The Village House Famine

What is the truth about Blisworth's housing problem?  Mr. Fred Kellaway made certain statements in the House of Commons which have been twisted into an attack on the Duke of Grafton.  Mr. Fitzroy has vehemently protested against any reflection upon the Duke's record as a landlord; the steward of the Grafton Estate has sent a letter to the Times; and in the "Daily Echo" on Tuesday there was a letter from the Rector of Blisworth and three other residents in the village.  Mr. Kollaway stated, in effect, that there are too few houses in Blisworth and that the deficiency is partly due to the stringent conditions on which land is leased for building sites on the Grafton Estate.  This second part of the complaint is emphatically denied by Mr. Fitzroy and in the letters just referred to. The Rector suggests that indeed there is no deficiency of houses at all. After the appearance of the letters I went to Blisworth and made inquiries which leave no doubt as to the urgent need for many new dwellings. I am not concerned in this article to apportion blame or responsibility for a state of things which causes grievous loss to Blisworth. Certainly it is not my intention to make any charge against the Duke of Grafton, who owns most of the land and nearly all the cottages in the village. Everyone to whom I spoke referred in most kindly terms to the Duke. He is a good landlord, said one old tenant, "for he never makes any difference because of one politics. Many of us are Radicals but we are not treated any the worse because of that".

Everybody in Blisworth knows that there is a great shortage of houses. It has existed beyond the memory of living man. "Ever since I can remember," said one old villager," young people have been leaving the place because they could not get houses to live in when they married. On the Duke's estate there were more houses pulled down than have been built."  "When I was married," he went on to say, "I could not get a house. We had to go into lodgings and we moved nine times before we got a suitable cottage." "Nine times" I inquired incredulously. "Yes," he replied, "Nine times. In one year we had to move three times. First we lived with my father. Then we shared the house occupied by an old lady. After that we joined at a house with an old man. There were only two rooms, one up and one down, and we had to use both for sleeping. The old man lay upstairs and we lay down and it was very disagreeable because sometimes the old man would come downstairs in the night. Afterwards we had that two-roomed house all to ourselves, but as we had four or five children it was scarcely decent." A younger man afterwards confirmed this account of Blisworth conditions.  "I had to go into lodgings," he said, " when I was married and moved four times before I could get a suitable house".

These residents and others told me that if many new houses were built they would be quickly "snapped up." Young folks, have to go away because there is nowhere for them to live, and people from other places frequently come to inquire whether houses can be obtained.  "Thirty new houses could easily be needed" said one resident who knows the village as well as anybody and another well informed man thought that was a moderate estimated. At present, though it is a quiet time at the ironstone pits, about thirty men working in the village cannot get houses there. In the ironstone pits alone there are eighteen men from other villages; when things are busy there are thirty or forty more. I made particular inquiry about the ironstone workers. Of the eighteen just referred to fifteen are married and the other three are of mature age. Three of them live at Tiffield, 2 miles from their work; two come from Eastcote and Astcote, four miles distant, three from Roade, three miles away; and eleven from Shutlanger which is three miles from Blisworth. These men have to walk from five to eight miles every day in going to and returning from their work. There is no railway or other means of vehicular conveyance. They must walk in all sorts of weather. Besides the ironstone men; "there are limestone workers, men at brickworks, railwaymen, and others who would like to live at Blisworth if there were houses for them.

But the building of thirty new houses, would not permanently solve the problem. Most of the cottages in Blisworth are very old. On the Duke's estate only four have been built in the village within living memory and more have been pulled down. There are others which ought not to be inhabited much longer. Every year that passes increases the difficulty and unless considerable building is done in the near future things will be very bad indeed at Blisworth. The economic difficulty which blocks reform is easily seen when we inquire about the rents. In the old days rents were nominal. They could, indeed, scarcely be called rents. At Blisworth sixpence a week used to be the standard price of a cottage. There is still a number of houses let at that very low rent, but these houses are occupied by old tenants. More is paid by new tenants; the usual charge to these is about Is. 0d. per week. No inside repairs are done by the landlord and some of the interiors are in a bad condition. Good tenants have put in new windows and fire grates at their own expense. Some of the houses have good gardens and others are badly provided in this respect. There are complaints of a deficient water supply: some of the people have to walk considerable distance to obtain drinking water.

I asked one or two people what they thought of the letter from the Rector and the three others, members of the Parish Council, who suggested that there is no shortage of decent cottages. "It's a political squabble" replied one man, "about this business. The writers of the letters are all Tories and supporting Mr. Fitzroy against Mr. Kellaway". The question however is too serious to be made the shuttlecock in any party game. I have stated the facts without exaggeration without personal 'animus' against anyone and without partisan bias. There are many places which are in as bad condition or even worse. What is needed is that men of all parties should co-operate in finding a way to deal with this menace to our village life. The process of depopulation has continued for many years. It is still going on. In many districts it might be arrested if houses were provided for the people to live in.