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Author Topic: RUSH PEELER  (Read 1239 times)

Offline ThrelfallYorky

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Re: RUSH PEELER
« Reply #9 on: Monday 15 April 19 16:19 BST (UK) »
Yes, rush lights were made by peeling off the outer coating, so a long strand of pith was exposed, and then soaking it in fat, usually as Cassie said, mutton ("tallow") allowing to dry and then using as lighting. Far inferior to candles, mostly used by poor families.
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Offline Skoosh

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Re: RUSH PEELER
« Reply #10 on: Monday 15 April 19 16:24 BST (UK) »
@ Viktoria, I've tried this rush-peeling, the trick is to leave a strip of the rind on as posted, otherwise they disintegrate & dry them in a gentle heat. Burned in the old iron-lamp with the double cup called a Crusie in Scotland, the bottom cup was to catch the drips of oil. I tried using a pair (just like kippers) & tried cooking oil. The resultant light was not conducive to reading a chapter of Deuteronomy on a wild dark night! 

Skoosh.

Offline ThrelfallYorky

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Re: RUSH PEELER
« Reply #11 on: Monday 15 April 19 16:28 BST (UK) »
The image of you doing that really amused me.
Threlfall (Southport), Isherwood (lancs & Canada), Newbould + Topliss(Derby), Keating & Cummins (Ireland + lancs), Fisher, Strong& Casson (all Cumberland) & Downie & Bowie, Linlithgow area Scotland . Also interested in Leigh& Burrows,(Lancashire) Griffiths (Shropshire & lancs), Leaver (Lancs/Yorks) & Anderson(Cumberland and very elusive)

Offline Viktoria

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Re: RUSH PEELER
« Reply #12 on: Monday 15 April 19 21:04 BST (UK) »
Try Leviticus,lighter reading. ;)
Viktoria.

Offline Maiden Stone

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Re: RUSH PEELER
« Reply #13 on: Tuesday 16 April 19 22:55 BST (UK) »
As it was the woman's occupation, I incline to basket-making. Mass-production of rushlights wouldn't have been practical imo. They wouldn't have travelled well.
Cowban

Offline Maiden Stone

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Re: RUSH PEELER
« Reply #14 on: Tuesday 16 April 19 23:22 BST (UK) »
Lots of stuff about making rushlights and other uses for rushes in this Irish folklore collection from Dublin University. Much of the information was collected by schoolchildren interviewing old people during 1930s.
https://www.duchas.ie/en
Search terms rushlights, candles, candle-making, rushes.
Rushes played a part in a cure for the 'cleitin', a stomach complaint, 'if the pit of the stomach falls down'. Lit rushes were put on an oatcake and the whole thing was applied to the patient, with a glass over it.
I was shown how to make rushlights when I was a child. I was told it was a task of children, who earned pocket-money that way.

Cowban
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