Big Wood Cottage was a pair of two storey, semidetached houses in the Rough Park section of Big Wood. In the last few decades the two houses were knocked through to create a single dwelling, most of the surrounding woodland is gone. However the name “Big Wood Cottage” still appears on modern Ordnance Survey maps.
Big Wood Cottage with the roadway to the west and surrounded by Rough Park woodland in the order directions. The footprint of the building can be seen, with each house having some kind of garden path to the roadway on the west, and a cartway to their back gardens. Ordnance Survey 25 inches to the mile. Shropshire XXXVII.5, revised 1901. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.
Big Wood Cottage in 2012, taken by Richard Law. This was some time after the two houses were knocked through into one dwelling and the lefthand front doorway removed, with infill brickwork perhaps hidden by the wooden trellis. It follows the local pattern of the Duke of Sutherland style cottages: brick houses with steep gabled tiled roofs with eaves level with the middle of dormer windows and high chimney stacks. There’s another design of detached Duke of Sutherland cottage at Blists Hill museum in Ironbridge which is of similar size to each of the two semidetached houses of Big Wood Cottage.
Our conjectured floor plan of Big Wood Cottage in 1901, based on the Ordnance Survey map and recent planning applications and sale documents. The fronts of the two semidetached houses and the roadway are to the bottom in the plan, and each house has a front door on that front wall.
Both houses were sold individually in the 1917 estate sale. The larger Lot 262 was to the right, and the smaller Lot 263 to the left.
Lot 262 was described as a “Highly desirable Brick-built and Tiled Cottage with good Garden; also Outbuildings and excellent Croft of Pasture Land, very prettily situated in the heart of the Big Wood and in the vicinity of the Village of Sheriffhales. The Cottage contains Sitting Room, Living Room, Kitchen, Dairy, and three Bedrooms. The large Garden is one of excellent quality. The Buildings consist of Cow-tying for three, Meal Store, Pigsty and E.C. Also a set of three Dog Kennels; all Brick-built and Tiled. The Croft of Pasture Land is of excellent quality, situate on rising ground and fronting to the South.” A note on the description adds “This Lot is sold subject to its reservation to the existing occupant – Mrs George Smith – for the period of six months from the termination of the War, she in the meantime holding it rent free. Tenant:- Mr George Smith” In total the plot of land was 2.69 acres.
Lot 263 was “Another very good Brick-built and Tiled Cottage with large and excellent Garden. This Cottage contains Living Room, Kitchen, Pantry and two Bedrooms. Detached Store Room, Pigsty and E.C.” The total area of this house’s plot was 0.47 acres and the tenant was “Mr Mark Stevenson”.
“E.C.” in both descriptions is an Earth Closet – an outside toilet using ashes and soil rather than flushing with water.
Based on census returns, Mark Stevenson (born in 1842) was the tenant of the Lot 263 house from before 1881 to at least 1921. His occupation was always listed as “Woodman”, and in 1921 at age 80 he is noted as “retired”. His son James (born in 1842) was also living in the house and listed as a gamekeeper in both 1911 and 1921. The number of people in the household varied, peaking in 1891 at 11 residents: Stevenson, his wife Maria, their 7 children, Maria’s mother, and Alfred who was Maria’s 3 year old nephew. The address changes between “Sheriffhales Wood”, “Big Wood Cottage”, “Big Wood Sheriffhales”, “15 Big Wood” but it’s clear from the order of the original returns that it’s the same location.
The house of Lot 262 had several changes of tenant during this period. Its address matches the Lot 263 house and eventually becomes “16 Big Wood”. In 1881 it was James White (aged 52) an under gamekeeper. In 1891 it was Charles Jeggo (58) another gamekeeper who clearly had a senior role from other records, and features on the Jeggo family history site. In 1901 it was Richard Warren (33) another gamekeeper. In 1911 it was John Spragg (43) a woodman. In 1921 it was Esau Harper (43) a “timber feller”.
Given their position inside Big Wood the houses were naturally provided to gamekeepers and woodmen. It was a convenient location for their work and allowed them to keep an eye out for poachers and people helping themselves to timber and wood.
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