Labourer’s cottage plans

A recent buy, this little book of plans was printed ‘in haste’ in 1868 for those landowners who couldn’t wait for the winner of the Agricultural Society prize for best labourer’s cottages designs to be announced.

Some of the explanatory remarks speak volumes about the landlords attitudes towards their tenants. ‘a labourer will not consider a tiled floor cold’ ‘habits of improvidence’. Regarding the absence of a wash house in the designs ‘those who know the habits of Irish labourers, even in the best districts, are aware that these rooms will seldom be required’.

There is a piggery included in the plans without any door or gate, just a feeding trough through the wall as ‘it is not intended that the pig should wander about’!