PICTURESQUE ENGLISH COTTAGES AND THEIR 
DOORWAY GARDENS 
By P. H. Ditchfield, M.A., F.S.A., F.R.H.S. 
“TJOUSES are built to live in and not to 
look on,” sagely remarks Lord Bacon, 
“ therefore let Use be preferred before Uni¬ 
formity, except when both may be had.” 
The builders of the sixteenth century houses 
were not unaware of this principle, and acted 
on it, though in seeking utility they achieved 
wonders in the way of beauty. 
As regards the plan of a sixteenth century 
cottage, the simplest is an oblong, with two 
storeys. Subsequent additions have usually 
been made. The following plan is not an 
uncommon one. 1 The part enclosed in 
PLAN OF AN OLD SURREY COTTAGE 
unblacked lines is an early addition. The 
oven, as in most cases, is of later date than 
the fireplace. Cottagers probably in olden 
days baked their bread in the baking-ovens 
attached to their employers’ houses; more¬ 
over, village bakers plied their trade then, as 
they do now. But in the sixteenth century 
and later the cottager determined to bake 
his own bread in his own oven ; and thus we 
find many of these useful additions to his 
rural abode. You can see in the plan the 
wide chimney with seats on each side the 
fireplace. The modern laborer’s wife wants 
a kitchen range, and I have known several 
of these old ingle-nooks bricked up and 
1 “ Old Cottage and Domestic Architecture in Southwest Surrey,” 
by Ralph Nevill, F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A. 
fitted with the less snug but more convenient 
modern culinary appliances. 
The cottage at Battle, which adjoins the 
famous abbey, is built in three bays. And 
here I would digress for one moment, and 
remark that old houses in all parts of Eng¬ 
land were constructed in bays. We have 
houses of one, two, or more bays. A bay 
was the standard of architectural measure¬ 
ment, and houses were sold and let by the 
bay. Thus we find in a survey of 1611 
the description of a house: “One dwelling 
house 2 baies, 2 chambers, one barne i 
baies, one parlor with a chimney, one kyt- 
chen, one warehouse.” A bay measured 
roughly 16 feet, and was the length required 
in farm buildings for the standing of two pairs 
of oxend In the cottage at Battle there is a 
fine old fireplace with oven and ingle-nook. 
The stairs are usually straight. The older 
stairs were formed round a newel, and the 
modern form of straight stairs is a sure sign 
of a date later than i 6oo. 1 Some old stairs 
n 
A 
C 
— 
A 
r~ 
B 
L— J 
PLAN 11 
F 
’LAN 111 
EARLY TYPES OF PLANS 
were formed by cutting steps in a solid balk 
of oak. 
The commonest form of house is based 
upon the plan of the old central hall, which 
has continued down to the present day with 
some additions and modifications. Count¬ 
less large cottages and farmhouses are con¬ 
structed on this plan. There is the central 
hall (A), and to this have been added on one 
2 “Evolution of the English House,” by S. O. Addey. 
3 “Old Cottage and Domestic Architecture,” by Ralph Nevill. 
”3 
