goat houses

[kwickme]

i have a relation ,william whitehead who in the 1861 census for hampton in arden was down as living in goat houses, can anybody help me in what these houses would have being please.

[jim1]

Gone now I'm afraid as has Goat Lane.
More Balsall Common than Hampton in Arden, Somewhere between The George in the Tree pub & Holly Lane.
I've looked at some 19th. C - early 20th. C. maps & there's no mention of the houses or Goat lane.
even into the 30's a lot of the lanes were unnamed & I suppose there was a lane known locally as Goat lane & the enumerator had to call the houses in it something.
Not the answer you're looking for I know.

[Maiden Stone]

Presumably houses for goats. Unlike sheep, goats hate being outdoors in wet weather, so they need a place to shelter during rain showers. If it's for daytime shelter only, it can be open at one side to allow them free access, or if there is a door, it can be left open in daytime. However they need a proper shed or building for night-time and winter. Hence a "goat house".
I hope your ancestor was in a proper building and not in an open shelter. It might have had a hay loft so he could have slept up there. Was he a farm worker or a vagrant who just happened to be there on census night? The census enumerator's book had a page at the back for people not in houses.

Are you sure it was goat houses? "Cote" sometimes spelt coat, was an old word for cottage; some of my ancestors had the address Saltcoats Houses. Cote is also a shed or shelter for animals or birds; so goats might live in a goat cote.

[jim1]

Definitely says goat houses. There are 5 altogether all with families living in them.
I'm guessing they are tied cottages.

[kwickme]

thank you all for your replies very helpfull.

[Paulsmaps]

I am researching the source of road names in Balsall Common and I have just come across Goat House Lane on a 1970s copy of Geographers A-Z Master Atlas of Birmingham and West Midlands. This is a surprise to me, because it is just across the road from where I live and I wasn't previously aware of its existence! It is an unnamed road on all other maps that I have reviewed, yet it is quoted in a 2015 planning application to Solihull MBC and Balsall Parish Council with reference to Goat House Cottage. It is located directly opposite the recently erected Drovers Close off the Kenilworth Road (post code CV7 7AH).