From 1978 to 1983 I was sexton of St. John's Cathedral in Sligo. The Cathedral is situated in the centre of the town and set back from John Street. It is surrounded by tall stone walls and the grounds are entered by one of the three sturdy iron gates. Once inside these gates, the atmosphere becomes muted and you are unaware of the busy traffic passing outside.
We lived in the sexton's house, just beside the church. It had two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and downstairs was a spare room, a sitting room and a built on kitchen. We occupied the house rent free, as payment for our duties at the church. We also had our coal and electricity paid for. The work involved, opening and closing the church daily, preparing the church for Sunday Service, polishing the many brass plates, changing the beautiful altar cloths, vacuuming the floors and cutting the grass in the graveyard. We were very young and the first Catholics to occupy the post and we were very determined to discharge our duties well.
Cutting the grass and trimming around the many old headstones was the only tedious job. At first I used a scythe and the a Flymo Hover mower. One day in early Summer, a lovely member of the congregation, Drummond Nelson came up to me in the graveyard, with a piece of apparatus I had never seen before. Drummond was the owner of a shop in the town that sold everything from hardware, to clocks and fishing tackle. His premises was a treasure trove of interesting stuff and had always been one of my favourite shops to venture in to. He said, "Try this out. I had a man in today who said these things might catch on" It was a grass strimmer, and it certainly made my life much easier, and they certainly caught on. Drummond kindly donated the strimmer to the church. Afterwards, I often had people stop and look curiously at me using it. Others would come up to me and ask what it was, and what it was called and where did I get it. I am sure it must have been the first strimmer in the town and the novelty of it intrigued many of the tourists visiting St. John's that first Summer.
The key below is the one I used each day to unlock the church door. It had to be inserted upside down and turned anti clockwise. Towards the end of our tenure in St. John's, a new lock was fitted and the old key was given to me as a memento. I have it set in a frame and hanging in our bedroom, a reminder of that short interval of time we enjoyed in 22 John Street.
We lived in the sexton's house, just beside the church. It had two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and downstairs was a spare room, a sitting room and a built on kitchen. We occupied the house rent free, as payment for our duties at the church. We also had our coal and electricity paid for. The work involved, opening and closing the church daily, preparing the church for Sunday Service, polishing the many brass plates, changing the beautiful altar cloths, vacuuming the floors and cutting the grass in the graveyard. We were very young and the first Catholics to occupy the post and we were very determined to discharge our duties well.
Cutting the grass and trimming around the many old headstones was the only tedious job. At first I used a scythe and the a Flymo Hover mower. One day in early Summer, a lovely member of the congregation, Drummond Nelson came up to me in the graveyard, with a piece of apparatus I had never seen before. Drummond was the owner of a shop in the town that sold everything from hardware, to clocks and fishing tackle. His premises was a treasure trove of interesting stuff and had always been one of my favourite shops to venture in to. He said, "Try this out. I had a man in today who said these things might catch on" It was a grass strimmer, and it certainly made my life much easier, and they certainly caught on. Drummond kindly donated the strimmer to the church. Afterwards, I often had people stop and look curiously at me using it. Others would come up to me and ask what it was, and what it was called and where did I get it. I am sure it must have been the first strimmer in the town and the novelty of it intrigued many of the tourists visiting St. John's that first Summer.
The key below is the one I used each day to unlock the church door. It had to be inserted upside down and turned anti clockwise. Towards the end of our tenure in St. John's, a new lock was fitted and the old key was given to me as a memento. I have it set in a frame and hanging in our bedroom, a reminder of that short interval of time we enjoyed in 22 John Street.
