Letter – Nicholas Walton to John Smeaton – 25 Jan 1769

Part of Mr. Walton Junrs. Letter of 25th January 1769 to Mr. Smeaton



      Above I give you three rough Sketches of Plans for Housing at Langley Mill for Smelters etc. upon which I should be glad to have your Opinion. The first 50 by 19 feet Outside and 13 high is upon an Idea that the Persons living in them are to have Cows & the whole Apartmts. for each Family in this way will be

One Room on the Ground Floor 16 by 15 feet

A Milkhouse or Closet on Do. 4 by 6 feet. 

A Byer or 2 Stands for Cows on Do. 11 by 6 feet.

One Room above to communicate wth the lower Room by a Step Ladder 22 by 15 feet

      £152.13.8



[Note: the sketches mentioned are available in the corresponding copy of the letter contained in the PDF file of this collection.]



The Second have no Conveniences for Cattle but have a Stair Case Common to each House. The Apartments, as follows for each Family

One Room on the Ground Floor 16 by 15 feet

One Room above 16 by 15 feet 

      £146.10

 

NOTE. There will be a place under the Stair Case &another above it & it is proposed that the Familys living in two Cottages shall each take one of these Conveniences Youll observe that in this way the two Houses lye very much open to each other, which is an objection certainly and youll see the only reason of doing the thing in this manner is to save expences. But stil to save more and surely more agreable to mere Cottagers who like to live by themselves is the third - the The Apartments for each Family will be

One Room on the Ground Floor 18 by 15 feet One Room above to communicate  wth the Ground Floor by a Step laddr. 18 by 15 feet. 

      £133.9.10



in every case the upper Rooms are to be Cieled & four are now wanted.

      I find the Men are some of them very desirous to have little pieces of Ground to enable them to keep Cows and that is the reason of my sending you the first Sketch but tho' they are desirous I would not myself think it adviseable to encourage this for at this Rate every Workman must have a Farm and therefore it seems to me that we should only furnish conveniences such as Smelters etc are content with where they have no Land and the latter Sketch is the most agreable to my Conception of the matter. It may, and will it is most probable, be necessary to build more Conveniences of this kind, and as such it is the more proper for us to be Careful not to Introduce a thing by which we may have a difficulty, and even supposing that it should hereafter be found an adviseable thing to accommodate the Workmen with pieces of Land Housing may be built for their Cattle without any material loss. When I hear from you on this head I shall write the Board immediately as those Erections should be begun as early in the Spring as possible.