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The Streets of Marley Hill
The buildings in Marley Hill were typical of a pit village. There were rows and terraces of back-to-back houses, all within walking distance of the pits. The pitmen's homes were very basic, usually with one room downstairs and one upstairs, which was reached by a ladder from the downstairs room. The floors were stone and in front of the fire would be a proggy mat. This was made from old clothes, which were cut up and "progged" into hessian. As there were no kitchens all the cooking was done on the open fire or in the oven, which was attached at the side of the fire. There were no inside toilets but ash middens outside across the road. Water came from a cold-water tap on the wall.
As Marley Hill had been a thriving industrial village since the nineteenth century many of the colliery houses had been built in the early to mid 1800's.