Manx History; childhood in the eighteenth century; a WI talk.

[curiouswombat]

On Saturday I went to a fascinating talk organised by the WI. The subject was Childhood on the Isle of Man in the Eighteenth Century. I am writing some of it down here so that I remember it

Comments

[cairistiona7]

Reading how they used to bring the farm animals in reminds me of my mother telling me that they had a rooster that lived in the kitchen, named, of course, Chanticleer. And this was in urban St. Louis in the 1940s! Having birds and small animals underfoot seems to be a tradition not wholly lost. Here, early settlers (many from Ireland, Scotland, and I wouldn't doubt the Isle of Man, a few) often had a barn where the bottom was for the cows, etc, to stay at night while the family lived in the loft. It was definitely a time of function over form, and making do with what one could.

[curiouswombat]

I remember my great aunt having ducklings in the kitchen that had just hatched from some eggs she had kept warm in the open oven beside the fire. Usually that was full of cats and kittens as it was the warmest place in the house

[shirebound]

I enjoyed learning all this, thank you!

Mmmm, home-made cakes...

[curiouswombat]

My pleasure!

The WI is renowned for its cake making tradition - so you can almost guarantee there will be more than a cup of tea and a shop bought biscuit at any WI event.

[seaivy]

very interesting!!
Thank You

[curiouswombat]

My pleasure! It was a very interesting afternoon.

[wiseheart]

Sounds like a fascinating talk indeed. Learning about local history is such fun! Our old family doctor used to work in this district for 50+ years and had the most amazing stories what had been happening here before my birth!

[curiouswombat]

Tales like that are always fascinating - I wonder if he ever wrote any of them down?

[noadvertising]

Getting taught by clerical people was a bit more exclusive here, and mostly offered to boys. But today´s payment gap can´t be solely blamed on the church. ´Mathematical schools' where boys learn maths and navigation- why has no noe bothered with bringing in the girls? Because they were virtually non-existent here in times like these but for people with money enough to pay for home education.

[curiouswombat]

It was unusual for church schools to be all inclusive in Britain, too. Our system was more or less unique at the time.

That the girls went to the primary schools was also almost unheard off in the British Isles then as well. It seems that at least it was assumed that they would need to know arithmetic, as they would usually have handled household finances, but did not need things like trigonometry that you would need to navigate, nor need to learn Latin and so on at the grammar school, as sailing and clergy were only male jobs... 😕