. This " home" was occupied by a married couple with six children. There is a small garden, and the rent is three shillings• a week and rates. The woman said that a very large proportion of her husband's wages went in illness and doctors' bills, but there was no other house to be had, and whenever one fell vacant there were so many after it that the man without family, or with only one or two children, was always the selected tenant, as no one would let to a large family if he could help it.
There is oftener than not " no room to live," either in town or country, and as long as the existing strong pressure of circum- stances tends to reduce marriage and the natural increase of families, so long will it be idle to deplore depopulation and useless to offer premiums on births, as has recently been done by one of the great friendly societies.
am; Sir, &c., C. COCHRANE.
[There is only one solution of this terrible problem,— cheaper building. But cheaper building is impossible so long as we maintain our ridiculous, nay, criminal, system of building bye-laws, which prevent the use of cheap materials, such as wood and patent substances. Abouse of cement slabs on wood, or rough-cast on lath-and-plaster, may not be theo- Yetically so good as a house " built throughout of brick or stone," but it is a great deal better than no house at all. What is wanted is a £100 cottage that can be let for £6 a year. Whether we shall ever reach this ideal is, we admit, doubtful; but we certainly never shall reach it while we apply bye- laws to rural areas fit only for town streets.—ED. Spectator.]
Previous page
