Clothing and Food in Days Gone By
14th July 1938
Thatched Cottage Date: Circa 1900
A photo from our Eason Collection that may well have been used by Eason's as a postcard. The shy wife is using a spinning wheel and I think that the grandmother(?) is carding wool.
Nice info in from @MakeOneYarns on Twitter that this was what was called a walking wheel, which is the oldest type without a bobbin and flyer. She said:
"... used after development of hand spindles, before development of flyer/bobbin mechanism. Check medieval mss illus."
Source: National Archives
In times gone when people got up in the morning they first said their prayers then they went to the field to work and did all the morning jobs before getting a breakfast. They got for breakfast potatoes and milk or stirabout and milk. If milk wasn't plentiful in the homes, they used "sound shearins" that was oatmeal and seeds of oats steeped in a crock for a week and when it got sour people used it instead of milk.
The kind of bread they used was "Tom Steel" that was oatmeal made with water and baked standing up against a big flag at the fire. They used to make an oatmeal cake and bake it between two leaves of cabbage in the greasac of the fire. People used a lot of herrings; no tea was used.
In time of digging the potatoes people never came into a house for dinner. They would bring a can of sheerins or milk or butter out to the field and roast a cast that is a lot of potatoes. When first tea came to this neighbourhood one innocent woman got a half pound from a tea man. She said she would surprise her husband with tea instead of stirabout. She put all the tea into a pot and boiled it for a long time.
Then she threw it into a wooden dish to cool. When the husband came home hungry he went to the dish and said, "It’s all soot so I can't eat it."
Very little shoes were worn only treehans that is stockings with no sole only a bit knitted out for the big toe. All winter women and girls were carding and spinning. The women all wore two petticoats one white, one red or black. The young girls wore the same. The old women wore a gown of flannel. The old men wore a bawneen of flannel, short breeches long stockings, and low shoes, a swallow tail coat with yellow gilt button the coat and knees of the breeches and a Caroline hat. The old women wore caps with borders, big heavy, navy-blue cloaks lose all around, and head shawls. Young girls wore small black shawls.
“INFORMANT: Mrs Kelly, Age 70, Cregg, Co. Mayo”