Dr Morgan Rees's report to the Local Government Board on conditions of housing and other sanitary circumstances in the St Dogmells Rural District.
- Rees, Morgan J.
- Date:
- 1913
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Dr Morgan Rees's report to the Local Government Board on conditions of housing and other sanitary circumstances in the St Dogmells Rural District. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![westeru part strands of greenstone and interl)edded felspatliic ashes are met with. The amount of drift is small, for the under- lying* rock outcrops close to or at the surface. The rateable value is T41,528, and the assessable value £28,109. The rate for general purposes is Tv. Ohd., and that tor Poor Law purposes 'Ss. lOr/. lo Tv. IfJ. in tlie pound. There is no outstand- ing debt. Sanitary Circumstances. Housuiy Conditions.—The returns supplied to me by the assistant overseers show a total of 2,430 houses in the district, of which 2,297 were inhabited. Of these 2,430 houses, 2,351 or 90'5 per cent, are rented at or under £10 per annum, and 1,475 or 00 per cent, under £5. Table II. in the Appendix gives tor each parish the number of houses rented under £5, between £5 and £T0, between £T0 and £16, and over £16. Leaving aside houses of the rather better class and of higher rental it may he said that the majority of dwellings are cottages made of flat slaty stones and built on tlie bare earth without foundations or damp-proof courses. As a rule the walls are about 20 inches in thickness and the stojies are bound together by a material which is as triable as earth. What pointing did exist has, in many instances, disappeared, resulting in crevices and holes in the walls. Generally the roots are also made of flat slaty stones; sometimes they are patched with cement. In a few instances they are made of thatch, which sometimes has been covered with corrugated iron sheeting. In the poorer class of cottage eaves-spouting is absent; while the yard space belonging to the cottage is either unpaved or badly paved, the first condi- tion being the more common. No attempt, as a rule, has been made to drain the yards, &c. which are consequently wet and dirty. In many instances cottages are built against the hill-side, back-to-earth, or with the earth excavated for a foot or so, leav- ing a trench, the bottom of which may be higher than the flpor level. Dampness and dilapidation from the causes above men- tioned must be considered to be common features of the cottages of the district. The internal structure of cottages appears to vary accord- ing to the needs of the families which occupy them or of those for whom they were originally constructed. Some cottages consist of only one room with an unceiled roof and used both as sleeping and living room. Such are occupied, generally speaking, by one person or a married couple. Other cottages contain two rooms, both on tlie ground floor, of which one, tlie livin g room, extends upwards to the roof, while the second or the bedroom is separated from the roof by tlie joists and boards of a loft in which luml)er is stored. In other cottages ogain the loft covers the whole of the rooms below, thus providing a third room. The lofts are always low and are intersected by rafters, the root sloping from the centre beam towards the floor. Except just in tlie centre one can rarely stand u])rigbt in tliem, and tliey are almost invariably dark. A small skylight often pro- vides the only means for the admission of light and fresh air. In many instances these lofts were found to be habitually used as](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28143449_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
