Our Day at Cultra

On Wednesday 1st October 2008, we went on the train to the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. We all met at Portadown train station, being the first school group to have travelled by train to Cultra. Our aim was to take part in a program called ‘Back to the Future’ which was developed with the help of Mrs McAlister, one of our science teachers.

We were all split into four separate groups; each group studied a different aspect of life in the early twentieth century. Each group had to visit five houses, three from the country and two from the town, in order to complete our booklets. We were assigned a room in a church hall within the museum, as a base. The four themes were ‘Potions to Pills,’ ‘Thatch to Tile’, ‘Matches to Microwaves’, and ‘Turf to Turbine’.

‘Potions to Pills’ is about lifestyles, hygiene and nutrition during the late 1800’s and 1900’s, compared to our lives today. ‘Thatch to Tile’ explores house construction, and materials available to people at that time. We compared this to our modern housing. ‘Matches to Microwaves’ is about possessions and household goods. ‘Turf to Turbine’ is about heating, lighting and the fuels available in the early 1900’s.

We visited Drumnahunchin Farmhouse, Meenagaragh Cottier’s House, Cruckaclady Farmhouse, Portglenone Bank Manager’s house and Tea Lane house. The Bank Manager’s house and Drumnahunchin Farmhouse were the better of the five houses. The others were very poor, especially Meenagaragh Cottier’s House, as it was very compact – just one room! If given the choice, we would have wanted to live in the Bank Manager’s house, as it was very big and luxurious for the time period it was set in.

We went to the corner sweet shop on Tea Lane and bought old fashioned sweets from an old man with funny glasses. Mrs McAleese ate most of our sweets! After this we travelled home on the train.

Meenagaragh Cottier's house was the poorest and least comfortable country house.

The Bank Manager lived in a house provided by the bank. As can be seen below it had gas lighting and a proper bathroom. The family would have had servants.

The next day we designed and made a poster showing our discoveries and then presented it to the class. This was very exciting. Then we watched a video about a family from Belfast, who had stayed in Coshkib Farmhouse for six weeks in the Folk Park. The conditions were awful and we would not like to live there.
We enjoyed our visit to Cultra and the facts we learnt. It has given us a new perspective of the life we lead today.

report by
By Megan Robinson and Jill Saunders
9A2