Agricultural History Review, Volume 59 Part 1 (2011), pp. 18–35

In 1589 a statute was passed entitled ‘An act against erecting and maintaining cottages’ which sought to regulate cottage building and the multiple occupation of cottages. This article examines the context of the act’s passage and its relationship to other legislation of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. It then offers a detailed exploration of the way the act’s cottage clauses were enforced in seventeenth-century Sussex. It also considers the legal status of cottages that were ‘continued’ and looks at evidence for methods of cottage construction and the range of cottage types. 

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