ABSTRACT
A preoccupation with housing quality and an idealised view of rural living were two themes in the general attitude to rural housing at the start of the present century. It has been argued that the introduction of council housing into many areas of rural England in the interwar period was a matter of major significance. While government involvement after 1919 introduced a major social and political element into housing in rural areas private housing was numerically dominant. Links between rural housing and the different characteristics of households which occupy it lead on naturally to a consideration of the varying roles which housing plays through time as households change their size and structure and their perceived need for housing. Simple correlations and multiple regression analysis have been used to elaborate on the structure of rural housing which started with a straightforward split between several tenure groups.
