Examples of 1st, 2nd & 3rd class houses early 1900's

2rkehij30qtza5

Has anyone any websites they could direct me to in order to get photos or sketches of houses which would have been graded as 1st class, 2nd class and 3rd class houses in the censuses of 1901 and 1911? Please? And thanks!
P.S. have tried google but nothing showing up

jonniebgood1

Regarding photos etc you may have to guess the class unless you know of the exact house today. The criteria for calculating the houses class are clearly shown on the B1 forms in the returns. for example this house below would most likely be classified as being 2nd class with an estimated points total of about 8.


If you search the national library images you will be able to get houses from this era and quite easily establish this. You may also get information if you search in relation to the congested districts boards as they may have information on some of the lower classes of housing in that era. It would be appreciated if you post some of these 'classes' of houses on this thread if you find them as the OP is an interesting topic.

2rkehij30qtza5

Thanks jonniebgood.
I'll have a look at that and I will post any findings on here. Thanks again.

jonniebgood1

I was looking into this a little bit more and came across an interesting written piece discussing the changes in numbers in higher classes of housing between 1901 and 1911. Quoted piece below from census review shows this and also gives information on the 4th class of housing, that of construction other than concrete/ stone walls- presumably these were the types of cottiers cottages that were probably rare by 1911. With 5000 in total 4th class houses in 1911 the reduction in post famine numbers is also noted as are the referred figures from censuses not availiable to us now.

The number of inhabited houses of the first class rose,
during the decade, from 75,oo° to 84,000, an increase of 12
per cent. - The second and third class houses taken together
number about the same in the present, as in the
former Census. The fourth class fell, during the same
period, from Q,8OO to 5,000, showing a decrease of almost
50 per cent, the number in 1901 being less than half the
number returned in 1891, while compared with the dwellings
of this class enumerated m 1861 there are less than
6 per cent, now in existence.

http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/2262/7933/1/jssisiVolXIII46_59.pdf

2rkehij30qtza5

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

I was looking into this a little bit more and came across an interesting written piece discussing the changes in numbers in higher classes of housing between 1901 and 1911. Quoted piece below from census review shows this and also gives information on the 4th class of housing, that of construction other than concrete/ stone walls- presumably these were the types of cottiers cottages that were probably rare by 1911. With 5000 in total 4th class houses in 1911 the reduction in post famine numbers is also noted as are the referred figures from censuses not availiable to us now.
http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/2262/7933/1/jssisiVolXIII46_59.pdf

Fantastic. Thanks for that. I've been looking through other sources and am going to post my findings tomorrow or the next day.

2rkehij30qtza5

As promised...here are the pictures I have come up with for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th class houses, as per the ratings given for classes of houses in the 1901 and 1911 censuses.

pedroeibar1

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/2262/7933/1/jssisiVolXIII46_59.pdf

Very interesting paper JBG1 thanks, have too much going on at the mom to get my head around the figures, but love the idea of the ‘lantern show’, a sort of early ‘Powerpoint’!

Lillie Flaky Murk wrote: »

As promised...here are the pictures I have come up with for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th class houses, as per the ratings given for classes of houses in the 1901 and 1911 censuses.

Thanks GalwayG, interesting exercise. The changes in housing stock probably were heavily influenced by the (then) recent Land Acts which also brought about the increase in the number and quality of the houses? The cottiers’ houses were easy to classify, but I suggest there was considerable classification crossover in the houses of middling classes due to inherent bias in the survey methods.

No quibbles on the 1st and 4th class house you posted, but the 2nd and the 3rd class houses shown illustrate the difficulty caused by the scoring system used in the Census. It was easier to progress from 3rd to 2nd, but quite hard to break into the 1st class sector. EG:-

• The second class house you show above would obtain 1 for the slated roof, 1 for the masonry walls and 2 for the 2 windows in the front. Sub-total 4, which means that to reach the 6+ to put it in the 2nd class category, it needs 2 more, which it obtains for its (probable) four rooms (typically parlour, 2 bedrooms and kitchen).
• The third class house you show would obtain 0 for the thatch roof, 1 for the masonry walls and 3 for the 3 windows in the front. Sub-total 4, which means that to reach the 6+ to put it in the 2nd class category, it needs 2 more, which it obtains from its (probable) four rooms. One room less and it would be 3rd class.

Also, many thatched houses were eventually roofed with corrugated iron and later again slated or tiled.

FWIW I have compared old photographs of one of my ancestors homes with his Census return and it is clear that a bay window with three distinctly separate windows (separated by wide masonry, not mullions) was returned as ‘one’ window. I wonder was it a fear of a window tax!

jonniebgood1

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

FWIW I have compared old photographs of one of my ancestors homes with his Census return and it is clear that a bay window with three distinctly separate windows (separated by wide masonry, not mullions) was returned as ‘one’ window. I wonder was it a fear of a window tax!

Window tax ended in 1851. When it did apply a gap of more than 12 inches was required for the window to be considered seperate.

pedroeibar1

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

Window tax ended in 1851. When it did apply a gap of more than 12 inches was required for the window to be considered seperate.

Interesting - will get out the photgraph soon and have a closer look. A second class house scored six to eleven points which is quite a wide band, hence my comments above.