HOUSING ACCOMMODATION 79 



occasionally available. I am told, however, that 

 this land, if cleaned and provided with roads, would 

 now let out again at a rental of from 30s. to 50s. 

 per acre, as all the other land has since been taken 

 up near to the village. 



Housing Accommodation. 



The housing accommodation in the rural districts 

 round Evesham is very limited, and in some of the 

 villages there is much overcrowding. 



In the village of Badsey a large number of 

 houses have sprung up in recent years. Some of 

 them are freehold, having been put up by gardeners 

 for themselves on a piece of land which was on sale 

 in small lots some years ago. Others have been 

 put up as a commercial speculation by a local man 

 a long, ugly row of ten urban-district-looking brick 

 houses which are let at 4s. a week. 



The case has already been mentioned in which 

 cottages have been put up on an estate where the 

 higher rent received for the land attached to them 

 has made the building a profitable undertaking. 

 Many of the men live in Evesham, and hold their 

 land three and four miles away. The population 

 of the town has increased from 5,836 in 1891 to 

 7,101 in 1901, and a large number of houses are 

 continually being built. 



At Bidford, six miles from Evesham, there is a 

 building department included in the local Industrial 

 and Provident Co-operative Society. The society 



