We started in Italy with the house where the composer William Walton lived for many years with his wife. The house is now a museum but during their residence, they developed a beautiful garden with an outdoor theatre.

We then moved to Brazil where we learned about the Favelas. These were slum towns that grew up outside existing towns. Ruled by criminals and drug barons, they lacked any utilities and were truly outside the law. In recent times, the police have established some form of control and these towns are now popular tourist destinations.

Our next visit was to Wales where we heard of the Ty Unnos houses. These where very small cottages where somebody could build on a plot of land and claim ownership if they could build a house overnight and have smoke coming from the chimney by morning. In addition, they could claim any land marked out by throwing an axe from each corner of the house.

Clouds Hill is a small cottage donated to the National Trust. It was the home of T E Lawrence from his retirement from the army following the First World War. He had become very famous and wished to retire into obscurity. Despite his high wartime rank, he joined the RAF under a pseudonym as an airman. He was very generous and gave away much of his fortune leaving just his cottage and his Brough motorcycle. Sadly, he met his death in a motorcycle accident.

We finished up with a general talk about workers’ homes over the last three centuries and looked at one of the tiny cottages at Beeston Lock which had been home to a mother and six children in 1861.

Andy Dixon