Ty un nos

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Ty un nos, or house in a night, is an old Welsh tradition which has parallels in other folk traditions in other areas of the British Isles.

From a period spanning the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, it was believed by some, that if a person could build a house on common land in one night, that the land then belonged to them as a freehold. There are other variations on this tradition: that the test was to have a fire burning in the hearth by the following morning; or that the squatter could then extend the land around by the distance they could throw an axe from the four corners of the house.

In fact, ty un nos has no status in the English Common Law (the legal code which applied to England and Wales in this period) although there is some tradition of legal discussion about the point at which land occupied by squatters without title may be regarded as a legitimate possession. This legendary belief may bear some relation to genuine folk customs and actual practices by squatters encroaching on common or waste land. The tradition may have provided squatters with a sense that their actions enjoyed some legimitimacy conferred by an older code of laws more in tune with values of social justice (see the Norman yoke). Interestingly, many modern day commentators and local historians accept the claim that the one night house is a tradition enshrined in law Victorian Powys.

Many localities in England and Wales have a house or houses which may be identified as a one night house in local folklore. These may in fact be properties that were originally built by squatters and may be constructed in a vernacular building tradition using locally available materials (The Ugly House is a celebrated example in Snowdonia). Many of these legends seem to be passed on in ignorance of the broader tradition of the one night house and may feature picturesque details based on variants of the traditions noted above. These legends generally take the form of a prominent member of local society proposing a wager with a landless family, that if they could raise a house in a night and a day they could keep the property. Some versions of these legends may emphasise that the family may cheat and win out over the complacent authority figure by building a very small hut or by simply building a hearth and chimney.

The best general account of one night house traditions is provided in a recent book by the British anarchist and writer on housing issues, Colin Ward.

Ward considers the one night house tradition in the context of squatting and other informal systems of occupying and using land and relates accounts from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales (he observes that similar traditions exist in Turkey, France, North and South America) which demonstrate clear parallels in different folk traditions.

Bibliography

Iorwerth C. Peate, The Welsh House (Brython Press, Liverpool, 1946)

Colin Ward, Cotters and Squatters - Housing's Hidden History (Five Leaves Publications, Nottingham, 2002)

Eurwyn Williams, Hand Made Homes: dwellings of the rural poor in Wales (National Museum of Wales, 1988)