School: Carrowbeg (roll number 10754)

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1. Old Houses

   

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   The houses that existed in the district in former times were all thatched and one-storeyed. They had usually two rooms and were built with clay and stones. All the timber used in them was bog fir and they had floors of flags or clay. They were thatched with barley or oaten straw, which was grown on the owners' farms. There was a kitchen bed in nearly every house in olden times. It was placed near the fire, and it was called an outshot bed. The fire place was always at the gable wall. The front of the chimney was made of stone and clay. Some of the houses had no chimney. A hole was left in the roof to let out the smoke. Some of the houses had very small windows and the upper half was glass and the lower half was boards. Half doors were common in our district in former times and are still common. Turf and fir were used as fuel in olden times. Candles were made locally in olden times. They were made out of tallow. The tallow was melted in a pot. A piece of flax was used for a wick, and the wick was dipped into the tallow and taken out and held till the tallow was quite hard on the wick and then dipped in again

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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

   Emma Jean Hutchinson

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Meenletterbale, Co. Donegal

   Informant

   Samuel Hutchinson

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   66

   Address

   Meenletterbale, Co. Donegal