Items on display in the Windmill museum

Sickle as can be seen at the windmill museum, is an ancient tool used to cut wheat and barley , dates back to the Roman times.. Because of the short handle the farmer would have to work in a stooped position, a strong back necessary for this job. A sickle was slow and low cost farm tool used all over the world to cut corn. The farmer would hold a sheaf of corn in one hand and cut using the sickle in the other hand cutting towards themselves. the sickle blade needed constant sharpening, using a sharpening stone, payment would depend on how much one could cut in the day. It was said that it would take 3 men a full day to cut an Irish acre of corn using a sickle

The Windmill Museum

Call in to see the Farm Museum at the Windmill, where you will find a range of items connected to the windmill. Items such as the thresher, used for separating the straw from the grain. A picture of a thrashing day in September 1959 out at Mantua, picture shows Michael Flanagan, (forking) C)hristy Rogers,(cutting) Paddy Feely,(feeding) Paddy Dowd,(bagging) and Pat Kiernan.(in front) The machine might belong to Patrick Beirne who had a thrasher working around that time , The thresher is a Garvie make imported from Aberdeen Scotland 1954, the price would have been £300.00 at the time. The thresher was invented 1784 by Andrew Meikle from Scotland. The threshing was a big event in each parish in its day and a lot of good stories were told about the time the thresher came to the parish.

We have miniature models of the Bishop's Palace, St Mary's Cathedral, and St Patrick's Church on display. These were constructed by students of Elphin secondary school then purchased by Mary Gormley, Mary then donated the 3 models to the windmill museum. 
The Bishop's Palace where the the Bishop resided, was built in 1759 by the then Bishop Synge, but a fire in 1911 destroyed the building. 
St Mary's Cathedral was built around 1200. In the early 1960's a storm did enormous damage to the building after this it was knocked by 1964 including its clock tower. The Famous Percy French attended Church in the Cathedral. There is also an adjoining cemetery. The building and site was partly restored in 1982.
St Patrick's Church celebrated its centenary in 1994.