Backcountry Notes

Click on any image to view a larger versionThe Virginia Frontier Culture Museum's English Farm installation features a yeoman farmer's house that was built in 1692 in Worchestershire, in west-central England.  Many yeoman farmers and other English commoners migrated from the western shires to America during colonial times, although their numbers most certainly did not include the builder of this house, who had to have been successful enough to own a small parcel of land on which to built a nice home.

The yeoman farmers were a general class of English commoners which stood between the villeins, cotters, and common laborers, below, and the landed gentry to which the yeoman often desired (and on occasion did) ascend.  While a yeoman might own some land in fee, he usually did not, even if he had money to buy it.  The Crown sold land to the gentry and the gentry preferred to trade among themselves.

Because yeomen held their lands primarily by lease, they were subject to being dispossessed, sometimes on short notice.  The "enclosure of estates" which began in England under the Tudors impacted the western shires during the time of American colonization, and so this area produced many migrants to Virginia and other colonies.  The gentry-bred plantation owners of the American coastal plain wanted tenant farmers and therefore promoted this migration by such means as indentures, a contract which permitted the immigrant to work off the cost of his passage to the New World, but the planters seriously underestimated the resourcefulness and resentments of the immigrants.  By and large, the yeomanry had no desire to submit to leasehold arrangements in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia; as soon as their indentures were served, they moved in large numbers west to the frontier. 

The yeomen and other English immigrants brought many English customs and manners to the Shenandoah Valley.  They adapted the log cabin method of building by using dressed logs and dovetail-notched corner joints.  The image on the left illustrates the timber-framing method typically employed in yeoman's cottages.  Many of the joints are slotted and held tight by wooden dowels; others are dovetailed.  In the upper left section of the wall, a timber has been installed diagonally to act as a brace.

The squares between the timbers are wattle-and-daub.  To make wattle-and-daub walls, wooden strips are woven into a lattice and the ends embedded in or attached to the timbers.  "Daub" is a thick paste made of earth, sand, clay, and sometimes cow dung, which is applied to the wattle and allowed to dry before being painted.  

Like most well-to-do English houses of the period, this one is built around a core of heavy masonry, both stone and brick.  The picture below shows the upper reaches of this masonry mass, along with a plaque having the builder's initials and the date of construction - - 1692.  The English strategy for combating cold weather was to build huge fireplaces, stoke roaring fires, and depend on the masonry to retain and radiate heat within the house.

The image below illustrates the method of window framing and the leaded-glass window sash.

The same window is shown in the next image, which gives an interior view of the living room.  Note the massive beams used in the ceiling to carry the weight of floor joists and upstairs floor.

The next image shows the masonry (brick) floor of this ground-level room.  Typically, a well-packed mixture of sand and clay was used as a subfloor. While the bricks could be mortared in place,  often the bricks were laid dry and the joints filled by sweeping fine sand across the floor. Visible around the edge of the floor is the stone foundation which carries the sill beams.

The next image shows details of the window interior, the pegged timber joints, the adz-cut surfaces of the framing timbers, and the interior of the wattle-and-daub wall panels, painted white.

Left: This narrow staircase leads to the second floor.  The stairs have been shoehorned in between stands of brick and stone masonry. 

Below: The kitchen fireplace is typical of the huge fireplaces favored by the English country dwellers.  On the right can be seen a brick oven; on the left is a crane, used to hang cast-iron pots over the fire.  The supporting timber above the fireplace has been scorched by the heat of well-stoked fires.  On the hearth, coals have been raked out and set under a grill.

The next image shows a food-storage area of the kitchen.  The crockery are reproductions made by Westmoore Pottery in North Carolina and Henderson's Redware in Maine.

The last image, below, is the kitchen door, viewed from outside.