The story of Barton’s companions, so much for the natural order of things …

John Barton’s son wanted some privacy so his father cleared some land and built a secluded farmhouse for him. In 1555, the son and his family and some servants moved in.  But they were not the first occupants …

Pinhole borers and all kinds of wood beetles were already there by the hundreds, eating away at the beams and woodwork. Families of birds, bats, worms and insects were quick to move in as well. Three years after the house was finished, it had 1,092 tenants – only seven of which were human.

The history of the squatters at Barton’s End, as the house was called has been traced by zoologist George Ordish.  He studied the many surviving documents relating to the house, its structural changes, and the varied lives of its human inhabitants. From them, and his knowledge of animal life, he could deduce the principal animals living there in different years and estimate their numbers.

After the first wave of invaders, noctule bats and the smaller pipistrelle bats arrived in the loft. They ate some of wood-boring beetles, but brought their own insect parasites to keep up the numbers. Sparrows nested under the eaves, and house martins built on the walls. Mice moving in from the fields were the only rodents, but bats and dormice visited occasionally for meals.

A cellar was dug in 1639 with a loose fitting trapdoor outside the house. This proved a handy entrance for toads, as well, as well as more insects and spiders, although toads fed on spiders keeping the numbers down. On the other hand, the replacement of the thatch roof by tiles in 1660 reduced the volume of life in the house. Even so, earthworms, woodlice, snails, centipedes, millipedes, slugs, and aphids all thrived, and there were more than 3,000 living creatures in the house.

The larvae of moths devoured the family’s furs and woolens, the carpets and upholstery, the stuffed birds in glass cages, leather harnesses, book covers, and even corks in the wine bottles. Many things had to be shared with the carpet beetle, cellar beetle, earwig and Pharaoh’s ant. When books in the library grew slightly damp, bookworms, booklice, and silverfish arrived to eat them – and the wallpaper. The kitchen, of course, swarmed with life – cockroaches, silverfish and their relatives, the firebrats. The larder housed and fed grain weevils, mealworms, flourworms, black beetles, and steam flies; eelworms wriggled in vinegar, and cheese mites gave flavor to the Stilton.

By 1860 the population of Barton’s End had reached its peak – 119 species plus Homo sapiens. More people came to stay, which meant that many rooms were kept warmer for longer periods. The total population rose to about 3,300, including common houseflies, mosquitoes, black ants, bluebottles, ladybirds, and various wasps. And this total refers only to visible creatures. It omits the tens of thousands of mites to be found in any house.

The changing natural history of Barton’s End is typical of country houses. Because of central heating, synthetic fabrics, vacuum cleaners, and pesticides, nature is largely kept at bay. At the last census of Bartons’ End, only some 450 inhabitants were estimated – an average number for a well scrubbed modern home.

Rehash resource:  Reader’s Digest Strange Stories and Amazing Facts,  pgs 120-121