Tag: Pump

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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.

I’m posting an image every two days (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.

This is a view of Coagh, my Mum’s home village in County Tyrone in Ireland. The photo is taken from across the Balinderry River which forms the border with County Londonderry (or Derry). The centre of the village is Hanover Square just across the bridge, and then three streets head out from the far side of the square. The road up the hill in the photo is Main Street, where my grandparent’s house was on the left hand side. The other two roads are not visible, heading left and right from the square.

My earliest memories of Coagh involve the old village pump on the pavement near the house (a little further up the hill), the village shop where my parents first met during the Second World War, 200 chickens in the yard at the back of the house, the loo outside in the yard, the kitchen range burning peat supplied from a stash in the cupboard under the stairs, and a large collection of black, wooden flutes in the attic along with a cuckoo clock. I could list more things, but I think that’s enough for now!

The pump had to be primed, so you couldn’t fill your pail unless you took out a mug of water to pour in to get it started. It was fun to pull the handle and see the water spurt out clean and cold.

The shop was an Aladdin’s cave full of sweets, soda drinks of various flavours (my favourite was cream soda), superhero comics, stacks of newspapers in the evening, biscuits, Tayto crisps, and much more.

The chickens were loud and somewhat smelly. The eggs were collected daily and had to be cleaned with sandpaper, washing them was not permitted by the regulations.

The loo was a wooden seat with a hole in a small shed, and pieces of newspaper on a string for wiping your bum afterwards. It seemed very strange, no chain to pull to flush the loo like the one at home in England!

I think the flutes belonged to the Orange Lodge but had been replaced, presumably with more modern metal ones. There seemed to be dozens of them!

Images from our Irish holiday 2024

For convenience, here’s a list of all the Irish holiday images:

28th Jul – Welsh Botanic Garden, Robin, Fishguard
29th Jul – Wicklow Mts, Glendalough, Powerscourt, Rose, Greystones
30th Jul – Liffey, Temple Bar, St Patrick’s Cathedral
31st Jul – Newgrange, Battle of the Boyne
1st Aug – Monasterboice, Mourne, Thrift, Window
2nd Aug – Spelga Dam, Hydrangea, Pipework, Lough Neagh
3rd Aug – Coagh, Springhill, Portrush
4th Aug – Beach at Portrush
5th Aug – Giant’s Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede, Portrush

Themed image collections

The links below will take you to the first post in each collection

Cirencester, Favourites, Irish holiday 2024, Roman villa

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