I love how natural materials like stone and how plants like the roses and the Shasta Daisies soften the old
agricultural out buildings like the old milk house next to where we reside.
I would imagine the building is made of old field stones gathered when a field was reserved and ploughed and harrower and stone picked and thrown on to an horse and cart?
There is a theory that the building was once a dwelling and thatched and it was a one roomed stone cabin. If only the walls could speak. Yeats The Lake Isle Of Innisfree comes to mind. No wattle but rammed earth or clay for mortar.
That's how the people of long ago built their houses. You gathered some field stones or pebbles or even quarried them and you and your friends and family would construct a home.
You would get a cartwright to make the doors and windows from the trees you cut down to make your site.
The local Blacksmith who made Dobbins horse shoes would make you some door hinges. Hey presto, Bob's your uncle! You had your own home sweet home with no rent or mortgage and a seaview thrown in.
The white upvc window looks a bit out of place but I replaced an old wooden window frame with the second hand one and it requires no maintenance.
I like the rusty patina on the old corrugated 'tin' roof. Notice the concrete mortar holding down the sheets? We get some very scary and ferocious Winter storms from the Atlantic. Fortunately last year we didn't get any.
It looks like it could have been a dwelling. Great the way they layered the stones and it formed a wall and then a dwellinghouse. I like seeing it with the flowers and stuff growing up outside.
ReplyDeleteYes my thoughts to Rachel. An hole in the thatch to let the smoke out. But it was home. Thanks Rachel.
ReplyDeleteI guess they didn't have council building inspectors in those days of long ago when people simply had to be far more resourceful and interdependent than modern folk are today.
ReplyDeleteAt least they had a roof over their heads YP. There are homeless people in towns and even the countryside. I've seen people living in vans.
DeleteThey call those vans campervans Dave and some of them have showers, fridge freezers and flat screen TV sets.
DeleteI'm talking Ford Transits YP. When I was in Canterbury last August peoplexwere sleeping in shop doorways and even in tents in ancient church yards. Homelessness is everywhere. Even motor homes are permanent homes for a lot of people in Britain, Ireland and Europe.
DeleteBrexit and the associated cost of living crisis isn't helping. For people with little money, keeping afloat is harder than ever.
DeleteNo one politically is brave enough to put a ceiling on house prices and young people in particular have little chance of saving a deposit and getting on the housing ladder. Even in Ireland people have a right to buy their council houses. I think it's time that there was an housing party that aimed to build social housing both urban and rural. I see so many derelict properties that could be repurposed and used to hose people by selling or renting such places.
DeleteWhat a great old house! Do you have any idea of its age?
ReplyDeleteI would imagine around the Great Famine 1845-52 when 8 million people lived in Ireland Debby.
DeleteNot always a hole in the thatch. You lived below smoke level and the smoke kippered the bugs and preserved the thatching material
ReplyDeleteIt could well have been a fishermen's cottage or for a miners family GZ. My great grandfather worked in the mines.
DeleteI love old stone buildings, but I'm glad I don't have to live in one. Unless it is modernised on the inside, that would be acceptable. i can't imagine having to live as people did when that one was constructed. I've got soft in my old age and like my running water, electricity and TV.
ReplyDeleteI like new houses made with old materials like stone salvaged from old buildings River. I also like rough plaster combined with modern day gadgets and comforts.
ReplyDeleteVeg Artist: There are small cottages in Wales that are known as "Tŷ unnos" (say tea een norse) which means that the house took one night to be built.. It had to be built between sunset and sunrise, with smoke coming from the chimney before dawn. Built on common land, the builder then had ownership rights, including in some cases, to a little surrounding land. There are still a few of these very simple houses remaining, and can be visited. They are simple and beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI think I visited one of those houses once when I went to Conway Veg Artist. There were also window glass taxes and people were taxed on the size and how many windows they add. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThat's a building with attitude. Full of character. The flowers and greenery finish it off nicely. Wonderful to paint or photo but not to live in. Not in this modern age
ReplyDeleteYes a building with attitude Linda. I like that! It Could be made into a writing room or artists studio. We have some great mountains and sea views from here. Especially with a pot belly stove and a whistling kettle..
ReplyDeleteIt has lots in common with colonial cottages in NZ - using whatever came to hand. Cob was popular, even tree ferns were used. xxx F
ReplyDeleteThanks Tigger. The prison ships returning from Van Demons Land use to fill the empty ships with tree ferns for ballast. When they got back to ports like Falmouth they would throw them into the sea and people planted them in their gardens. A lot of the buildings were build by Cornish miners and you can see the famous herring bone pattern in local drystone walls. The miners left for Butte in Montana when the price of tin and copper and lead dropped in Ireland.
ReplyDelete