School: Kilkerrin, Leaba Síoda

On this page

1. Old Houses

   

   Share Share Post

   There were many more houses in this district long ago that [than] are not there now. The people were very poor, and they had very small houses. The houses contained only one room and a kitchen.
   The roofs of the houses were made of bogdeal sticks covered with scraws and thatched over with straw or rushes. The rushes were cut in the fields and the straw was got from the corn.
   The people slept in the kitchens. At that time the beds were made of wood and were called camp beds. They had also other beds called settlebeds which were opened by night and closed up in the day and used as a seat.
   The fireplace was situated at one end of the house. In some houses the fireplace was in the middle of the floor. They had no chimneys in some of the houses only a large hole in the thatch where the smoke went out.
   The houses were made of mortar and clay with [?] mud floors.

   (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

   Teresa O' Connell

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Mountshannon East, Co. Clare

   Informant

   Peter O' Connell

   Relation

   Parent

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Mountshannon East, Co. Clare