The Language of Its Builders: Stone in the Vernacular of Rural Wales During the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Variations in the use of stone in nineteenth-century rural Welsh building provide important evidence for the nuances of social and economic structure. Interpretation of this evidence is assisted by a range of sources that help to document the building process, from the supply of materials, through the organisation of building work to the craft of construction. What this study reveals is the considerable expenditure of resources embodied in all but the most rudimentary constructions: access to materials with which to build was a pre-requisite, and was often dependent on the ability to pay for them; preparation and haulage required careful organisation and also contributed considerably to the expense of building; craft skills were obtained at a price. The distribution of economic resources and the social patterns of tenure are both manifest in the variable detail of vernacular building.