INDEX

Carlow County - Ireland Genealogical Projects (IGP TM)

Farming in the 19th Century
in County Carlow

Life on a farm 100 years ago

 By Johanna O'Dooley

 Source: CARLOVIANA Volume 2. No. 25 New Series 1976/77

Pages 11 - 13

This account came into my father's hands through the kindness of Miss Keane (former NT in Ratheniska) He wrote to her some twenty years ago, to consult her on a question of folklore. She very kindly answered his query, and sent as well a manuscript containing notes on the subject. In this manuscript he found portion of the "Autobiography of an Old Lady," which Miss Keane had taken down verbatim, from the Old Lady's dictation. He found it a most interesting picture of farm life in Laois many years ago, and sought Miss Keane's permission to publish it, which she gladly granted. There are no changes made except to omit names of persons and places.

THE STORY Seventy years or so ago (this was taken down well over thirty years ago) when I was between 11 and 12 years of age, I worked as a servant for eight or nine months in x's. I got up at five o'clock -never later than six -lighted a hard coal fire and put down a big pot of spuds. I then put a canvas cloth on the table. This cloth originally covered a tea chest. It was washed periodically and kept spotlessly clean. I put a cellar full of salt on the table and a big mug of skimmed milk, and a knife for each person in the house. I then heeled out the spuds right on top of the table. There was no dish or skib or vessel of any kind to hold them. We all sat down, the boss, his wife, the workman and myself (I was the girl), and we ate our fill. We had no butter or plates. After the meal the man of the house and his wife went into the parlour and sat down to their tay and bread and butter. The workman and myself got a sup when they had finished. Often last night's tay would be put in a saucepan and left stewing beside the fire and handed to the workman· when he had taken his spuds and tay. Meal was scarce at that time but potatoes were plentiful. We had breakfast at 7 and dinner at noon. Dinner consisted of boiled potatoes, American bacon and cabbage, which we washed down with water or buttermilk. Tay was given at five or six o'clock, sometimes in the fields, but more often in the kitchen. Supper, like breakfast, consisted of potatoes, and buttermilk. This was the last meal for thy workman. After the Rosary, about 9 or 10 o'clock, a saucepan of new milk was put down and the master, mistress and myself got a sup.

THE FARM HOUSE The man of the house farmed 20 Irish acres. The farmhouse was a long thatched house, consisting of parlour, kitchen and bedroom. The man of the house and his wife occupied the bedroom. I slept in a settle-bed in the parlour; the workman slept in a settle-bed in the kitchen, on a straw mattress. He had a few bits of old blankets and some old coats to cover him. I had a nice little feather bed and fairly good shelter. I had two sheets, a blanket and a drugget quilt. In their room there was a plain table, a looking glass and a towel, but no water jug or basin. When they needed to wash they took in a tin basin of hot or cold water. Their room had a large press for clothes. It had no fireplace.

THE PARLOUR The walls of this room were papered. For furniture it had a table in the centre of the room, a plain little sideboard at a side wall, the press bed and six good horse hair chairs. These were covered in white lawn edged with red. In one corner stood a three cornered press with glass shutters on the top half. This was used for china and glass. There was a nice fireplace with a mantelpiece, over which hung a small mirror. The floor was cemented. In the window stood a few pots of geraniums.

THE KITCHEN The kitchen had an earthen floor with a big stone flag in the centre for the churn. The fireplace had a long wide grate with wide hobs which were used as seats. At the back of the fireplace was the parlour. The front door was situated near the wall separating the kitchen from the bedroom and the back door on the wall near the entrance to the parlour. The chimney was of the type known as wattle and daub. The slope of the chimney near the parlour entrance had been boarded up and was used as a cubby hole. The rafters and the scraws underneath the thatch were plain to be seen. For furniture, the kitchen had a big table, well scourecl and always shining, under the window of the front wall. The settle bed was placed along the back wall near the fire. Near it was a large bin for flour and meal, and some shelves for holding small articles.

THE KITCHEN DRESSER The dresser was against the wall opposite the fire. It had a few open shelves on top filled with pewter plates and noggins. A dozen or so delph plates 'were piled up at one end. Other plates of a larger size were placed on the bin or perhaps inside it. Cups and saucers and mugs were kept in the bed· of the dresser (i.e. thy lowest shelf). The bottom of the dresser was open at both sides to hold pots and things like that. Long ago geese or hens were put to hatch in this part of the dresser, and it was done still in my time 70 years ago. There were no shelves or drawers in this part of the dresser. The front was panelled but it was quite open at the back and sides. Knives and forks were kept in a knife box on top of the bin. Spoons were slipped into a special groove made by a band of leather nailed to the shelf of the dresser.

FIRESIDE A big wooden form was used at the table during meal times, When this was not in use it was kept under the table astride the rungs. A short form stood on each side of the fireplace, and at one side you could lean back against the wooden partition which separated the entrance to the parlour from the fireplace. There were also in the kitchen three chairs and two four legged stools. Tay, sugar and soap were kept on a shelf over the fireplace. This shelf was ornamented with four brass candlesticks. There were a couple of pegs on each side of the fireplace, where you could hang wet clothes to dry. There was also a line .stretched across the kitchen for the laundry and for airing clothes. The walls of the kitchen and the bedroom were whitewashed with lime every second month, with a whitewash brush. The outer walls of the house were whitewashed with lime, which had been steeped for a fortnight, with a besom. A heath besom was also used to sweep thy floor. -Sand was used for scouring knives and tables and fire ashes for spoons and pewter. When the pewter was cleaned the mistress used to make little round spots with her thumb on the shining metal.

THE DAIRY The churn was always kept in the kitchen. It was a big dash churn. The milk vessels were kept outside on a wall and were always spotlessly clean. They were plain tin gallons. Big earthenware crocks were used to hold the milk and cream when setting. These were kept in the dairy outside. Butter vessels, a wooden, keeler, two wooden plates or trenchers, a large and a small wooden "print," a large wooden vessel for holding buttermilk, a pair of butter spades, and a dish for raising the butter out of the churn - these were all kept in the dairy. The churn was washed with cold water and scrubbed with a good wisp of straw twisted tightly and bound with a band of straw. The churn was scrubbed while you'd be able to stand over it, first with cold water and after with boiling water. It used to be as white as snow and as sweet. It was always aired well outside in fine weather. Block salt was always used to make the butter. I never saw thy mistress using any colouring stuff, but I heard tell of people using saffron or grated carrot in the churning to make the butter yellow.

THE DAY'S WORK My uncle took me out of that place after nine months. I was paid 10/-(50p) a quarter. I was always overworked. I used to go down to the field to dig potatoes for the dinner and the pigs, and I'd bring my ass and cart with me. It was heavy work, because the "faic" was heavy and awkward, not like the spades now used. It didn't make a posy odds whether it was wet or dry, I had to go. I used to boil for seven or eight pigs and chop food outside in the boiler house for them. I gave them turnips, potatoes, pollard and maybe white cabbage, when it was in, and mangold leaves, all chopped up real fine. At 10 o'clock at night I had to put down a great big pot of turnips to scald for the horses. I had to milk three cows every morning before eight o'clock and every night between five and six. Then I had to look after the calves, about three altogether. Maybe only one of them had to be fed morning and evening with milk and linseed meal.

For washing I had no washboard or choice of water either. Well and good if there was a drop of rain water you could use it, but there was no vessel to catch any. You'd steep your clothes tonight, we'll say, then you'd get up early and go through your morning's work, after putting down the water for the washing. There was no Rinso, no Lux - there was washing soda certainly and starch and blue. You'd wash them and boil them and wash them again and rinse them; then starch everything that needed starching, such as table cloths, collars, etc. The usual procedure was to steep on Monday, wash on Tuesday and put out on the clipped hedge to bleach and iron on Thursday.

There was no sitting down or resting. You'd sit down to your meals certainly, but there would be no delay about it. You'd work and work till the eyes fell out of your head. The mistress worked as hard as ever she could all day long. We'd put four or five skibs of potatoes in a lough in the yard and we'd get a long stick and pound them to get off the dirt, and then let them dreep maybe, or maybe not, but put them on a barrow and wheel them to the kitchen door. It wouldn't do to come in with them half washed either; if you did you'd wheel them back and wash them again. If there was no mankind about I'd pulp four buckets of turnips and have them in the cow house for the master to give to the fat cattle. I'd polish boots on Saturday night with slate polish wet with water and put them on a shelf on top of the settie bed. Then I'd put the shirts and underclothing to air at the fire.

Except for a cake for tea, every meal on Sunday was the same as a weekday -no chicken or fresh meat or any change of food. We'd get very little butter -never any with potatoes, and we'd nearly bless ourselves if we saw a bit on our bread. It used to be put on the bread with one rub of the knife and scraped off with another; it was only the name of butter, just a scrape in the middle of a chunk of bread. When the blackberries were in we gathered them and stewed them and used them on the bread, and then you might go on with your hard work. Mushrooms were the same; when they were in season we'd get them morning, noon and night. When the new meal came in we'd have stirrabout, thick and strong, morning and night. Skim milk or buttermilk was used with it. You'd get a great big dish and put out plenty of stirrabout; then you'd get your mug and your big iron spoon and eat your fill. To be sure the mistress got a little for herself on a saucer.-

FLUMMERY When fresh oaten meal was to be had, we made flummery. We steeped the meal in cold water and we boiled the liquid. The meal used to be steeping for weeks, all the spring. We used to make oaten bread twice a week. It was wet with buttermilk and baked in the baker with a cover on it. On Sundays we had a nice cake with currants, sugar, butter, treacle and spices in it for tea.

BEASTINGS The "beastings" were cooked. The first beastings were given to the calf -it is very rank. (Beastings -the rich milk given for the first few turns after the cow has calved). The second is lighter. You'd put it in a pudding pan with nutmeg and sugar and then put the pudding pan in the baker and cook it gently for one hour. Then you'd serve it hot and it used to be lovely. That is Beasting Pudding. The mistress would have 12 or 14 lbs of butter for sale every week in the summer, and she'd keep 1˝ lbs for the use of the house, for the rest of the week. An egg you wouldn't get if you laid down your life. She'd sell butter in Athy made up in a big roll. Butter was no price at that time only 4˝d or 5d (2˝p) a pound. She'd have big baskets of duck eggs and hen eggs for sale every Saturday, and she got her provisions for the week for her eggs and butter.

At Christmas we'd have a goose and rice and plum pudding, and the men would have a drop of drink. St. Patrick's Day was another great day. A goose was killed for Michaelmas. Three Christmas candles used to be set in turnips and lit, one was set in each window but I can't remember it. They always had something new to wear on Christmas Day. The mistress might make a present of a goose to some friend, but as a rule she only killed the three for themselves and sold the rest. No one was allowed to carry a lighted coal outside. If a man wanted to light his pipe he could do so inside the house, but on no account would he be allowed to carry out a live coal. Here the old lady's account comes to an end.


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