Features of old Shetland houses: wooden and earthen floors,...

Original Track ID

SA1970.236

Original Tape ID

SA1970.236

Summary

Features of old Shetland houses: wooden and earthen floors, box beds and fires in the middle of the floor.

Old houses were all different from one another inside. Some had beaten earth floors, some had flagstone floors and others were part earth, part wood. They might have false chimneys or catwalks added and the ones with whitewashed walls were very pretty inside. Bedrooms always had wooden floors in Laura Malcolmson's time, but in earlier days houses would have earthen floors throughout.

Box beds were common; there were two in Mrs Malcolmson's old house, plus bunk beds. These were in the but [kitchen] end, and the man and wife of the house slept in the ben end. The beds were in a recess and curtained off. Sometimes the box bed itself was the partition between the two rooms. The old houses only had one little window with the table in front. One house, later rebuilt, had no window, just a big skylight. Mrs Malcolmson also recalls houses with the fire in the middle of the floor. A long chain hung down over the fire for pots to be attached to. The wooden lum [chimney] was in the middle also, but slightly to one side of the fire. Stables communicating with houses through the gable end were gone by the 1880s.

Recording Location

Item Location

Language

English, Scots

Genre

Information

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good