School: Leatbeg (roll number 16146)
- Location:
- Leat Beg, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Mrs Peoples
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1091, Page 085
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- About eighty years ago the people had no electric nor gas nor even oil lamps to give them light. They used candles for lighting up their houses.
These they made themselves from butter and lint and other from tallow and lint. The people took a few stalks of line and plaited them together.
Then they melted the fat in a pot and dipped the plaits into it. These they held up until they cooled and then dipped them again.
Each time they dipped them into the fat the got a little thicker and so on until they were as thick as they wanted.
The candles which were made from butter were called butter sluts! Some people would mould candles. They had small moulds the size of a candle and they stood the plaits in the center of them and filled them up with melted fat.
The people could have bought candles in the shops then(continues on next page)
- Collector
- John Morrow
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Leat Beg, Co. Donegal
- Informant
- William Morrow
- Relation
- Parent
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 59
- Address
- Leat Beg, Co. Donegal
