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Cast iron pot

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  • 30-05-2013 2:49pm
    #1
    SoldOut
    Registered Users Posts: 47 ✭


    Just wondering if anyone knows what this pot was originally used for. It was found at an old farm cottage.

    potyw.jpg


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    #2
    Muckit
    Registered Users Posts: 11,174 ✭✭✭✭Muckit


    Is there a smell of sh*t off it?


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    #3
    who the fug
    Registered Users Posts: 4,041 ✭✭✭who the fug


    What part of the country, guess would say it came from a factory


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    #4
    SoldOut
    Registered Users Posts: 47 ✭SoldOut


    Muckit wrote: »
    Is there a smell of sh*t off it?

    No, it was used to catch rainwater from a down pipe for the last fifty years. Thats just sludge you can see in the picture.


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    #5
    Bizzum
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,034 ✭✭✭Bizzum


    Is that a pipe coming out of it or does it just happen to be lying on it?

    I've seen plenty of them in my time, indeed we had a couple as drinkers. I think they used to be called boilers too. They're cast iron and most I've seen had a crack or lump out of them.


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    #6
    SoldOut
    Registered Users Posts: 47 ✭SoldOut


    who the fug wrote: »
    What part of the country, guess would say it came from a factory

    Its in Louth. I'm fairly sure it was used for something on the farm, I just dont know what.


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    #7
    SoldOut
    Registered Users Posts: 47 ✭SoldOut


    Bizzum wrote: »
    Is that a pipe coming out of it or does it just happen to be lying on it?

    I've seen plenty of them in my time, indeed we had a couple as drinkers. I think they used to be called boilers too. They're cast iron and most I've seen had a crack or lump out of them.

    Yeah thats a pipe coming out that has a bit of wood stuffed into it to block it up.


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    #8
    hugo29
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,267 ✭✭✭hugo29


    SoldOut wrote: »
    Yeah thats a pipe coming out that has a bit of wood stuffed into it to block it up.

    has it got 2 lugs out of the sides


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    #9
    Username John
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,237 ✭✭✭Username John


    We had one like that (maybe a bit bigger) before some people liberated it from us... b@stards... :mad:

    Anyways - the story we were told, was that it came from a soup kitchen, from the time of the famine.
    Now, I imagine that they were used for boiling, but whether they all originated from soup kitchens, I'd have my doubts... :confused:

    Edit : They were also pretty small for a soup kitchen, you'd imagine one for a job like that would be the size of a barrel...


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    #10
    SoldOut
    Registered Users Posts: 47 ✭SoldOut


    hugo29 wrote: »
    has it got 2 lugs out of the sides

    Yeah there's 2 lugs coming out of the side of the pot, you can just about see one on the photo.


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    #11
    iverjohnston
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,242 ✭✭✭iverjohnston


    We had one just like it, about 30 inches high, and 40 inches across. It was originally built into a big open fireplace in a shed beside an old stable. Used for boiling spuds for the pigs, my father told me. Was then used as a drinker in a cattle yard for decades until it got a crack of the loader.

    On a similar theme, there is loads of Comfrey growing in the old garden field, and I was told it was planted originally to provide green feed for the same pigs.


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    #12
    Red Sheds
    Registered Users Posts: 123 ✭✭Red Sheds


    Cooking spuds during the famine


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    #13
    iverjohnston
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,242 ✭✭✭iverjohnston


    Red Shed, you didn't have to cook spuds during the famine, they were in mush already!


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    #14
    eirator
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,520 ✭✭✭eirator


    Very common in old UK farms and often found in the old wash house sheds (can't think of a better description atm) in towns, dates from Victorian times and used in some places up until well after the 2nd World War.

    Sometimes called a "copper" because the better ones were made of copper used for boiling water for washing clothes and also often used for boiling pig swill. You'd normally find it inside built into a corner of a building so you could set a fire under it with a chimney up behind it.

    Connection here is really slow so I can't find a suitable google image but if you google for pics of something like old washing boiler or victorian laundry boiler you should find a picture and more info.

    Edit> Our old one was setup just like this http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-10936335-tyneham-laundry-victorian-washing-boiler.php except it was in the corner of a shed.


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    #15
    kowtow
    Registered Users Posts: 6,135 ✭✭✭kowtow


    eirator wrote: »
    Very common in old UK farms and often found in the old wash house sheds (can't think of a better description atm) in towns, dates from Victorian times and used in some places up until well after the 2nd World War.

    Sometimes called a "copper" because the better ones were made of copper used for boiling water for washing clothes and also often used for boiling pig swill. You'd normally find it inside built into a corner of a building so you could set a fire under it with a chimney up behind it.

    Connection here is really slow so I can't find a suitable google image but if you google for pics of something like old washing boiler or victorian laundry boiler you should find a picture and more info.

    Edit> Our old one was setup just like this http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-10936335-tyneham-laundry-victorian-washing-boiler.php except it was in the corner of a shed.

    I had one identical to that, in brick, in the back kitchen of a house we owned once in Gloucestershire.

    Was used (1) originally for washing / boiling clothes (2) By one of my Tamworth sows as a water bowl - until we stopped her getting in to the kitchen - and (3) eventually by us as a wine cooler.


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    #16
    eirator
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,520 ✭✭✭eirator


    OP looking at your picture is that a drain in the bottom or just a bit of scrap iron? I've not seen one with a drain it it if it is a drain. They also normally had a big heavy wooden lid and ours had a ladle that was kept with it that was really handy for empty out the last of the water.


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    #17
    Dampintheattic
    Closed Accounts Posts: 839 ✭✭✭Dampintheattic


    Was one in this farm. Gone now and don't know where. Previous owner told me it came from a mine he worked in as a young man.
    No idea for what purpose though.


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    #18
    moy83
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,701 ✭✭✭moy83


    We had one here that used to be on a kind of a small trailer with steel wheels . It was hung from the lugs off a frame and could be tipped out easily enough .
    The grandfather told me they used it to draw water with a horse when they were spraying spuds (knapsack style ) but I dont know if this was its intended purpose origanaly


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    #19
    SoldOut
    Registered Users Posts: 47 ✭SoldOut


    eirator wrote: »
    OP looking at your picture is that a drain in the bottom or just a bit of scrap iron? I've not seen one with a drain it it if it is a drain. They also normally had a big heavy wooden lid and ours had a ladle that was kept with it that was really handy for empty out the last of the water.

    Yeah thats a drain thats part of the pot, it was blocked up at some stage with a piece of wood. Ill get a few more pictures tonight.


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    #20
    Baraboo
    Registered Users Posts: 254 ✭✭Baraboo


    Its a famine soup pot. Used to cook up a huge amount of soup for the free food kitchens in famine times.


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    #21
    pakalasa
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,552 ✭✭✭pakalasa


    Looks very similar;

    CarrickOnShannon5.jpg

    http://www.workhouses.org.uk/CarrickOnShannon/


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    #22
    Qualitymark
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,824 ✭✭✭Qualitymark


    There was someone making a map of Famine pots around the country; can't find the link right now, but they'd probably know in Carrick, in the museum.


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