Rural Housing in Early Nineteenth-Century Northumberland

Abstract

The objective reality is that for most rural residents in Northumberland, the housing situation was worse in 1841 than it was in 1801. Where matters improved, the main explanation was a reduction in pressure due to absolute population loss or a reduction in total numbers. Some large landowners did carry out significant improvement but the overall impact of this was actually rather limited. Furthermore, as the example of Norham shows, improvement in one area could have been accompanied by, and possibly related to, relative deterioration in an adjacent area. Through their sheer scale and the public awareness attracted, the massive problems of urban growth in the nineteenth century have, arguably, masked many of those rural areas.