THE RURAL PROBLEM 21 



Alderman Thompson, of the National Housing Council, 

 calculated the shortage of cottages at 100,000, and this is a 

 generally accepted estimate. But it was made some years 

 ago, and the situation is yearly getting worse owing to the 

 working of the Housing Acts.* 



It is not only that cottages arc lacking, but those that 

 exist are as a rule too small. It was given in evidence 

 before the Select Committee on Housing that of 124,763 

 houses in the rural districts of Northumberland 118,907 

 had less than five rooms. An inquiry made in 17 different 

 counties showed that in 44 villages there were 464 cottages 

 with only one bedroom, and 1,852 with only two, and in 

 many cases what was called a second bedroom was really 

 a landing. 



The County Medical Officer for Herts reported of one 

 village that there was no cottage with more than two bed- 

 rooms, and in one case they were slept in by two parents and 

 eight children. Dr. Armistead inspected 365 houses in the 

 Linton Rural District in 1911, and found that 77 per cent, 

 of the houses had not got three bedrooms; 57 of them had only 

 one. There can be no doubt at all on the evidence that 

 the majority of cottages in the country have only one or 

 two bedrooms ; they are in thousands of cases occupied by 

 families of from 6 to 10 persons, and sometimes by more 

 than one family. But even apart from these cases it is 

 obvious that the average cottage is overcrozvded if inhabited 

 by the average jamily. 



The insanitary and, indeed, deplorable condition of cottage 

 property is again amply proved by Medical Officers' reports 

 throughout the country,! and by reports of inquiries held 

 under the Housing Acts (1S90-1909). Houses with no 

 fireplaces, with no water supply, with no sinks and no privies 

 are quite common in our villages. The slop water is thrown 

 in the road, and the closet is shared with other cottages. 

 The walls are damp, the floors are laid directly on the 

 earth and are rotten with moisture, the roofs let in the 

 rain. And these things exist not in exceptional localities, 



* See below p. 37. footnote. 



t Report of the Select Committee, 1906. 376. 



