THE ‘MOUNT PLEASANT’ COTTAGES

13 -19 COURTEENHALL ROAD, BLISWORTH

This unusual row of four mid Victorian cottages is one of several terraces of picturesque houses built by the Grafton Estate* in local villages as ‘improved’ workers cottages.  They are set back from the Courteenhall Road, opposite the primary school and therefore very near to "Elm Corner".
In 1838 the Royal Agricultural Society was formed and the society along with some of the more enlightened landowners, took a new interest in agricultural labourers’ well being. This established a trend amongst some landowners to build substantial, and often ornate properties, in a distinctive style unique to their particular estate, for their employees and tenants. Great emphasis was placed at that time on good design and substantial construction. Features were incorporated that would enhance the health and welfare of the occupants, such as good ventilation and when compared to many existing properties at that time, relatively high ceilings. Ample daylight, and ventilation by provision of a generous window area, a good water supply and good sanitation were also ensured.

Availability of clean water was considered particularly important following the numerous Cholera epidemics in the 19th century (in 1854, 20 people, many children, died at Potterspury on the Grafton Estate). Pioneering work done by Dr J Snow after a serious outbreak in London, led to general acceptance that contaminated water supplies were the major factor in the spread of the disease.
Large gardens were provided to encourage the growth of fruit and vegetables by the tenants. The Duke of Grafton’s wife was said to have been involved in the design of the houses and she may have been responsible for the distinctive decorative style, perhaps influenced by the various cottage ornee styles of the earlier part of the century.

1919 Grafton Estate Sale

The Dukes of Grafton owned large areas of Northamptonshire and very similar properties can be found at Cold Higham, Stoke Bruerne and Hartwell, although none of these share the distinct banded polychromatic style of stone construction unique to this row. Other buildings erected by the estate include several substantial and characteristic farmhouses, good examples being at Caswell and Seawell.
Parts of the Wakefield estate were sold in 1919 and in the sale catalogue the properties are listed as Lot 43 the houses being described as:- “A Row Of Four Capital Stone-and Tiled 5 Roomed Cottages With Long Gardens At The Front and Rear and A Good Well Of Water”
In addition to this description the details show a total annual rental income of £ 23 net for all four houses.

Mount Pleasant
The row of houses is referred to by older residents of Blisworth village as ‘Mount Pleasant’. This name is thought have come about through the Westley family who were prominent farmers and millers in the village in the 19th century (and once owned the windmill that existed at the top of the track to the right of the row of houses). Samuel Westley perhaps informally named the houses after the Mount Pleasant Baptist Chapel in Northampton. The importance of these houses as part of the local environment is recognised by the District Council and they were included within the existing Blisworth Conservation Area in 1999.

Blisworth Village
The village of Blisworth has evolved over many years, in the Domesday book of 1066 it was known as Blidesworth. Its evolution has resulted in a wide range of architectural styles, from picturesque very old stone built properties grouped along the High Street, many of which still retain thatched roofs, to several areas of newer housing, much of which was built in the 1960s.
Blisworth village has developed over many years as a result of its location adjacent to nationally important transportation routes. It was positioned on the Oxford to Peterborough turnpike and when the Grand Junction Canal (known since 1929 as the Grand Union Canal) was established at the beginning of the nineteenth century it became an important transfer point for goods.

Ironstone Quarrying
Discovery of high grade ironstone in the area and exploitation of this resource from the 1850s, with the canal playing a vital role in its transportation, led to further development of the village. Much of the area has been stripped of these deposits and the topography of parts of the area around the village shows evidence of this. The Ironstone strata remains below much of the older parts of the village, beneath the Mount Pleasant houses and gardens, it may be encountered if digging more than approximately 18 inches to 2 feet deep over much of the site.

Description
The terrace of houses consists of 4 dwellings, each characterised by having an unusually long front garden and very generous rear garden. When first built, two pairs of substantial stone and tiled pent roofed wash-houses, probably with chimneys for the fire for the ‘copper’ (which was probably lit every wash-day Monday), were provided to the rear. These also had stone work laid in banded courses similar to the main houses and with roof tiles matching the house. The main wall of only part of one of these survives, at much reduced height, as the outside store room for No 13.

Water and Sanitation
The well, which is very deep, was shared by the four houses, it is located at the back on the boundary of the two middle gardens, convenient for all of the dwellings, gardens and close to the wash houses. Early maps show small buildings at the very top of each garden, it is assumed that these were basic outside ‘privy’ earth closet type toilets. There is some evidence that, at a later date, the wash-house for no 13 was converted to an outside toilet since a redundant ‘pitch-fibre’ drain pipe leading from the wash-house to main drain was discovered during excavations in 1983.
Each house originally comprised three downstairs rooms, configured in a broadly ‘L’ shaped plan with a narrow staircase, accessed through a door from the main room leading to two large rooms on the first floor, (hence the description in the 1919 Wakefield Estate sale catalogue as ‘5 roomed’ houses). All but one of the four cottages now have conventional staircases.
The front door led into a rectangular hallway with a door into the main room. A door led from the main room into a small lobby leading to the back room, with access outside. A scullery area was provided at the rear of the back room with yet another outside door.
Fireplaces were provided to each main room, a large 8 flue chimney stack is shared by each pair of houses within the terrace, there were originally two cast-iron fireplaces upstairs in each house in addition to those in the rooms downstairs. Traditionally fires were rarely lit in bedrooms, a fire being lit in the event of illness or the birth of a child in cold weather.

Construction
The property is built of locally quarried Ironstone and Limestone laid in a coursed, contrasting (polychromatic) banded style, each band consisting of up to 3 courses of the same type of stone bedded in lime mortar, this is characteristic of many older properties found in Blisworth. Accurately dressed Ironstone is used for external lintels above window and door frames these utilise the ‘flat undercambered’ type of arch construction laid with very narrow lime mortar joints. Window sills are all of single limestone blocks.
The banded style using contrasting stone types is unique to this particular terrace of this format of cottage built by the Grafton estate and was probably chosen to blend in with the older properties in the village. It may be noted that parts of the rear elevation of numbers 15 and 17, not easily visible to the casual observer, comprise entirely of ironstone. This may be due to a limited supply of suitable sized Limestone, or simply a miscalculation on the part of the builders. There is evidence that much of the stone used was obtained after demolition of a range of farm buildings which were positioned at the front of the site. These were approached through an archway adjoining Elm Tree House (no11) and subsequently demolished (thus accounting for the houses being set back so far from the road) examination of a map of 1838 clearly shows these farm buildings. Careful examination of the end wall of Elm Tree house shows evidence of location of this archway. The remains of part of a date stone perhaps from the archway or one of the original farm buildings, reused in the building of the cottages, may be seen high up on the front elevation between numbers 15 and 17.
Bricks, manufactured in local brickworks are used for internal walls and other applications such as party walls and chimney stacks. External walls consist of the coursed external stone, an internal skin of randomly laid stone and occasional brick and a loosely filled intermediate course of rubble, broken brick and mortar. Large wooden (oak) lintels are used on the inner faces of the walls at the window and door openings. Recent renovation work on the remains of the original outside washhouse revealed remains of a rudimentary damp-proof course comprising a layer of slate.
Lime mortar was used throughout the construction and lime based plaster, this was reinforced with animal hair when used for the plastering of internal walls and the ceilings which use roughly cut laths. There is evidence that the party wall for the rear rooms on both floors was left as un-plastered brick when first built, and finished directly with lime wash.

Roof
Roof tiles are handmade clay tiles of the Staffordshire Blue type. These are extremely durable and have a very hard, characteristic blue/black finish, these are hung on battens by means of nibs (hand moulded into the tile before firing) and not nailed. In order to protect the joint between the tiles each tile laps two others. The uneven camber in both length and breadth of the tile as a consequence of the hand made manufacturing process, gives a distinctive character to the roof. Two basic tile types are used, a plain and a ‘club’ style laid in groups to give a simple pattern. These tiles are relatively uncommon in this area of Northamptonshire. It is likely that they originated directly from Staffordshire, since there were good transport links with that area as some of the early output of ironstone was sent to Staffordshire by canal.

Ornamentation
Ornate barge boards of the wavy edge style are characteristic of the Grafton estate cottages of this type. Ornate spiked finials were used at the apex of the gable ends, it has been said that some of these were removed due to the fear that they ‘attracted lightning’ but a couple of examples survived in place until the 1980s.

Flooring
Flooring to the ground floor is ‘solid’ and currently of various types, with original terracotta quarry tiles surviving in parts of some houses. There is evidence that all ground floor rooms were originally tiled with this type of tile, originally laid directly on the soil, and matching terracotta skirting tiles were also utilised.

Woodwork
Interior doors were originally of the ledged type using 7” tongued and grooved pitch-pine boards with 4 horizontal ledges, ornamentation being limited to a simple bead (‘staff bead’) on one edge of both faces of each board. It is likely that the external doors were very similar. Suffolk type latches and large ‘T’ hinges were used. Pitch pine was also used for the majority of structural timber and the floor boards which are 7” wide and 1” thick of the plain edge, (i.e. not tongue and groove) type. Floor joists are very substantial, also of this type of wood. Windows were simple casement type with narrow wooden glazing bars with units of eight panes, only two windows of the original type survive out of all of the houses, much restored, on the north elevation to number 13.

Martin K Robinson   March 2005

* other "Grafton Cottages" in Blisworth are (i). the terrace of three at the junction of Church lane and the High St. (ii). the two twins in the Stoke Road opposite the school and (iii). the twin at the lower end of Knock Lane. The last named was rated in 1870, therefore built c 1869 and probably the last of cottages all thought to have been built c1850 - 1860.