Fox's Lane museum

Unfortunately the museum's curator retired in 2015 so the museum no longer exists, but enjoy a sample of what they offered in this audio clip.

Rather than simply discard such a fine piece, I'm hoping it will find a new audience as I add it to the 'Best of Racontour' collection. With thanks to Pat Lynch, a true gent and a great ambassador of another age, here's the original piece:

Pat and Ann Lynch's museum is the ultimate hidden gem of Youghal. Come and see how your great-grandparents coped with day-to-day living before the invention of indoor plumbing, electricity, and the automobile.

Located in the historic town of Youghal, Fox's Lane Museum is a small, privately-run museum, providing a fascinating display of some 600 beautifully restored gadgets that trace the evolution and development of household conveniences and appliances used in the home, during the 1850's to the 1950's.

Displays feature manually operated vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and sewing machines dating back to the 1860's, the Edison Phonograph and early gramophones. See some very interesting telephones, typewriters and radios, as well as a very wide selection of food preparation and cooking equipment.

The collection also includes old razors, blade sharpeners, Kodak cameras and stereoscopes, unusual obsolete items like button hooks, glove stretchers, curling tongs, sugar crushers, sausage makers, the cucumber straightener, hat iron, egg topper and much more.

Each item on display is clearly labelled - usually with some additional background information. To enhance the educational experience, knowledgeable tour guides are available to provide demonstrations and answer visitor questions.

There are interpretive display panels showing the historical background on items like washing machines, sewing machines, razors etc. They also have a small reference library on antique domestic appliances on site, which can be accessed if visitors require further information on any item.

Children are especially welcome when accompanied by parents or supervised by a teacher. A special questionnaire is available to help guide the tour and reinforce the learning experience for both young and old alike.

Here's Padraic Colum's poem that Pat refers to: -

Old Woman of the Roads

O, to have a little house! To own the hearth and stool and all! The heaped up sods against the fire, The pile of turf against the wall! To have a clock with weights and chains And pendulum swinging up and down! A dresser filled with shining delph, Speckled and white and blue and brown! I could be busy all the day Clearing and sweeping hearth and floor, And fixing on their shelf again My white and blue and speckled store! I could be quiet there at night Beside the fire and by myself, Sure of a bed and loth to leave The ticking clock and the shining delph! Och! but I'm weary of mist and dark, And roads where there's never a house nor bush, And tired I am of bog and road, And the crying wind and the lonesome hush! And I am praying to God on high, And I am praying Him night and day, For a little house - a house of my own Out of the wind's and the rain's way.

Audio: Pat Lynch, 2011 Text: Pat Lynch, Padraic Colum and John Ward

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