Swan Cottages

I was chatting to Elizabeth the other day, when she said, almost out of the blue: "Of course, it's still within living memory that a donkey was kept in the back garden of my cottage. It had to come in and out through the house, because there's no way round the back."
Jessica, who used to work at the garage, told her some of the history of the cottage, because she used to stay there as a child with her grandparents. Her parents lived on an outlying farm, and it was easier for her to get to school if she stayed in the village during the week, and only went home at weekends. In those days, there was no Aga in the cottage - Jessie's gran used to cook in a little tin shack out the back.
The cottage nearest the Swan used to keep pigs in the back garden, too - and they had to come in and out through the cottage, too.