| In
modern usage, a cottage is a dwelling, typically in a rural,
or semi-rural location (although there are cottage-style dwellings
in cities). For the UK the term cottage tends to denote a
rurally (sometimes village) located one and a half storey
property, where on the second (upstairs floor) one has to
walk into the eaves in order to look through the windows.
This usually means the eaves timbers intrude
into the actual living space, and quite often, especially
in recent renovations, the relevant timbers (purlins, rafters,
posts, etc) can be exposed enhancing the cottage experience.
Originally -in the Middle-Ages- cottages
housed agricultural workers and their families. The term cottage
denoted the dwelling of a cotter. Thus, cottages were smaller
peasant units (larger peasant units being called "messuages").
In that early period, a documentary reference
to a cottage would most often mean, not a small stand-alone
dwelling as today, but a complete farmhouse and yard (albeit
a small one). Thus in the Middle-Ages, the word cottage (Lat.
"cotagium") seems to have meant not just a dwelling,
but have included at least a dwelling (domus) and a barn (grangia),
as well as, usually, a fenced yard or piece of land enclosed
by a gate (portum)
Later on, a cottage might also have denoted
a smallholding comprising houses, outbuildings, and supporting
farmland or woods. A cottage, in this sense, would typically
include just a few acres of tilled land.
Much later (from around the 18th Century onwards),
the development of industry led to the development of weavers'
cottages and miners' cottages.
Newport
Pembrokeshire | Stone
Cottage | West
Wales Cottage - Cardigan |
West
Wales Cottage |
Gower
AONB | The
Dylan Thomas Trail | Cottage |
