A huge thank you to Michael Kelly our Chartered Surveyor in South Yorkshire for this great feature:

Here are a few pictures of a traditional, stone built, Weaver’s Cottage that is close to where I live in Penistone, South Yorkshire. It is typical of the many stone built cottages dotted along the Pennines, which thankfully I sometimes get to inspect when I’m out and about. I tend to come across these in the West Yorkshire region, around Huddersfield and the outlying villages (“Last of the Summer Wine” country – if you are too young to know what that is, just ask Ray!)

The History Bit

The long line of upper-floor windows are a typical feature of a Weaver’s Cottage. Before the onset of factory production in the Industrial Revolution, the home was often the workplace as well. North-country weavers had very distinctive stone-built cottages in which practically the whole of the upper floor was given over to their looms and spinning jennies. Good light was essential in this cottage industry, so long bands of windows were installed to let in the maximum amount of daylight. A tax on each window in a house was levied between 1696 and 1851 but, fortunately for the weavers, each long row was classified as a single window rather than being taxed individually.

What is Vernacular Architecture?

The simple answer is, it’s a house built with what was available in terms of local materials and manpower. Such buildings were usually simple, practical and often rugged. You can find out more information here.

They make lovely homes with plenty of period features, and some (like this one) have been refurbished for use as a luxury holiday cottage (photos courtesy of Sykes Cottages – thanks Louise!)

Watsons Surveyors can provide pre-purchase advice, or specific defect diagnosis in respect of period properties. Any repair, maintenance or restoration advice should be appropriate and sympathetic to the age, style and construction of the building.

Our Surveyors operate in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, County Durham, Tyne & Wear and Northumberland.