The Traditional Welsh Cottage
Scattered over the Welsh countryside, the traditional, single-storied,
whitewashed cottage is a common sight, giving unique character to the
Welsh countryside and communities.
Pembrokeshire Cottage or a Cottage in the Teifi Valley
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The Tradition of the Welsh Cottage
Often isolated from nucleated settlements, the Welsh cottage reflects land-use development in Wales during the 18th and 19th Centuries. The majority of the cottages emerged as a result of the population explosion and resultant poverty during the mid 1800s. It became a custom for squatters to erect huts overnight on common land with the belief that the house and surrounding land could then be claimed, providing smoke rose from the roof by morning. An axe was thrown from the cottage to mark the boundary of the land. These became known as the Ty Unnos or one-night cottage.
The Ty Unnos, originally made of turf and soil with a roughly thatched
roof would have been improved upon, often with stone, clay and other locally
found materials once the land had been secured.
The settlers, who often worked in local quarries and mines also built up small holdings and began to practice small-scale farming.
This led to the development of the dispersed settlement pattern seen in the Welsh landscape today.
Eventually many of the small holdings were merged into larger estates.
Builders were employed and high quality timber and slates, made available via the new railways resulted in the emergence of superior, two-story cottages.
Many of the traditional Welsh Ty Unnos style cottages were further modified by raising the roofs and enlarging the windows.
