Wednesday, October 21, 2015

The family hovel

This view...


...is what my grandmother, my Dad and his siblings used to see when they holidayed in Ireland during the WWII years, at the family cottage...


...which I visited for the first time two days ago! 


Sadly, it is now derelict and overgrown, with broken windows.

I have posted these photos on the blog before, but here it was in better days...


My grandmother with two of my aunts and my uncle as children, plus another guy called Phil. 



Kids playing out front.


And later, in the early 60s. I think the lady may be one of my great aunts but I'm not sure. The stone wall has been cemented over at this point.

And now the place sits abandoned, with broken windows...




Of course, I had to climb through the kitchen one.


It was amazing! Apparently people were using it as a holiday cottage at least up to 2002, according to a notebook I found there.



The old fireplace still had coal in it. But those are definitelyNOT my grandmother's knick-knacks! Nor her furniture, not surprisingly.



It was like people just stepped away from the place for ten minutes, then never came back!


Okay, so I took this notebook. It is a sort of guestbook filled with stories from visitors from 1993 to 2002! Many complained about bumping their heads on the low ceilings.


I'm 5' 7"!




And enjoyed  a Guinness and some wine at some point!


Look at this old phone! I wonder if my grandmother ever used it?


This room was the biggest mess, with the floor sort of dug up, and a wheelbarrow, pick-axe and work table in there. It was like somebody got fed up renovating and just walked out, never to return. Sad, really.





Ivy was coming in through one of the upstairs windows. Apparently the cottage is 200 years old and you can see how thick the stone walls are!


I carefully went up the staircase.



On the wall next to the stairs was a photo of the staircase and windowsill in better times.


Here, someone ripped out half the upstairs floor in one of the two bedrooms to make it more of an open room. But there were still two mattresses up there, from which you could conveniently roll to your death.


Gordon was too chicken to come in!

But it did have all the modern amenities...





I can just imagine my Nanny standing at this door, yelling at the kids to get inside for supper!



There were books and games strewn all over the floor.


Here is the other upstairs bedroom, reached by a ladder staircase.


Now I do wonder if THIS was my grandmothers!



Hatch to downstairs.




I found a whole bunch of 78s, too...


...inside the old gramophone!


And my grandmother would have liked this. She was a devout Catholic who went to Mass daily.


Eventually I had to climb back out the window, but it was hard to leave. I have heard so much about this cottage over the years, from my Dad and other family members. It is sort of legendary amongst us Rowes and we call it the "family hovel." Being in there was just amazing. I swear I could feel the presence of Nanny and my Dad. I just didn't want to go, but eventually I had to.



The garden is sadly overgrown.


The ivy is making its way inside the front door too.


The front wall and gate, now very overgrown.


Just a peak over the front wall!


And next door, they are building a great big new house. I hope they don't plan to demolish the cottage.


To think my Dad used to walk this road as a child!


And look out over this view. The cottage is near Piltown, where my grandmother was born.


I hope I can come back to Piltown. It would be even nicer to see the cottage renovated. A few people said I should buy it and renovate it, but even derelict stone cottages cost a fair bit here. My uncle seriously considered buying it at one point, but it was just too much hassle.

I am kicking myself for not taking a photo of the church my grandmother was baptized in the day after she was born, but there's a beautiful one here.

It meant a lot to me to be able to see the place. My uncle in England gave me driving directions but was worried I wouldn't find it. But I had no trouble! And I saw a cat on the road on the way in, which I took as a sign.

We are going home tomorrow. I will really miss Ireland. We're planning on coming back next year. I would like to see my grandfather's house in Wexford, too.





28 comments:

  1. I was so curious about who owns it now, and then had this idyllic idea of you buying it and refurbishing it for your "Irish getaway" home.
    You should blow up the photo of the red front door with the ivy and frame it for your own home.

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    1. Oh I LOVE THAT IDEA!! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!

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  2. I'm half Irish, and never been able to go over. What is it about the place that shouts to us? Making a framed picture of the red front door is a grand idea. And, that staircase, with the abrupt turn at the first landing, is so reminiscent of the old homes of great grandparents, aunts and uncles I knew as a child.

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    1. Ireland is special... I find it so different from England, which I have visited so many times. ANyway, I just love it and can't wait to come back!

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  3. This post brought tears to my eyes, how wonderful that you were able to visit and feel the memories that linger there. It would be lovely to see it renovated, it reminds me very much of a holiday cottage that I stayed in when I was in my teens. That cottage even had the same type of brick wall in front of it. (Although the cottage I remember was on the Isle of Man not Ireland.)

    There is a picture of me standing by the gateway in a checked dress with other family members. The photo of your grandmother in her checked clothing brings back the vivid memory,

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    1. I found it all very moving and amazing! I bet your holiday cottage felt just like this one. :)

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  4. Is that a voodoo doll on fireplace?

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    1. It's entirely possible, and definitely not my grandmother's!!!

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  5. A real trip down memory lane. Gosh, that two weeks has gone quickly. Glad you had a good time.

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    1. Too fast... I am not ready to go back and deal with reality!!

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  6. What great post! That cottage is awesome. Love the red door! I'm into genealogy so I would have been right there with you climbing in the window. Did you snag the old iron? I would have. Cheers

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    1. I really, really wanted the iron but it weighed a ton and I know I would have needed excess baggage to fly it home. However, a horseshoe and an eggcup may have disappeared from the cottage. ;)

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    2. Use the eggcup in good health with a soft-boiled breakfast special from your Ontario flock! What a moving photo-memoire, Knatolie.

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  7. I like the idea of framing the front door photo and hanging it up at home . What a sweet cottage I am part British and I would love to have a cottage in the British country side to go to and stay for vacations . Wonderful post and photos ! Thanks for sharing , Have a safe trip home !

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    1. Thank you!! I'd love to have that cottage, let me tell you. :)

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  8. You were very brave to go inside and up the stairs. Great photos. I am sorry for you that you didn't get to see the home in better days, but it is great that you got to see it at all.

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    1. I was pretty careful because I wasn;t sure how sturdy they were, but it worked out okay!

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  9. Fascinating post. All you can do is put some imagination in this setting but it's difficult to know what really happened. All you know for sure is that your relatives walked that land. I would think that homeless lived in this house at one time. They leave a terrible mess.

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    1. It's entirely possible!!! it was amazing to think of my Nanny there with six kids. THey usually went in summer, so I guess the kids could at least be outside a lot.

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  10. This was a heartwarming post. I loved visiting this place with you.

    Who owns it now? It's too bad it has been left to be taken over by squatters and nature. I'm glad you were able to visit it before became even more tumbled down and too dangerous to enter.

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    1. I don't know who owns it; if I'd seen someone around, I would have asked but it was Sunday morning and I think everyone was as Mass! :)

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  11. That's not derelict! The roof looks better now than in the old photo. An afternoon's work would have it back in shape. A month would have all mod-cons. Buy it.

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    1. Well, you have a point. The roof is really good and not leaking. The place is definitely salvageable. :) Last night I thought perhaps they started digging out the one floor there to make the ceiling higher!

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  12. This could be your new project!!!!! Haven't you run out of things to renovate and improve at home?

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  13. If only you could save it - it would be such a cool project

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  14. It is sad that the cottage has been left to become derelict and overrun by nature, especially when it is filled with so many memories. But at least you and your family have those.

    Safe travels home!

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  15. What an interesting assortment of furnishings and junk left in the house! It make you wonder about the successive occupants who have dwelled there over the past years.

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  16. What an absolute treasure to be able to walk through it and be there, and touch things, and get such an intimate sense of it all. It is sad that it is so far gone, and yes, hopefully someone will come and renovate it soon

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Thank you for all your comments, which I love to read!