School: Edmonton (roll number 8100)

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1. Old Houses

   

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   12th October 1938
   All the houses in this district long ago were thatched. They were built with mud and had mud floors. They were sometimes covered with rushes and the walls were made of bog scraws but mud was generally used and rushes and straw was put through the mud to strengthen it.
   The thatch which they used was grown on land. My father told me that he saw a house covered with rushes at Scarden. The old houses always had a bed in the kitchen. It was sometimes in the corner or at back wall. It was called a Settle Bed. The fire was always in the centre of the house. Sometimes people had some fire in a bucket to heat up the room. There was a small beech tree cut down and put from one wall to the other without being pared or made into boards. The front of the chimney was built of clay and sally rods plaited together. They had no chimneys at the top.

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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

   Máire Áine Ní Lorcháin

   Gender

   Female

   Informant

   Patrick Larkin

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Clonlost, Co. Westmeath