In the spring of 1887 Patrick and Anne Ledwidge, with six of their seven children (Nicholas had died in infancy), moved into their new home. It was one of the many cottages built in the Irish countryside in 1886 under the Labourer's Dwellings Act.

The Rural District Council allotted Cottage No. 1116 at Janeville, Slane, to the Ledwidge family and it was here on the 19th August 1887, that Francis E. Ledwidge was born.

It contains three rooms and a kitchen, front and back entrance, a pigsty
and a hen roost in the yard and a half-acre garden to the rear.

Their kitchen was furnished as the view sees it today, a table for meals, a few sturdy wooden chairs, a dresser of the period and a settlebed, which served as a seat by day, and a bed by night. Hanging over the fireplace was the fiddle, close to the picture of the Sacred Heart. The dresser was filed with Willow pattern delph and several mugs.

The cooking utensils consisted of a pot oven or Dutch oven, a kettle and two skillet pots, one large and one small. All the cooking was done on an open fire. Water had to be fetched by bucket from the nearest pump or well, a laborious job, especially on wash days. Lighting was by oil lamp, which was hung on the kitchen wall. The family retired to bed by candlelight. The bedroom was furnished with a bed and a chair on a plain timber floor. The kitchen floor was tiled.

Here, the family of eight surviving children grew up and drifted away. After the death of Ann Ledwidge, her daughter Annie and her husband John Phelan came to live in the cottage with their two sons, Enda and Roland. After his parent's deaths, Roland lived in the cottage until his death in December 1978. Enda, who had emigrated to England, placed an advertisement in the Irish Times in November, 1980 which read: "Poet's Cottage for Sale". Thus it came to the notice of Slane Community Council and the Francis Ledwidge Museum Committee was formed to purchase the cottage.

The elected members were: Chairman: Peter Baxter, Secretary: John Clarke, Bobbie Doonan, Pearl Baxter, Paddy Mongey, Joe Ledwidge and later, Vivien Igoe (Dublin).

They appealed for funds and the response was immediate and generous. The deal was closed in February 1981. The cottage was restored to its original appearance with advice from Bord Failte and the work of local young people under AnCO, the Government training scheme.

On 20th June 1982 the cottage was officially opened as a Museum by Dr. Benedict Kiely who spoke to a large gathering which included the poet's three nephews, Frank and Joe Ledwidge and Enda Phelan and their wives and children. Also present were Winifred McGoona (sister of the poet's good friend Matty McGoona), Cyril Cusack, James Plunkett, and Lord Dunsany (son of Ledwidge's patron) whose father had guided the young poet along the road to fame.

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