The location of Poplar Cottage on the boundary of two manors is unlikely to have been accidental. Manorial boundaries and areas of common land were clearly marked out both by natural features and boundary markers such as hedges, stones, crosses, poles and fences and were periodically surveyed and recorded by groups of tenants. The c.1739 map of Washington shows that Washington Common was hedged, with access by gate at various points. However, the original builder and occupant of Poplar may have hoped that its location on the boundary would mean that it would escape scrutiny by either manor. The fact that it survived suggests that at some point the status of the cottage was legitimised, presumably as part of the manor of Chancton, and it became either leasehold or copyhold. The lives of cottagers have been described as ‘economically marginal’, subject to intermittent hardship during periods of under- or unemployment or when they had too many mouths to feed or became old or infirm. Nevertheless, they represented a significant – and visible – proportion of the rural population, and, as such, were an integral part of the communities in which they lived.