PICTURESQUE ENGLISH COTTAGES AND THEIR 
DOORWAY GARDENS 
By P. H. Ditchfield, M.A., F.S.A., F.R.H.S. 
VII 
AN the Yorkshire moors near Danby, you 
will find a curious form of primitive 
houses which resemble inverted ships. The 
roof is constructed of two “pairs of forks,” or 
bent trees, the lower ends of which rest on the 
ground, while the higher ends meet in the 
ridge beam. The framework thus formed 
was strengthened and fastened together by 
tie-beams, and wind-braces. There are walls 
at the gable-ends, in one of which the door is 
placed. It is evident that the side walls were 
an afterthought, and entirely foreign to the 
idea of the construction of the building. At 
Scrivelsby, near Horncastle, there is a house 
of this description. The prevalence of this 
form of house near places, the names of which 
end in by, suggests the possibility that this 
boat-shaped house might be attributed to 
Danish influence. Thatch covers the sides 
as low as six feet from the ground. This is 
a very curious form of house. In the west of 
Ireland and Scotland there are similarly 
shaped dwellings built of stone, evidently of 
the boat-shaped type. The cottage, built of 
wood with 
forked roof, is 
mentioned i n 
the old Welsh 
laws, 1 and is 
called a “sum- 
m e r-h ous e.” 
This was the 
kind of house 
built among 
the hills whith- 
er the shep¬ 
herds took 
their flocks in 
s u m m er to 
feed on the 
high pastures. 
1 “ Evolution of the 
English House " by S. 
O. Addey, p. 27 
Place-names ending in set or seat usually 
mark these summer abodes. The winter 
house was in the valley by the snug farm, 
whither the sheep were taken when the cold 
weather set in. 
Many old houses contain the germ of the 
forked building though disguised by subse¬ 
quent alterations. Walls were built of wattle 
and daub, or stone, from the foot of the forked 
beam, and from their summit roof-beams 
were stretched to meet the ridge, and tie- 
beams added to keep the framework together. 
It is curious that the idea of making the roof 
rest upon the walls of a house is comparatively 
modern among the Anglo-Saxon people, 
though the Romans set them the example, 
and used tie-beams and king-post. 2 Old mud 
cottages exist which have no forks. The 
foundation was constructed of mud mixed 
with straw, and then a layer of straw was laid, 
and the whole left to dry. Then another 
layer was built up and the process continued. 
Such walls are very hard and durable. The 
whole was roofed with thatch. Gilbert White 
suggests that 
this method of 
building may 
have been sug¬ 
gested by the 
house-martin, 
which builds 
its nest of loam 
and bits of 
straw, and 
gives each half¬ 
inch time to 
dry and hard¬ 
en before it 
proceeds with 
the next. 
- Smith's “ Diction¬ 
ary of Greek and Ro¬ 
man Antiquities," i, 
635 . 
A HOUSE AT SCRIVELSBY 
91 
