School: Ardagh (roll number 15035)

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1. Old Houses

   

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   Long ago the houses were all thatched. There was not many slated houses. On some rare occasions where dwellings were in bogs. They were built of bog scraws and roofed with what looked like branches of the pine trees. In the thatched houses the windows were very small. In some cases they were only lighted by one pane of glass about nine inches square. They all had clay floors. Most of the houses were mud wall. The chimneys were very plain. They were sometimes on the gable of the house and more times on the centre of the house. They were very small. In some cases there were no chimneys at all. The only means of exit for the smoke was somewhat like a gallon without a bottom. In other cases the fire was on the centre of the floor and the smoke went out on the door. They all had wooden doors. The apartments were few. In some cases one room, others two, and others three. Three rooms was the common cut. In some houses there was what were called lofts. They were made of rods twisted in and out through each other. Their principal [?] was for storing potatoes. Other lofts were made by putting two poles from the opposite walls and throwing branches across them. In other cases they were boarded and were used as bedrooms. In these thatched houses they all had a bed in the kitchen. It used to be by the wall. It served as a piece of furniture in the day time. It was called a "Settle Bed". The fire places were generally made of mud and wattles. Half doors were very common long ago. They were used for keeping out the fowl.

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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

   Jospehine Dodd

   Gender

   Female

   Informant

   Mrs B. A. Dodd

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Druming, Co. Longford