A House Through Time - Newcastle

[carol8353]

They need it to be a house that has plenty of official records It would be no good choosing a small terrace that only comes up on a census every 10 years!

[Ruskie]

The Liverpool house in the previous series at one stage was split into flats and was occupied by ordinary working class people.

Prior to that the rooms were rented, once again to ordinary people, so a bit of a mixed bag.

If you look at the recent sale prices of the Liverpool house it would be within the price range of many of the people on "Escape to the Country." 

[sallyyorks]

They need it to be a house that has plenty of official records It would be no good choosing a small terrace that only comes up on a census every 10 years!

I see your point, but they could easily choose workers housing built by a local factory or coal mine owner. Many official records related to this would be in local archives. I found a plan of the street and the house my great uncle, and his extended family lived in, it is online and also used as a text book example of cramped back to back terraced housing in the West Riding. Another member of my family lives in an old miners 'cottage' to this day, the local mines sometimes employed child orphans or the children of paupers. Those young labourers are named in indenture records, the plans for the housing still exist, as do records for person who built them.

Though many were demolished during slum clearance, this type of housing is still occupied in some cities and towns in the north. The census also provides a great deal of information about each individual and those people would be in other records as well. Also many rural agricultural labourers cottages still survive.

Mine, and factory, owners are named in records across the country. Plans and deeds are recorded for workers terraced housing as well as for larger houses. Local industrial unrest and reform movements throughout the 19th century are recorded in the newspapers of the time. Labourers are also named in criminal records and newspaper articles related to reform movements, for example sedition, unlawful meetings, drilling and swearing illegal oaths and this is during the time of the census as well. An interesting programme could easily be made about one of these older labourers houses, if they looked hard enough.

[Ruskie]

I agree that it would be interesting and enlightening to have a similar series related to more humble dwellings and their inhabitants over the decades. It could even be expanded to include a terrace of worker's dwellings, giving details of the families who lived there.

In some areas which have been 'gentified' these houses have now passed into the hands of quite wealthy people .... so a bit of a turn around really. 

[sallyyorks]

The Liverpool house in the previous series at one stage was split into flats and was occupied by ordinary working class people.

Prior to that the rooms were rented, once again to ordinary people, so a bit of a mixed bag.

It's only the second series but David Olusoga seems to be choosing the type of housing many of us will remember as 'bedsit land' in the 1970's and 80's. The type of housing split into rooms or flats for  students, some recent immigrants and single male labourers.

Previously originally built for the wealthy merchant class. I expect some of these merchants wives as widows would have rented out a room out, but those rooms would have been let to single men who maybe worked as clerks or as say a manager in an office. Not to your average 19th century industrial labourer

If you look at the recent sale prices of the Liverpool house it would be within the price range of many of the people on "Escape to the Country." 

Yes

[Gadget]

There's just been a little preview and interview with David on our local BBC North East and Cumbria.

[california dreamin]

I've just looked at a preview online.  And he seems to be doing like he did before.  In this instance (in the 1 min clip I was able to view) he's discovered there was a theft from the house and he is quite interested in the two lads who stole from the house, and so wants to investigate them further.  So, I guess interesting, but not I feel directly related to the history of the house.  This is what I found with the Liverpool house, how shall I say... he kept going 'off piste'. 

Anyway... let's see what the full programme brings!

CD

[Ruskie]

I agree CD.

I was hoping for more about the physical house, it's architecture, the changes it went through over the years. It was touched on, but not quite enough I don't think.  He did go off on tangents and I felt spent too much time on interviews.

I was not keen on the way he embellished the 'stories' and made judgements about people who lived hundreds of years ago - I suspect that will continue in the new series.   :

Still, it is quite interesting and very watchable but I hope he has sorted his glasses out .... 

[IgorStrav]

Saw nearly all of it last night - had to stop unfortunately, but will finish today.

I think the principle of the programme is that we all 'borrow' our houses, even though we do think of them as 'ours' and that if it's possible to find the history of the various previous occupants then this adds to our understanding of the house's history.

So not necessarily either an architectural programme, or indeed one which focuses on internal decorations of the various eras.  Although I do seem to recall in the previous series that some of the domestic layout was covered.

Here the expert did remind us of the 'vermin' and 'insect' life in the kitchen which was not great to be reminded of.  My mother lived in a much smaller house, in the poorest part of London, and she spoke of the 'smell of the bed bugs' which were, at the time, impossible to get rid of.

I think it's nearly impossible not to imagine stories around the discoveries one makes.  Coming from a humble background, I also find it hard - despite knowing the cultural norms of previous times - to feel sympathetic to those with a modicum of money who looked down on those who had not.

Whether this should be done more in a 'one theory for these circumstances could be....' or 'one wonders whether' type of story-telling is another thing.

The thought of trying to find something to eat by stealing, when there was not much chance of getting anything any other way, and being punished by being transported at the age of 14 is horrendous whichever way. 

I find the social history fascinating.