Tidy this morning, the dogs are all sat in the car
Although it is known as a Historic building of Interest the cottage that was originally built in 1674 (roughly the same time as the church) is not listed in any way.
For those that cannot speak welsh Bwthyn y LLan literally means Church Cottage and it is a title that has only been attributed to the cottage and to the one next door for the past hundred years or so.
Before this the two dwellings were referred to as llan cottages 1 & 2 and before that by the Welsh phrase Tan y Fynwent (Under the Graveyard)
I have scanned the village census' for a hint of who lived in the cottage way back when but have found scant information leading me to the notion that it was left derelict for a good while. However an inscription above the front door says
"In vino Veritas1674
Rebuilt By Thomas Parry 1864"
The wine reference would suggest that the occupants used to sell wine or ale to locals!
In the 1940s the cottage was owned by the only English family in the village who were coal merchants. The daughter of the family taught piano to the village schoolchildren in the front room
In the Victorian age is was not uncommon for this type of 2 up2 down dwelling to house 8-10 people
and in the 1870s the village population was well over 600 souls
as Auntie Glad once said " Less houses more people"
For tom
Perhaps I could borrow that inscription for my house, to indicate that wine quaffers reside within.
ReplyDeleteMy two up, two down, built in 1899 once housed a rather large family and their lodger! I have often wondered about sleeping arrangements.
ReplyDeleteyes the lodger thing was common here too
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DeleteCould you show us a photo of the vino inscription? I suppose in the really old days the animals would be downstairs and the humans up.
ReplyDeleteDone....
DeleteFankyou.
DeleteThat’s super cool!
ReplyDeleteHaving mostly lives in modern buildings this fascinates me!
XoXo
I sometime long for clean lines and fresh plaster
DeleteYour cottage just looks so warm, homely and welcoming, John, I'm sure it'll be snapped up immediately. It's no wonder you don't want to leave it - I wouldn't either if I lived there. You have a talent for making a lovely home, you'll do it wherever you have to go xx
ReplyDeleteI'm a homemaker alright x
DeleteI've just realised, your cottage is old enough that it wouldn't have had a bathroom so was some particular space repurposed?
ReplyDeleteIt had two bedrooms !
DeleteOr the owners drank a lot? And we thought our San Diego house was old: It was built in 1924!
ReplyDeletelol there may be a great deal drinking done inside the cottage over the years x
DeleteOurs was once a two up two down, but was modified and extended by the previous owners. Ours is known locally as The Mole Catchers House, as that was the main occupation of the old chap that lived here before the last owners. Ours is a baby compared to yours, built around 1905. The name has no direct translation we've been told by the Welsh speakers we've asked but the implication is 'house at the bottom of the hill' or lowest house.
ReplyDeleteIt's fascinating finding out about cottages isn't it. Good luck with the viewing.
Thank you dearheart xx
DeleteThat room looks so lovely and cosy. I wish it were possible for you to stay there.
ReplyDeleteMy Mum was one of 11 children who were all born and brought up by their parents in a two up, two down terraced house in a small village. No bathroom, no water to the house, no electricity; one pump in the yard shared with next-door neighbours, another big family; tin bath hung in the entry was brought in every Friday! Lavatory at the end of the garden, also shared with neighbours - and it had two 'seats', side by side. I guess two kids could 'go' together . . . Emptied once a week.
I'm 55 and lived in 2 houses as a child which had earth closets. In one of them we had to manually pump the water from the spring and the other had no electricity, I have really good immunity!
Deletelol I couldn't do with an outside bog!
DeleteLived on my gran's farm for a while as a child - toilet was at the bottom of the yard, in a little tin shed, with a small stream going under the seat!!!!
DeleteOur old Welsh cottage is at the end of a row of 5 that was originally one long, thin farmhouse according to the 1851 census. It was then split into 2 households and by the 1900's had been divided again into 4 households and a shop. Our sitting room was once the piggery that housed the pig that was shared by all the cottages. One of the residents was described as a 'pauper' in the occupation section of the census. I'd love to find out more of the history.
ReplyDeleteThe old long Welsh cottages became longer when th occupier earned more money, they just built on its ends
DeleteOur house isn't in Wales but has a Welsh name given by the original owner 100 years ago who was Welsh. I believe it was a dispensary for medicine during WW2. I loved finding names scribbled under old wallpaper when we decorated.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it's name
DeleteRhondda. The original owner came from the Rhondda Valley.
DeleteAh John, you frustrate us out here that are just aching to help you stay in your cottage....
ReplyDeleteXxx
Delete102 years old than the United States as a country, and we think we have history.
ReplyDeleteI know!
DeleteDoesn't "In Vino Veritas" mean "Trust in Wine," or "Wine is Truth," or something like that? They seem like good mottos!
ReplyDeletePerhaps people popped into the cottage for ale before confession?
DeleteYea Steve, it means " in wine lies the truth ."
DeleteJudging by a wino in my family, this sadly isn't always the case 😤
my house was built in 1872 and is the oldest by far around these parts. it's a baby compared to yours. i can never wrap my head around how so many people lived in small houses. my daughter lives in a cottage with 2 tiny bedrooms. the previous owners raised 7 kids in the place. 9 people lived there and my daughter and her boyfriend feel cramped.
ReplyDeleteFascinating! Thanks for sharing your research!
ReplyDeleteLook at this, John! http://www.venitap.com/Genealogy/Histories/TParryMalad/tparrymalad.html
ReplyDeleteI hope the animals don't have to stay too long in Bluebell.
Interesting.....many Trelawnyd mormons left for Utah at that time
DeleteProbably being related to me:)
DeleteMine still live in Utah.
And still the grace it retains after all these centuries.
ReplyDeleteXx
DeleteAll of my life I have wanted to live in an old house with all of the charm and character that new homes lack.
ReplyDeleteThanks to a few years in a house that had the charm and age but too many of the problems that came with it, you can imagine my delight when we moved to a new modern home.The new home might not have been so quaintly charming but I never woke up to the sound of water running or no sound of a dead furnace in January.
Understandable , the charms of central heating eh?
DeleteOh the history of your cottage is incredible! And to think that your time living here is part of that now.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll carve some words in the beams
DeleteI'm sure that the history of the cottage will be a great selling point. Can you sneakily write an inscription somewhere - John woz 'ere - so future generations can know that John of Going Gently fame once lived in the property or better still - bury a time capsule in the garden to be found in the future!
ReplyDeleteMy legacy are three small Welsh terriers buried in the garden
DeleteSad. x
DeleteHave you been watching the House programme on BBC2 John - researching who lived in an old house in Newcastle?
ReplyDeleteNo oat, I will have a look on iplayer
DeleteVery interesting. I love trawling the census documents researching family members. There's a lot of info out there if you know where to look.
ReplyDeleteYes, sometimes the writing is so difficult to read though
DeleteHaha. Yes. Also great liberties were taken regarding age........
DeleteHere in the United States a house that old would either be a museum, or, as they say, in a part of town you don't want to go into after dark. But a middle-class dwelling in a middle-class community? Sorry, but it would have been demolished to make way for a shopping center years ago. Very different in your country. Hope you can continue to live there.
ReplyDeleteMany old properties in the UK are listed which is a govt order for it to be protected from change and for it only to have specific renovations sympathetic to its history
ReplyDeleteMy heart breaks for you having to give up that cottage. I am on the verge of moving away from everything I have ever known, and yet I'm sadder about you losing that cottage. I think it's because you have truly poured your love into it.
ReplyDeleteYou have done the cottage proud John, it looks warm and inviting, I hope you took the dogs for a drive after the viewing seeing they were in the car otherwise it would be confusing.
ReplyDeleteHow interesting to have all that history right 'round you. When we built our house a mere 26 years ago, we left drawings and things inside the walls. Maybe someone will find them during a remodel. You should definitely leave your mark somewhere.
ReplyDeleteDo you boomers realize how universally hated you are? There is not one single demographic that does not hate you- white people, black people, asians, mexicans, indians, chinese, millennials, GenX, GenZ. Something tells me that you boomers are not going to have a very comfortable or easy retirement, especially once you end up in the retirement homes.
ReplyDelete...and breathe!
ReplyDeleteIt's lovely to have a history behind your dwelling, and even nicer to know what that history is. Everything on our side of the pond is so recent, there are a few but not a lot of historical buildings.
ReplyDeleteI hope the viewings went well. I love the idea of you leaving a bit of carving somewhere on a beam!
Carve a doggy footprint too!
DeleteThe IVV could have been part of a temperance movement, to insult drinkers. Old stones were often used here on new buildings, so dates over doors or fireplaces are often viewed with suspicion. I do hope yours are contemporary.
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