School: Cormeen (roll number 6821)

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1. Old Houses

   

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   Long ago the houses were not the substantial buildings they are now. They were made of mud, thatched with rushes and straw. They first dug the clay and tramped it and made stiff mortar of it. They built it little by little with a graip and as it dried they added more mortor.
   There was only one room in the house a bed usually sat in the corner called a "settle - bed" Some houses had no bed but had a matress stuffed with straw. The cloth used to make the matress was home spun linen. This was spread out on the floor at night and rolled up and placed in the corner in the day - time.
   The fire place was nearly always at the gable wall but in some houses it was in the middle of the floor. When the fire was in the middle of the floor it was usually a two roomed house and the fire was the dividing wall between the two rooms. One room was where the weaving looms were and the other served as the kitchen and bedroom. The chimneys were made of clay

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. objects
      1. man-made structures
         1. buildings
            1. residential buildings (~2,723)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Bertha Wright

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Sheetrim, Co. Monaghan

   Informant

   Mr Samuel Armstrong

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   87

   Address

   Lisnalee, Co. Monaghan