School: Riverchapel (roll number 15367)

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1. Old Houses

   

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   In olden times lived in different types of houses as to the nowaday houses. Some of them were called bee-hives, and were made of mud and sticks, thatched with straw or often with bent which they got near the sea. It was something like rushes.

   The floors were made of clay, the windows were very small and let in very little light during the day-time. There were only one or two rooms and a kitchen in the old houses. In the kitchen beside the wall was a settle-bed which was folded in the day-time and looked like an oblong box. There are not many of those remaining now. The fire was either situated at the gable end or next to a room. There was no grate for the fire, it was made on the hearth with sticks and bog oak and some-times turf. The only light people had at night was a rush candle.

   Houses nowadays are built with cement all through and are roofed with slates and tiles. Some of them are built of bricks and are called "Labourers Cottages", others are built like bungalows. The fire-places are square with grates and some without grates as in the old houses. There are no back doors in them only in houses being lately built. There are generally four rooms in each.

   

   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

   Mary Darcy

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   15

   Address

   Riverchapel, Co. Wexford