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Vernacular Gower
Vernacular Gower — a Gower Society
Publication In 2002, the Gower Society held a photographic competition on aspects of traditional architecture and building. The idea was to encourage people to look at local houses and farms with a fresh eye, "to note the details as well as the overall structure and to record the current state of our built environment." This was not, says the Society's secretary Ruth Ridge, just to be a record, "but an incentive to care for and preserve the best of what we still have." Placing the competition submissions in a book was felt to offer a much more lasting format than a simple exhibition. The result is not just visually enticing, but a significant work of scholarship. Moreover, it is quite different from any other work on Welsh vernacular housing, such as the superb products of the Royal Commission, which tend to pass over anything earlier than 1800, and which focus on typology as much as social history or building craft. Malcolm Ridge's foreword quotes Bill Davies' definition of vernacular architecture as being a "response to people, place, time and available materials… simple in form, unpretentious" (About Wales, autumn 2002). This book amply demonstrates that the vernacular tradition continues long after house plans had assumed pattern-book layouts, reflected in the use of traditional materials, stone, timber and thatch, and local treatments of building detail. But the diversity of Gower means that even in this small area, there is a great variety of styles and choice of materials, rather than the homogeneity seen in other localities. And this variety survives in surprising quantity, despite the increasing suburbanisation visited on the area of the later 20th century. This is in part a reflection of the relative poverty of the peninsula; a function of small farms and relative isolation. But the vernacular detail, which contributes so much to a local sense of identity and place, needs to be understood and appreciated if it is to be retained and to influence those who build or "modernise" houses in Gower. Not always "pretty or twee" it is nonetheless functional and part of our common heritage. Much of what was recorded is relatively "recent", and therefore not as obviously significant as the "academic" vernacular of the 16th, 17th or 18th centuries. This important book makes a passionate case for its recognition, and sets an examination of its features in the context of a succinct but valuable social and economic analysis. A lot of the latter has to do with the structure of landownership in Gower, estates such as those of Kilvrough or Penrice, and local patterns of tenancy - typically the 99-year or three-life lease. Many inhabitants were subsistence farmers, with by-employments in quarrying, rural crafts, and work on the bigger farms. Most farms were no more than thirty acres in extent. The homes that were built or rented until the 1920s differed little from those that might have been put up 150 years earlier. Only in the 'thirties, when larger houses were built in the prettier villages for the bed and breakfast trade or as holiday homes for more affluent townies did things start to change. Their builders made no effort to create houses that fitted into the existing landscape. Neither do the products of the 'sixties building boom, and even the better barn conversions of the last twenty years or so make mistakes in trying to maintain traditional detail, let alone shape or form. Many older houses and cottages have been ruined, and Gower, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty notwithstanding, still lacks a design guide. The core of this book is represented by 128 photographs submitted as part of the Gower Society's competition. All in colour, and all of high quality, these document window and door openings, walling and copings, chimney and roof styles, door fastenings, gates and ironwork, paths and pitching, porches, slate, thatch and tiling, stair and step design, amongst other features. Much of what has been picked out would escape the untrained eye, but when recognised is discovered to contribute as much to a sense of place as the more obvious choices: the use of telegraph poles and railway sleepers as gate posts, for instance, solid stone water tanks, or slab hedge-stiles (one with what looks like a dog access). These individual features, with local variations in approach, and changes in use of materials such a straw, mortar or brick are analysed carefully. Much "hidden" knowledge is disclosed here, but in an easy and accessible style. Throughout, the way in which builders and craftsmen were affected by a harsh economy, by environmental factors, and by patterns of wealth and poverty underpins the description. A useful final section considers industrial remains, lime kilns, pig sties and bridges, together with the incidental features associated with local churches and chapels. Beautifully produced, and lovingly written (authorship is modestly concealed) this book deserves a wide audience, and it is to be hoped it achieves its aims: influencing owners, widening public understanding, and influencing planners and local councillors. The paperback is cheap (£4.50) but robustly bound in sections, making for what should be a durable book in more than one sense of the word. If any action can help conserve a sense of place in Gower, this project can; but it also offers a model that could be followed in your community or mine. Matthew Griffiths March 2003 |
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