School: Lakyle, Whitegate
- Location:
- Lakyle, Co. Clare
- Teacher: John Davis
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0588, Page 207
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- Old HousesThe houses in this district long ago were very small and usually consisted of two apartments - a Kitchen and a sleeping apartment.
Some of them had a small loft over the latter on which some of the family used to sleep. The well-to-do farmers had sometimes two or three bedrooms. In some poor peoples' houses, fowl & other domestic animals were kept at night.
The majority of the houses of the poor was built very crudely. Instead of sand & lime being used for mortar a kind of clay called "dochee" [?] which got very hard was put between the stones of the walls & the latter were plastered with the same substance. Inferior mortar - with little lime & too much sand - was used by other people. The windows too were very small & set fast with the walls so that many of them could never be opened & usually consisted of one pane of glass, so no ventilation was possible. Then there was usually only one door - the front one.
The houses were always thatched with "sedge" - a kind of coarse grass which is got in the bogs, or reeds which grow in the lake or with straw. Farmers who grow wheat(continues on next page)
