Rosedene, Historic house museum in Dodford, England
Rosedene is a house museum in Dodford with two bedrooms, a living room, and a back hall containing a well and pump. An attached piggery and coal house stand beside the main cottage, with a restored garden showing the plants that residents once grew.
Built in 1849, this cottage was part of the Great Dodford Chartist settlement, a scheme by the National Land Company to provide workers with farm properties. The project emerged from efforts to reshape how working people could earn their living.
The house reflects the nineteenth-century Chartist vision of helping factory workers gain self-sufficiency through small farms and market gardening. Walking through the rooms and garden shows how residents tried to balance industrial work with rural living.
This museum is typically open only for guided visits that need to be arranged in advance. Visitors should allow time to explore the main house, the outbuildings, and the garden properly.
The attached piggery was converted into a laundry room between 1915 and 1920 when vegetable growing became more profitable than raising pigs. This change reveals how residents adapted their buildings to match their changing income sources.
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