School: St. Cronan's Longford Wood, An Teampoll Mór (roll number 6662)

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1. Old Houses (continued)

   

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   The foundation projected often more than a foot beyond the walls of the house and can be seen in most old houses today. Having laid the foundation they next made the "morar," this was simply red clay well wet with water. There was always some local mason at the work but he had several helpers.
   When the walls were built, the builders went to the nearest wood and cut a number of long sticks some heavy and some light. These were the timber for the roof. A thing worth noting about them is that they were all crooked; when one looks at the inside of the roof of an old house he is inclined to ask himself how in the world did they manage to get all the crooked sticks.
   The next journey the builders made was to the mountain side; there they cut a very long scraw, often this was ten yards long and they rolled it up round the handle of a spade or some such stick in the same way as one would roll a ribbon. The cut several such rolls until they had sufficient to cover the house

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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

   Brigid Cantwell

   Gender

   Female

   Informant

   Batley Maher

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Clonakenny, Co. Tipperary