Lime-Wash And Old Stones... - Lung Conditions C...

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Lime-Wash And Old Stones...

22 Replies

Just as every cottager owned a section of bog for their use...it's still referred to in legal jargon as having ' turbary rights'...so did every townland have a lime kiln.

Ours is by the side of the road on the edge of Michael's field...not that is anything to see now, though he did have the man who built the new drystone wall curve the new wall round where it used to be. There is a much bigger one on the boundary between two fields not far from the Bishops Palace...Frank uses it to put bales of silage in for the cattle's winter feed...Frank not being one for old traditions...

One of the main problems people have in old cottages...ourselves included... is damp. Because we want to use fancy colours for our internal walls and it's easy to buy a tin from the ironmongers and a new brush and within a day or so you have a yellow sitting room or a pink bedroom. It's only when those brightly hued walls begin to seep moisture and you're frantically buying de-humidifiers that it begins to slowly dawn that using acrylic paint on old stones doesn't work.

They can't breathe...especially when the gaps between the outer walls is filled with horse hair and small stones that were no good for anything else.

We have our doors closed in the winter even when there's a roaring fire in the fireplace or the range is belting out heat...cottagers only closed their doors at night or if the woman of the place was giving birth...the rest of the time they stood open allowing a constant flow of air...and the chickens could come and go as they pleased.

Lime-wash is quick and easy to apply...it was cheap so everyone could afford it. You could paint the inside and the outside of your cottage...all the buildings and any walls denoting your property...

It allows the stones to breathe so there is no evidence of damp patches lurking behind furniture...it's also naturally cleansing, which must have been useful in times of sickness either in the people or the farm animals.

There was never a problem is getting a supply of water to mix with the powdered lime...there were always plenty of wells available for common usage. All you'd have needed was a bucket and a brush.

Traditionally every cottage would have been freshly lime-washed at Imbolg...the Spring, and then again at Samhain when the year drew to a close.

Re-decorating wasn't the undertaking it is nowadays...no-one had much in the way of furniture. There'd be a dresser or course...even the very poorest people had a huge dresser standing up against one wall...sometimes there'd have been a table and enough plain wooden chairs for everyone but generally there'd be two chairs for the parents...the children stood at the table to eat their food.

Clothes were hung on nails hammered into the backs of doors...some cottagers owned a wooden chest to keep spare bed-linen in but they were the exception rather than the rule. A plain wooden settle by the fire for the elderly parents to sit upon and that was about the sum of the furniture in the main room. All the children slept together in one bed or in the roof space under the thatch and the parents had a bed for themselves and the baby.

So re-decorating must have been done in a day...if you think I'm writing about two hundred years ago I'm not...the description of the interior of a common-place cottage comes from people I've met who are about my age...middle sixties...early seventies.

It's only relatively recently that I've discovered why we have damp patches in all our rooms...why people like The Dealer, of whom I've written before, had lime-washed his beautiful little cottage...why he had half-doors both front and back and why he kept them open for all of the summer...

It is said by many that old stones hold memories...a vibe, if you like, from the past. How awful of us to slather them in Dulux non-drip for our personal convenience so those memories are blurred and distorted.

22 Replies
Waldorff profile image
Waldorff

Fascinating....!

knitter profile image
knitter

I remember my grandmother lime washing the "ty bach" which was the outside toilet at the bottom of the garden, well away from the house. Not so good to visit on a cold wet morning.

My cousin and I got into trouble for mixing lime wash and painting the ferrets cage.

She would also paper the bedrooms, but it soon peeled off and went black with mildew.

Thank you again for your story

in reply toknitter

My Granny always wall-papered the bedrooms but that'd peel off from the damp...no wonder we have 'funny' chests...!

Mooskie profile image
Mooskie in reply to

Do you think there was also Mold in this cottages?

redted profile image
redted

Tried and trusted what more can you say about lime wash,it worked.

in reply toredted

It did...and it was cheap and easy

Azure_Sky profile image
Azure_Sky

Is lime wash anything like distemper? I can remember that being used to paint walls.

in reply toAzure_Sky

It's very thin and splashes everywhere...lol

johnwr profile image
johnwr

That reminds me................. anyone remember Dolly Blues? or a Posser?

Or grating bar soap for wash day?

Plaiting newspaper for firestarters.

knitter profile image
knitter in reply tojohnwr

Hi Johwr , I remember Monday mornings with the blue bag for the white washing and Colemans starch mixed up for the shirts. That was after the scrubbing board and the boiler and then the mangle. Thank goodness for automatic washers.

My job was to make the spills from newspaper for firelighters ....not plaited though....as well as the loo paper squares.

in reply toknitter

My Father used newspaper spills to light his pipe...

in reply tojohnwr

Was a Posser one of those wooden thingies that you used like a potato masher on the clothes?

johnwr profile image
johnwr in reply to

That's right. The early ones were wooden, and looked like a three legged stool (very short legs) with a thick broom handle standing up out of the middle of the seat. My mum, in the 1950's, had a 'modern' one, a copper or red brass head that looked like a squashed football with a lot of holes in it. Used to agitate the clothes in the very hot soapy water.

Azure_Sky profile image
Azure_Sky in reply tojohnwr

I remember Reckitt's Blue, my mum put them on bee stings. I saw a lovely fluffy one crawling across the tablecloth. I rubbed my top lip on it and got bitten.

Offcut profile image
Offcut

The amount of houses built with Lime mortar that may have a huge crack though it but it will still stand. Because Lime mortar allows it to. The new cement would mean the house will need to come down. People put double glazing in and wonder why the get condensation mainly because they have sealed the house no more little caps to allow air flow.

Our First house was a 1930 house that had a 40 foot deep shared well to draw water from with a hand pump that filled a huge zinc water box in the loft. We moved in in 1976 drought and it still had 4 foot of clear water in it. The house was lit by gas and the roads were not tarmacked until after the second WW .

They call it progress ?

in reply toOffcut

We use the spring at the end of our road for drinking water...the tap water is often cloudy or smells of bleach!

hufferpuffer profile image
hufferpuffer

Hello Vashti, Funny but we were talking about lime washing the walls here to keep out the damp, I've started getting patches inside and its cold and damp every Winter....

The house has some really big stones and they hold vibes from the past...this house has some stories with it, not good, but I do believe the house 'feels' different now since I've lived here for so long. :)

My door is always open too :) huff xxx

in reply tohufferpuffer

Great minds think alike you see!

Nikkers profile image
Nikkers

Maybe that's why "spirits/ghosts" always appear as white? Lol :-D

in reply toNikkers

Very droll.....!

Azure_Sky profile image
Azure_Sky

Talking of spirits, things seem to disappear into thin air recently. I put things down in the kitchen, then about half an hour later they've gone.

in reply toAzure_Sky

That'll be the gremlins...lol

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