Ballydugan Weavers House
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This is a linen weaver's dwelling and workshop. Handloom weavers had to work long hours to produce sufficient cloth to earn a decent livelihood. An exhaustive record search shows that there was no land attached to this house, just a small garden, so weaving was the family's only source of income.
Working conditions were uncomfortable - the earth floor in the weaving shop was necessary to maintain sufficient humidity in the air to prevent the linen threads drying out and breaking.
Weavers always had problems getting enough light to work by and many weavers suffered poor eyesight from working with fine threads being tightly woven. Double-damask linen has not less than 165 warp threads and 165 weft threads to the inch; a comparable measure of woollen cloth shows 15 or 20 threads to the inch. On a small diaper (dapper) loom an experienced weaver could produce 1 metre of plain cloth in 2 hours; it would take the same weaver 8 hours to produce a metre of damask on a Jacquard loom.
The Jacquard loom, originally invented circa 1815 for silk weaving in Lyons, France, weaves the pattern into the cloth by adjusting the arrangement of warp threads raised for each passage of the shuttle. This adjustment, controlled by the 'engine' on top of the loom, uses a series of punched pattern cards - an early form of computerised production.
The building is a replica of a mid-19th century house, the original being at Ballydugan, County Down. The front and rear walls are of stone with clay mortar, while the gable and interior walls are of solid earth (mud walls) except for the brick chimney.
The roof is carried on fir poles resting on the gables and interior walls. This arrangement gives height and clear space, uncluttered by cross-timbers holding roof trusses in position. This arrangement gives a feeling of airiness and space in the kitchen but, more significantly, allows tall Jacquard looms to be installed in the weaving shop.
Replica, location of original: Ballydugan townland, County Down.
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