School: Baile Uí Mhurchadha, Borris

On this page

1. Old Houses

   

   Share Share Post

   In olden times nearly all the houses of this district were thatched. There were very few slated houses in it. Under the thatch there were sods. The thatch was either wheaten straw or rushes. Many of these thatched houses were built with mud walls and when they were built of stone, yellow clay was used as mortar. In all the old houses the bed was in the kitchen. This bed was called a settle bed. It could be used as a table in the day and it could be let down and used as a bed at night. The fireplace was at the gable wall in every house. Some houses had no chimneys and some old people of the district remember to have seen houses in olden times without chimneys. The houses that there were no chimneys on, the smoke went up by the wall and went out in a hole in the roof that used to be made for that purpose. The windows that were in the houses were very small and few. The floors were made either of lime and sand, or clay. Half doors were common in olden times and they are still common especially in the farmers houses.

   (continues on next page)

   

   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

   Peggy Murphy

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Ballymurphy, Co. Carlow

   Informant

   Lawrence Fogarty

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   60

   Address

   Seskin, Co. Carlow