Ruins in Cotmeadows, Lydbrook (General)

by Caron, Tuesday, July 09, 2019, 19:33 (1965 days ago) @ probinson

Oo! That’s interesting Peter. Thanks for that.
The cottage/s were indeed, without water supply or fuel. Wood was collected for the stove (Hare’s Grove was probably quite handy), and water was collected from a well source either at the exit gate to Proberts Lane, or from the main road below ( my grandmother as a child would carry two wooden buckets with a yoke across her shoulders, from being very young). Life on this hillside was very bleak for the family, who had to work very hard. It was also damp, which is why my great grandmother died at 35 of TB, leaving 3x sons and 3x daughters, the youngest being only 2yrs old. And why their father died within 6 months, from Miners Asthma.
TB continued to wipe out a lot of Lydbrook people until the 1950’s. I think at the time, Lydbrook had the highest incidence of TB in the whole country. I wonder whether people began to become afraid of living so remotely, when winters especially must have been such a struggle.