Houses and Homes - Investigating home life in the nineteenth
century.
Where can we find the evidence that will help us to obtain information
about homes and home life in the nineteenth century?
• Old estate and industrial company plans will show where houses
were built. The tithe maps together with Ordnance Survey maps of
the nineteenth century are excellent sources.
• You may have old photographs taken late in the nineteenth
century or early in the twentieth century which will show houses
which were built at the time but which no longer exist. Photographs
can be found in various books, on the internet and in your local
library. Search Coflein (www.coflein.gov.uk) for photographs and
plans of houses across Wales.
• When governments were concerned about conditions people lived
in they set up Royal Commissions to investigate, and their reports
provide a lot of invaluable information. We have the Employment of
Children Report 1842, a similar one for conditions on the land in
1867, and Public Health reports which give excellent descriptions of
the conditions people lived in.
• One of the best sources to look at is the census returns which the
government has collected every 10 years since 1841. The 1911
information is now available. This allows us to ‘look in through the
windows’ of houses in the nineteenth century and early twentieth
century which we’ve located on the plans and maps. We can find
out who lived in each house, how they were related, their ages, the
work they did and where they were born.
• Some of the buildings from earlier times may still be in existence,
though in most cases heavily modernised. Museums, Cadw and the
National Trust have acquired some of these properties and have
tried to restore them to how we believe they were during a period
of their past. These properties reflect the home life of both rich and
poorer people.
How did the daily lives of people living in Blaenavon change during the
nineteenth century?
Investigating homes and home life in nineteenth-century Blaenavon.
Houses in Blaenavon - Activities
Using maps and plans to locate houses in Blaenavon
1. Plan of Blaenavon, 1821
Use the plan to locate the Blaenavon Ironworks and furnaces, the houses
near Bunkers Hill (Bunkers Row) and the Great House (Tŷ Mawr). What do
you notice about where they were built? Did you notice that some of the
houses were very near to the ironworks?
Pupils can also study the plan to find out what else is labelled on the plan
or, if they have used the plan as part of the location unit of work, to recap
what they know about Blaenavon in 1821.
Click on the camera icon to see a modern photograph of the Great
House. Discuss: who do you think would have lived in such a house?
Tŷ Mawr, or the Great House, was built between 1798 and 1800 for the
ironmaster Samuel Hopkins. Compare the size of the house with those at
Engine Row and Bunkers Row.
Discuss the location of the houses. Why are some houses very near to the
ironworks whilst others are further away?
2. OS map of Blaenavon, 1880
Use the map to locate Engine Row and Bunkers Hill. Discuss the possible
location of the Bunkers Row houses.
*You’ll need to use the down arrow to view Bunkers Hill.
Engine Row
Blaenavon Ironworks - Engine Row
Engine Row cottages were built about 1788 to house key workers at the
ironworks, who would have classed these iron company houses as
comfortable and spacious. By 1841 the houses were lived in by labouring
families.
Further information about Engine Row and Stack Square cottages can be
found on the Cadw website
http://www.cadw.wales.gov.uk/default.asp?id=243
or in the Cadw guide, Blaenavon Ironworks and World Heritage
Landscape by Peter Wakelin (Cadw, Cardiff, 2006)
1. Discuss what it would have been like living in Engine Row or Stack
Square. Use the two reconstruction drawings to look for clues as to how
life would have been like living so close to the ironworks. Encourage the
pupils to imagine the smell and sound as well as what they could see from
their homes.
2. Use the reconstruction drawing to find out more about the Engine Row
houses. Discuss what information the artist would have needed to draw
this reconstruction drawing of Engine Row in the mid-nineteenth century.
3. Who lived in Engine Row? Census-based activity.
The census returns allow us to find out who lived in the houses, how they
were related, their ages, the work they did and where they were born.
Skills Framework: Developing number
The pupils could create a database from the census information provided
for Engine Row.
Ironworkers’ Cottages in the 1840s
1. Home life during the 1840s - Engine Row cottage
One of the cottages in Engine Row, at the Blaenavon Ironworks, has been
refurbished by Cadw to show how it might have looked in 1841.
The children can look closely at the items used at that time to try to tell
what home life was like for poor families in those days. What do the
objects tell us about home life in the 1840s?
2. Home life during the 1840s - newspaper reports
We do not have descriptions of what the Blaenavon ironworkers’ houses
were like. But we do have a newspaper account from 1849 about similar
iron company houses at nearby Merthyr Tydfil. Published in The Morning
Chronicle, 1849-51; taken from Eurwyn Wiliam, Rhyd-y-car: A Welsh Mining
Community (National Museum Wales, Cardiff, 1987).
These statements are about the better homes in the area. The statements
from the newspaper can be grouped under the following headings to find
out about:
 what the houses looked like (the design)
 women’s work
 the outside of the cottages
The pupils could be split into three groups to prepare reports about the
different aspects and compare life during the 1840s with today’s home
life. Their reports can be presented to the rest of the class.
Reflection time
Discuss the importance of various sources to find out about daily life in the
1840s. Which sources were most useful?
Bunkers Row
Bunkers Row. The first section of these ironworkers’ housing were built
about 1792 (at around the same time as Stack Square) for the lower-paid
workers. The inadequacy of these small houses was noted before 1814,
when detached larders were added. The houses were rebuilt c1860. Later
each back-to-back pair was converted into one house. The houses were
demolished in 1972.
Taken from Jeremy Lowe, Welsh Industrial Workers’ Housing 1775-1875
(National Museum Wales, Cardiff, 1977).
1. Looking for clues – using photographs
Look for clues in the photographs before discussing Bunkers Row houses.
Compare the Bunkers Row houses with the Engine Row cottages and the
Great House.
2. Looking for clues – using plans and an animation
This animation produced for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and
Historical Monuments of Wales, funded by the People’s Collection
initiative, can be used to help pupils to find out about Bunkers Row
cottages as they were in the mid-nineteenth century. It can be used with
the photographs used in the previous slide and the plans drawn by an
expert on housing who measured and drew the plans of the cottages he
visited. The cottages were back to back and the plan shows how the
cottages were joined together.
Answer the questions in the activity and click on the ‘?’ icon for further
questions.
Interpretations of history
Discuss what information was required to be able to create the animation.
What was life like in 1840s and had it changed by 1900?
1. Using maps to study change over time
The 1821 plan and the OS map of 1880 give us clues to the number of
houses in Blaenavon during the nineteenth century.
Look at the population figures for 1821 and 1881. Discuss possible reasons
for the increase in the population and how the increased population
would have been housed.
Many families would have taken lodgers at this time. This can be seen in
the census returns.
2. Rhyd-y-Car
Rhyd-y-Car cottages were built for ironworkers in Merthyr Tydfil, another
important iron-manufacturing town. Six of the houses have been reerected at St Fagans: National History Museum.
The image shows the interior of one of the houses furnished as it might
have been in 1895. The pupils can look closely at the items used in the
home to try to tell what home life was like in the 1890s.
Use the information gathered when studying the Engine Row cottage to
discuss how home life had changed from the 1840s to the 1890s.
3. Who lived in Bunkers Row? 1841 and 1901 census
This activity uses the census returns for 1841 and 1901. The census will
provide information about who lived in Bunkers Row in 1841 and 1901.
Information about two families is shown on the whiteboard activity. The full
census for Bunkers Row is available to download as a word document.
Skills Framework: Developing number
Comparing data & Recording and interpreting data and presenting data.
The pupils could create a database from the census information provided
for Bunkers Row. Encourage the pupils to look for changes and similarities
in the two censuses, e.g. number of people living in each house.
Do any of the census returns studied give us any clues as to the increase in
the population?
Reflection time
Discuss what life was like in the 1840s and whether it had changed by
1900. Discuss the range of sources used and which sources were most
useful.
How have Engine Row and Bunkers Row changed over time?
Change over time
1. How have Engine Row and Stack Square changed over time?
Discussion time
What has changed in Stack Square over time? Use the images and plans
to discuss how the ironworks has changed over time. Why do you think it
was called Stack Square?
How can these sources help us find out about the history of a location?
2. The recent history of Stack Square
These photographs were taken by the Royal Commission on the Ancient
and Historical Monuments of Wales of the Cadw houses at Stack Square,
Blaenavon. Compare the two photographs of Stack Square. Discuss what
has changed, why has it changed and why do we keep ‘old’ buildings
like these?
Find out about the work of the Royal Commission and Cadw. Go to their
websites to find out about the work these organisations do.
3. Change over time – Bunkers Row
Look at the aerial photographs. What has happened to Bunkers Row?
Why do you think the houses were demolished?
Discussion time.
Why are some houses demolished whilst others are kept, repaired and
conserved? Do you have any local examples of historic houses which
have been conserved, or houses such as Bunkers Row which have been
demolished?
Reflection Time - historical knowledge and understanding
What have we learnt about Blaenavon during the nineteenth century?
How has Blaenavon changed?
Historical enquiry
Pupils could individually reflect upon the way in which they approached
the activities and tasks set (using their Thought Journals).
They could jot down what they feel worked well for them, what they could
use if completing similar work again and what they may need to refine
and adapt to make the approach more effective.
Authors: David Maddox, Martin Williams ac Angharad Williams