Lye Waste was best known for it's mud huts and nailers, built by settlers who were said to be a community of Gypsies, who squatted on waste land in the upper part of Lye around 1650. These people were described as rough and uncouth, they built their houses from local clay deposits. The houses lacked planning and were built in a hotpotch fashion with no semblance of order, they all lacked any sanitation, or clean drinking water. It is possible that these people were displaced by the civil wars between the Royalists and Parliamentarians from the Battle of Worcester in 1651. They were a very tight community and did not tolerate any strangers, they were described as miserable, uncivilised, rude and lawless. The males were naked, the females accomplished breeders, marriage was not high on their agenda, they lived in uncivilised squalor. The women spent half their lives in the Nail Shops, only stopping to give birth, within a few hours they were back in the Nail Shop, many babies did not survive, in some cases the mothers and babies were buried in the same Coffin. One local story regarding a family from Lye Waste known as the 'All Fours' were so under-nourished, they were too weak to stand, and literally did walk around on 'All Fours.' Hope this gives you a brief insight into Lye Waste, I am also descended from one of the Lye Waste families. linell
