|
But
family life in the blackhouse was very different. As well as
accommodating an extended family that included grandparents, the 18th
and 19th century blackhouse was a highly industrious,
multi-functional, unit. It combined often-cramped living
accommodation with other demands on floor space. This included
livestock being kept within the dwelling; storage for produce, such as
grain and potatoes; food production, like baking or making butter; fish
and meats that were often hung in the roof space to cure amid the smoke
from the open peat fire.
The dimensions of these
houses varied, depending on circumstances. But the typical dwelling
found at the restored village of Gearranan – originally built in 1860 -
on the west coast of Lewis is about 40-50 feet in length, with an
interior width of 10-12 feet. The buildings external corners were
usually rounded, with great care taken to ensure that the outer walls,
built of undressed stone, were slightly tapered to allow rainwater to
drip off and not permeate though into the interior.
These old vernacular
buildings proved to be very strong and durable, with low roofs and
massively thick walls to minimise damage from the prevailing westerly
wind, provide a buffer against extremes of external temperatures and
retain heat within the building. To help reduce draughts within the
building, sheep’s wool was also used to plug gaps or joints.
As the 1845 Statistical
Account (census) confirms, the lack of trees and scarcity of basic
building materials during the late 19th century Lewis made
the construction of housing very difficult: “Not a vestige of wood, or
tree, and scarcely of a shrub except the wild heath, is visible on the
surface of the earth. This gives the country a barren appearance.”
To make the best use of available space
or scarce resources like stone for building, It was not uncommon to find
two or more blackhouse homes sharing an end to form a semi-detached or
‘terraced’ row of houses, as described in a 1905 report on sanitary
conditions in Lewis:
“The
living-room of the neighbouring house abuts on, and its wall is really a
part of that composing the byre of this habitation. Other houses in
Bragor [sic] are of the same type as in Back and Tong, except that the
byre and living-room are, as a rule, one apartment.”
In the days before the
Welfare State, blackhouse village life was usually characterised by
well-established, informal, support networks, where extended families,
relatives and neighbours helped each other as best they could. This
co-operation extended to animal husbandry; shared machair or hill
grazing; looking after the children, elderly or sick; harvesting the
season’s crops; bringing the year’s supply of peat fuel home; sharing
surplus food and, of course, burying the dead.
|
|
|
Making
the best use of everything at their disposal, the 19th
century Gaels put the ever-present, choking, peat smoke from the open
fire to good use. Meat and fish was hung in the roof-space where the
smoke was particularly concentrated. Here it would dry and be slowly
‘kippered’ to provide some variety to the basic diet and, importantly,
the smoke also preserved the meat long before refrigeration became
available. Crofters even found a use for the smoke-encrusted thatch
that adorned the roof. Replaced with new every few years, the old
thatch proved to be an excellent natural fertiliser. The
blackhouse floor was slightly inclined to ensure that surface water and
animal manure drained away from the house end of the building. But
without proper drainage networks within island townships, animal waste
from the blackhouse sometimes leached away into the ground,
contaminating springwater and wells that were used by both residents and
livestock.
LEFT:
Margaret Campbell from Lionel photographed in 1936 carrying a creel
full of peat while knitting socks.
Mairead an Arcaich, Lional, le cliabh mònach ‘s I a’ fighe stocain
aig an aon àm. (1936). |
Later, towards the end of the 1800s, a
chimney fire became an increasingly standard feature, built into a stone
partition wall separating the two halves of the building. This was done
at the request of the Lewis District Board, which subsequently pushed
for a second fire in the home.
By the
1850s mainland influences saw a new house design emerging that was
single walled, cemented with lime based mortar and having a pitched
roof. This evolution in design (single walls with no turf cavity;
square corners; flat, light-coloured, walls; gable chimneys; glazed
windows in walls; pitched roof, etc) gave rise to the descriptive name
‘taigh geall’ (whitehouse) to describe these new dwellings. To
differentiate these from the traditional thatched buildings that
decorated the 19th century landscape, the more familiar term,
‘taigh dubh’, was born. However, the more modern ‘taigh geall’ remained
out of reach for most rural families until well into the 20th
century.
|
.gif)
.gif){kind=small}
.gif){kind=spacer}
.gif){kind=small}
