Starowies, Leczna

Starowies, for some strange reason, is known to the authorities nowadays as "Stara Wies". The people in the locality know it as Starowies. Starowies, or Stara Wies, means 'Old Village' and is a small village to the east of Leczna, in the Lubelskie wojewodztwo (province) of Poland. It is closely related to the village of Puchaczow, just across the river to the north, where is the Roman Catholic parish church. Stara wies is a very common village name in Poland.

Like most villages in the area its existence is almost solely agricultural, however, since the 1970's there has been a coal mine just a few miles to the north east which is a source of employment for some of the young. The most popular crops are corns and tomatoes, the latter of which is bought up by a local company that produces various vegetable products such as tomato sauce.

Most buildings were traditionally built of wood, with the occasional one built of brick. Wood was relatively cheap and easily available in the locality. There were several ways of constructing a wooden building, such as barely squared wood in the log cabin style, the same with fully squared timbers, a similar method using  1.5-2 inch thick planks, and finally building a wooden frame and nailing on narrow, thin timbers. This latter construction is generally only used for barns and sheds. Since about the 1920's there has been some building using brick, since about the 1960's this has changed to blocks.

Roofing would once have been straw thatching for most buildings and timber tiling for more expensive homes. Since the 1920's this has changed to steel sheets or corrugated asbestos. Since about the beginning of the 1990's there has been the introduction of plastic tiling as well as some terracotta tiling.

In August there is Odpust at the parish church in nearby Puchaczow. This is a time for family re-unions, a mass at the church and then to the fair. The Odpust fair is very traditional in Poland, and there are lots of toys for sale for children.

The language for this region is much more musical than for other parts of Poland, in some ways similar to the melody of Russian.
A typical wooden cottage and garden.
At he bottom of the page is a map of the village and that of the neighbouring village of Puchaczow. The numbers in red correspond to the numbers of the text and pictures below.

1. Starting at the west end of Starowies, on the left side of the road we have a brick built cottage with an asbestos roof, probably dating from the 1950's. the layout, however appears to be traditional.

2. On the opposite side of the road is a new block built house, still under construction, in the modern dworek (little manor house) style. A typical feature of this style are the 2 pillars, one on each side of the entrance. The part of the building on the right is a 2 car garage, an essential part of any new house in this land where the car is worshipped.

3. turning the corner of the lane we are on brings us to some of the more original houses of the village. This is a small cottage, originally with one room (in which the family lived, cooked and slept) plus a corridor at one end going from one side of the cottage to the other. This corridor would have been essential to cope with the cold winters, you would not want to have an exterior door that let half the heat of the main living room out the moment you opened it. Also in this picture we have a traditional farm horse and cart. There are still a couple of million horses still used on Polish farms, although the number has dramatically decreased since the 1970's with more farmers investing in tractors.

4. On our right we can see some of the strip fields still common in this part of Poland. Beyond them, on the main road we have some brick built houses that date from the 1950's or 60's. The house on the left shows the typical cube shape from this period, although here they have pitched roofs instead of the flat ones comon from that period. Since the 1950's, houses in Poland have been growing taller and taller, maximising the living space without increasing the plan area. It is still usual for all the family, 3 or 4 generations, to live together in one house.

5. This is the corridor end of a single room cottage. The corridor stretches from one side of the house to the other, and there may be a door at the other end. this cottage is well due for a fresh protective coat other wise beetles and woodworm will destroy it.

6. Another wooden cottage, this time painted white. White is not the most common colour nowadays, but is quite traditional. Once, if there were unmariied women living there, the house would have been painted light blue to advertise the fact. A new development is the small bales of straw in the field, up to a few years ago all straw would have been manually heaped into stooks and then later into a large rick. Here you can clearly see that there are 4 strip fields, each about 10 yards wide and 200 yards long.

7. This is one of the comonest colours for wooden houses. The smooth sides have been achieved by nailing on thin sheets of hardboard, with timber cladding at the corners to conceal the traditional joints. There were several reasons for doingn this: it modernised the look of the house, it helps protect the original timbers, it helps to keep the place warmer by covering over any gaps, and saves the need to renew the filling between the wall timbers. This cottage has a corrugated asbestos roof.

8. This is a very similar cottage, but here the original wall timbers are exposed and it has been roofed with steel sheets. The plants in this part of the garden are partly ornamental plus some traditional herbs. Beyond the flowers and out of site is the vegetable garden. This cottage probably has 2 rooms, with the kitchen stove in the dividing wall to provide heat for both rooms.

9. In the centre of this picture is a wooden house that heas been completely clad in plastic sheets. The wall coverings are shaped to resemble timber cladding. The house on the right has been built sometime since the 1980's and shows a typical modern roof style. The large overhanging eaves help keep the house cool in summer by keeping the sun off the walls. This roofing style is common on houses from Poland down to the former Yugoslavia and probably beyond.

10. This is what happens if you do not maintain your wooden cottage. This is a great shame as it was once one of the best wooden houses in the village. Even more annoying for us is that this is the house in which Ania's father grew up.

The same cottage from the rear, probably in the 1940's.

11. This is the same cottage, but from the front. Some of these timbers are 18 inches by 2 inches. Originally there was a porch, but some of the quality of the house can be seen in the size of the tiombers and the style of the door. (and the people are Ania and her brother in law)

... and this is how it originally looked. The present owner is on the left, but I know she must be standing on a box as she was never very tall (but she is great, I like her a lot).

12. A large barn and stable block, brick pillars with wooden walls and asbestos roof. This is a very common style in the village and probably dates from the 1950's or 60's.

13. This old barn is in the traditional style, except for the asbestos roof. The design resembles that of cottages, except that it is timber framed with upright timber planks instead of the more typical horizontal plank walls found on cottages.

14. A farmyard, with a traditional house but later, brick built, barns and stables.

15. As we come to the east end of the village, the homes are typically larger. This cottage is of the traditional 2 room variety with central corridor. You can see that the front door is centrally positioned, and there will be another door on the opposite wall.

16. A very similar house, but this one has been clad in hardboard and a brick porch has been added. The gates are very typical for metalwork produced since world war 2. Gates and other metalwork is produced locally, or even on the spot, from plain metal stock (bar, rod and tube) and electrically welded together.

17. This is a summer kitchen and serves the (unseen) cottage beyond it. As the stove was centrally located in cottages, cooking in the house in summer would have made the cottage imposibly hot. Hence summer cooking was either done on an outside stove or in purpose built blocks well away from the main house. Another advantage is that wooden houses are at their driest in summer and hence a greater fire risk.

18. This is one of the placs in which milk companies etc collect the produce from the local farmers. This is the last step of the tour of Starowies, I hope you enjoyed it. Might I suggets you also visit Puchaczow, just acoss the Swinka river (see map below) where you will be able to see, amongst other things, the parish church for the area.

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