Lost Wexford E-Book

Nicky Rossiter

• Herausgeber: THP Ireland
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 226

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Over the years trades, streets, buildings, shops and a myriad of other items have gone from Wexford's landscape. However, this book recalls not only these physical losses but also includes the many items of culture, local lore and other ephemeral heritage that disappears by the week. With chapters on industry, religious practices, entertainment and Wexford characters, this fascinating compendium this can be dipped into time and time again to reveal something new about the people, the heritage and the secrets of this maritime town.

Leseprobe

LOST WEXFORD

Dedicated once more to my family especially Ellie, Finn, Lola, Ziggy, Jude, Jack & Noah

Special thanks to Sean Tyghe for his information

First published in 2017

The History Press Ireland

50 City Quay

Dublin 2

Ireland

www.thehistorypress.ie

The History Press Ireland is a member of Publishing Ireland, the Irish book publishers’ association.

This ebook edition first published in 2017

All rights reserved

© Nicky Rossiter, 2017

The right of Nicky Rossiter, to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7509 8484 3

Original typesetting by The History Press

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

CONTENTS

Introduction

1 Wexford’s Industrial Heritage

2 Three Decisive Decades

3 Maritime Tales

4 Religion

5 Characters

6 Nicknames

7 Old-Style Entertainment

8 Sweets and Treats

9 Stories of Lost Wexford

10 Wexford Words and Expressions

11 Wexford Streets

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

MOST OF the material used in this book has come to light as I researched other volumes on the history of Wexford. The criteria for ‘lost’ is fairly wide. Most of the people, places, expressions and other categories used here have gone completely from our lives; others still exist but in different forms. Also included are a number of items of history from many decades ago that were previously lost to us and, where possible, the method of reportage of the time – another lost art – has been reproduced.

Like all towns, Wexford has been evolving for centuries but it is relatively unusual in the cosmopolitan air that it has – a hangover from the days of sea travel when our residents could visit foreign ports more easily than they could some Irish towns and cities. This gave Wexford a history quite different from other Irish locations but it has also made it more difficult for a writer to claim any expressions, words or activities as being unique to the town. This was brought home to me recently when I found the word ‘get’, referring to a person – usually young – who was a nuisance, quoted as in common use in Glasgow in the 1800s. So please bear with us if you find some of our Wexfordisms in distant lands or cultures.

The book will range over a number of areas of loss using relatively recent items as well as those from a few centuries ago. Like all books, it is finite in size and schedule so inevitably material has had to be left out.

To try to make the research as inclusive as possible, I invite readers to give feedback on the ubiquitous Facebook where the group ‘WISH – Wexford Industrial & Social History’ will relish your personal recollections and strive to preserve and share them.

1

WEXFORD’S INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE

FROM THE earliest times, a shipping industry of sorts brought the first settlers to the shores of the mud flats and small industries were the lifeblood of Wexford in days when road travel beyond the county was expensive and dangerous and when we could travel more easily by sea than land.

The first mention we have of Wexford industry is quoted in Hore’s History. It tells us that in 1540 The Faythe was called ‘Ffayghtt Strete’ and its cabins were ‘snug’, with their ‘dwellers most industrious on earth, employed in weaving nets and spinning hemp’.

Some of the next earliest verifiable records to be found go back to 1820, such as the following list of small industries with people and addresses. I am fascinated not just by the variety of goods imported but by some of the surnames that seem to have disappeared in the last two centuries (all names are spelt as they appeared originally):

1820

Boot and Shoe Makers

Henry Box, Corn Market

James Colfer, Corn Market

Lawrence Colfer, Main Street

Patrick Edwards, Main Street

John Jones, Main Street

Nicholas Kelly, Main Street

Thomas Lett, Main Street

Andrew M’Hugh, Castle Street

Nicholas Murphy, Faith

Braziers (made brass objects)

John Byrne, Main Street

Daniel Cullen (brass founder, etc.), Main Street

Brewers

Matthew Pettit, Mount-Folly

Lawrence Scallan, Spa-Well

Michael Wickham, Main Street

Brush Manufacturers

Anthony Hughes, Main Street

William Trigg, Main Street

Cabinet Makers

Hercules Atkin, Georges Street

Loftus Codd, Monk Street

Nicholas Cullen, Corn Market

Gun Makers

William Anglim (who was also weigh master), Monk Street

Benjamin Green, Corn Market

Hat Manufacturers

James Corish, Main Street

Thomás Jefferies, Main Street

Maltsters

Robert Kane, Faith

James Murphy, Faith

James O’Connor, Main Street

Philip Walsh, Main Street

Rope Makers

James Barry, Faith

William Carroll, Faith

John Cody, Main Street

Gregory Scallan, Faith

Stephen Wall (and flax dealer), Faith

Soap Boilers and Tallow Chandlers

Rebecca Jeffares, Main Street

Shepherd Jeffares, Main Street

Frederick Jones, Corn Market

Patrick Ryan, Main Street

John Valentine, Main Street

Enoch West, Main Street

Tanners

John Cooney, John Street

Patrick Donnelly, Main Street

John Doyle, John Street

Ann Frayne, John Street

William Redmond, Mary Street

Watch and Clock Makers

Nicholas Hatchells, Main Street

Joseph Higginbotham, Main Street

Miscellaneous

Walter Connor, whitesmith, Slaney Street

Stott Howard, wire machine maker, Main Street

William Landers, coach maker, John Street

Timothy Timson, silversmith, Main Street

Robert Wyke, artist, Slaney Street

In 1831, thirty-eight Wexford malt houses produced almost 80,000 barrels of malt, mostly for export to Dublin. The town had three breweries, four tan-yards, three ropewalks, three soap and candle manufacturers, one tobacco factory and one foundry.

1885

Cabinet Makers

Brien & Keating, 9 and 14 Main Street and Anne Street

Patrick Howlin, 24 High Street

Patrick Shaw, 87 Main Street

Patrick Sinnott & Sons, Main Street

Cart And Car Makers

R. & R. Allen, Custom House

Coach Builders

Mary A. Boardman, Main Street

Thomas Cullothan, Selskar Street

J. Dempsey, John Street

John Dodd, Westgate

H. Higgins, Allen Street

Henry Leary, Henrietta Street

Cork Cutters

Thomas Lacy, Allen Street

William Lawler, Main Street

Frank Whitty, Slippery Green

Rope Walk

John Wall, Faythe

Census 1911

The urban population of Wexford in 1911 was 11,531, of whom almost 5,000 were aged under 20 years. Among the occupations recorded were: forty-nine printers, eight watchmakers, twelve maltsters or distillers and fifty-five bakers. Twenty-one men were involved in coach building and fifteen shore-based ship’s carpenters were recorded. Two ladies were engaged in upholstery or cabinet making and one was a brewer, while there was also a lady forge keeper or blacksmith. Another three ladies were employed as quill or feather dressers.

Bishopswater Distillery

The distillery covered 6 acres and was built of fine Wexford stone, erected in the year 1827 by a small company of gentlemen in the locality. It afterwards passed into the hands of the Messrs Devereux, who were the original and principal shareholders and directors of the company. The works are enclosed by a stonewall and, at the top of the hill, at the entrance in Talbot Street, there is a handsome gateway; whilst at the bottom, in King Street, where the Wexford Corn Market is held, there is another entrance. The frontage in King Street is 582ft, and the depth of the buildings therefrom nearly 200ft, whilst the height is about 60ft. A spring known as Bishops Well, blessed by a Bishop of Ferns, was said to be the source of the water. This stream issues from the heart of the Forth Mountain and is supposed to possess rare qualities for brewing and distilling purposes. The annual output was 110,000 gallons per annum at its height.

The company had its own cooperage and cart-making shops. The partnership ended on 1 February 1836. In 1912 the lands for auction on 14 February comprised of:

1. Boiler house, engine room, brewer’s office, elevator room, spirit store, waterwheel, still room, corn loft, nine distiller’s warehouses, grain house, gauging house, excise office (4 acres 30 perches).

2. Forge, grain shed, distiller’s house and garden, dwelling house, managers’ and clerks’ offices, boiler house, stables, coach house, harness room (8 acres 18 perches, under tenancy from CWA Harvey).

3. Cow house (2 roods 4 perches, Harvey).

4. Cooper’s shop; racking store (15 perches, Harvey) all within half a mile of town centre.

5. Bonded store at Paul Quay, frontage 49ft depth 245ft.

It was wound up in May 1914 after which there were rumours it was to be a POW camp.

Breweries

In July 1808 there was a to let advertisement in the Wexford Herald: ‘Brewery concerns and dwelling house in Back Street now occupied by Laurence and John Murphy. The copper, capacity 30 barrels, is good as new. Perfect command of excellent water.’

In 1824 brewers were listed at St Magdalene’s, Mount Folly (Matthew Pettit), Redmond Park (Lar Scallan), The Old Pound (Philip Walsh) and South Main Street (Michael Wickham)stretching to the quay. This later became part of The Long Rooms public house.

There was also a brewery at Heffernan’s corner in 1840.

Bricks

Belvedere Road was the road to a sand pit and brick kiln in 1880. In 1891 there was an advertisement in the newspapers: ‘Best bricks for sale, Mr Malone of Belvidere’.

Clay Pipes

The Clay Pipe Factory was on Main Street, almost opposite Bride Street. Mr William Murphy owned it. The factory was set up in opposition to the Waterford Pipe Factory. The clay was stored in the old corn store in the Folly, just above Pierce’s Foundry. He later bought Miss Browne’s factory at the King Street end of Barrack Street around 1889. The pipes were popular until wooden pipes became cheaper.

Clogs

James Billington was born in Preston, Lancashire, where he learned the traditional craft of clog making. A County Wexford girl called Mary Maher fetched up in Preston and married Billington. On a holiday in Ireland James saw great potential for his footwear and they eventually moved first to Avoca in Wicklow, then to Arklow, but the lure of Wexford must have proved too strong. In the fateful year of 1911 the family moved to 85 South Main Street. They had a shop front with a clog-making enterprise at the rear. Within a few years clogs were the favoured footwear of Wexford farmers. They also proved the ideal footwear for foundry workers such as those in Pierce’s.

Coaches

Morris’ shop in Upper John Street was formerly the coach-building factory of J. Dempsey, while opposite the top of Slaney Street was Mr Dodd’s coach-building factory. Molloy’s coach-building factory was in Selskar and Mr Landers had a coach-building firm on the quay. In 1902 William Higgins, coach builders, were in Gibson Street.

Cousins Mineral Factory

In 1917 Cousins Mineral Factory advertised a genuine secret improvement in drinks made ‘with the same palate heat as the summer so you could drink them on the coldest day with the same satisfaction’, presumably meaning that they tasted good in summer or winter. Their soda water was ‘suitable for mixing in either milk or whiskey’.

Creamery

In the year that Mandrake the Magician appeared on stage at the Dun Mhuire and a plaque to Jem Roche, the boxer, was unveiled in the Bullring, Edelweiss Dairy Products set up a factory on the outskirts of Wexford. The base was Rockland’s House and, in true Wexford tradition, we seldom if ever used the official name. To us it was The Cheese Factory. From those beginnings in October 1961 the factory grew and grew, with a few name changes along the way (but we still used the original nickname). As Wexford Creamery it produced quality cheeses such as Wexford Cheddar. Then a whey products section was added. It later produced baby foods in the world-famous ‘Cow & Gate’ stable and continues to offer steady employment decades on, now as Danone.

Dockyard

In 1832 the Redmond family opened a dockyard in Wexford on reclaimed land to the south of the quays, causing Lewis, in his Topography of Ireland, to remark:

Shipping interests have been materially promoted by the construction of a patent slip and shipbuilding yard at the southern end of his embankment (Redmond was responsible for the reclamation of the land where Trinity Street now stands), from which a vessel of 70 tons has already been launched. Vessels belonging to the port had previously been built at Milford and Liverpool.

The first vessel built here was The Vulcan, for a local ship owner, Nathaniel Hughes. It was launched in 1833. However, on 18 January 1837, a letter to Archer & Leared, Slip Dockyard, was sent requiring payment of £28 4s 0d, ‘for hire of boat from Mathew Doyle for use as a pilot boat due to company’s failure to build boat as agreed’.

The dockyard employed 100 men at its peak and was responsible for building schooners and barques of up to 360 tons. Kohl, writing in 1842, reported that:

At Wexford I saw, for the first time, an interesting piece of machinery called Parkin’s patent slip, by means of which ships when building can be raised or lowered in the dock, as may be required by the state of the tide. A machine of this description, which in this country is found in so small a place as Wexford, is not to be met with even in the largest seaport towns of Germany.

By 1875 its workforce had dropped to ninety people and it closed in 1920.

Drinagh Cement

Limestone quarries had operated at Drinagh for many years before Harry Cooper established the cement works in 1871. Drinagh Cement Factory was the first success at manufacturing Portland cement in Ireland. In 1883 Wexford cement secured first prize in the international industrial exhibitions held in Dublin and Cork in competition with the leading manufacturers of England, America and many continental countries.

In the 1890s there were about 100 men employed in the cement works, mostly quarry men and indoor labourers. Two shifts were worked each day. The day shift started at 6 o’clock in the morning and finished at 6 in the evening with an hour and three-quarters for meals. The night shift started at 6 o’clock in the evening and continued until 7 in the morning without a break. The men worked seventy-two hours for a six-day week. The majority lived about 3 miles from the cement works and probably walked to Drinagh. They were paid at the rate of 1s 8d a day or about 10s a week.

In 1936 it was announced by the government that it had been decided to establish two new cement factories – one at Drogheda and the other at Limerick. The Department of Industry and Commerce informed Wexford. Sadly the cement industry in Wexford was over and only a few abandoned kilns and a smokestack survived into the late 1900s.

Fine Wool Fabrics

Stafford’s owned the Mouldex factory making plastic and rubber goods in 1947. They later opened Fine Wool Fabrics on the site. It subsequently became Senator Windows and is now Enterprise Centre.

Wexford Gas Consumers Company

James Furniss of Anne Street founded the first Wexford Gas Works in 1830. It went bankrupt in 1865 but a new company, the Wexford Gas Consumers Company, started in Trinity Street in 1869. Considering the extent of the network of piping that they had to install to supply their product to factories, homes and street lighting, one must stand in awe of the undertaking. In addition there were the logistics of streetlights to be lit and extinguished every day of the year as well as maintained.

In 1918 a strike at the gas works put the town in darkness and factories were closed.

As the town expanded, the gas network also grew with new housing estates being gas powered for cooking long after electricity took over in lighting. I still recall gas lighting in a Wexford house as late as the 1960s. The gasman was a familiar sight in all areas in the 1960s. He travelled by bicycle and had a leather satchel to carry the money. Today he would probably have a van with security guards. The reason for this collection was that gas was prepaid by meter. When the gasman came he emptied the meter, totted up the usage and sometimes there was a surplus to be handed back – due to variations in the tariff. You also got a receipt for the money collected.

In the 1970s there was consternation in Wexford as the Gas Company suddenly closed. Gas cookers had to be replaced and government funding was needed to ease the burden. Trinity Street lost the towering gasometers and new developments grew on the sites.

Gainfort’s Boot Factory

Gainfort’s Boot Factory was at 73 (North) Main Street in 1902. They had been in business since 1852, making hand-sewn boots. Orders came from as far afield as Gibraltar, Capetown and Transvaal. Apprentices worked on small boots in the first few years.

Hardob’s

This factory opened on the Quay in 1967, giving training and employment for Wexford workers in the clothing industry. When the roof was erected a fir tree with streamers was used to check the alignment as per an old German custom. During this a worker with a bottle of spirits walked on the roof, drinking. Aidan Roche, mason, of Bishopswater had the honour. All the other workers celebrated inside.

Hat Manufacture

There were four hat manufacturers recorded in 1824, including Lett of Church Street. The first Tuskar hats, a type of straw hat, made in Wexford went on display at Hadden’s in January 1903.

Howards

In 1832, S. Howard had a factory making machines for dressing flour and brushing corn. For the more domestic market they produced wire riddles (an implement for sifting sand or clay) and wire safes (these were the forerunner of the refrigerator when meat was kept cool in an outside cupboard of wire). They also repaired umbrellas.

Letts

In 1887 there was mention of a Wexford man called Lett exporting mussels to North Wales. A century later the same name was on the boxes of mussels but the market was worldwide.

The family operated seven boats out of Wexford in the 1950s and were said to be the largest exporter of live eels in the United Kingdom at the time. It was while in Billingsgate Market selling eels that Laurence Lett was made aware of a shortage of mussels and fielded enquiries about the possibility of any being available in Wexford. By 1963 the company was harvesting wild mussels in the Wexford area. Later, due to growing demand, they moved into cultivating their own stock. To cover the off-season for mussels they also harvested and supplied prawns and scampi.

Malthouses

In 1785 Wexford had 195 small malthouses. In 1808 an advert in the Wexford Herald read:

To be let, Dwelling, Brewery, Malthouse and Stores in town of Wexford, occupied by the late W. Kearney. 300’ in depth, has advantage of the only fresh water river in town, running front to rear. Value will increase when new line of quay is completed.

There were thirty-eight larger enterprises in 1831.

The shipping trade facilitated a major malting trade in Wexford. One maltster, named John Barrington, ‘turned out 60,000 barrels in a season’. Others involved in the trade in the mid-nineteenth century included Patrick Breen of a Castlebridge family, Richard Walsh, Robert Stafford and William Whitty.

There was severe distress reported in 1887 as malthouses were closed with hundreds out of work. Work was never so scarce and outdoor relief doubled within a year.

Umbrellas

In 1914 F. Carty of Selskar ran an umbrella factory.

Wexford Paint and Varnish Company

In the 1930s Wexford Paint and Varnish Company at King Street, who manufactured Capitol Paint, were located behind the Capitol Cinema.

Printing

A printing industry once thrived in Wexford, with newspapers printed here since the 1700s. The Wexford Journal dated from 1776 and the Wexford Chronicle from 1777. The Journal became Wexford Independent and was still going in 1877.

Fred Wood’s Liberty Press was also located here, at Commercial Quay.

As late as the 1960s and into the 1970s we had two weekly newspapers. In addition to the newspapers the printers provided the invoices, receipts, posters and all the other paperwork that is now computer generated or purchased from multinational companies. English’s in Anne Street had a vibrant book-printing and binding business, producing publications such as the Capuchin Annual. In addition, The Free Press had contracts to print leaflets and forms for the Government Publications Office. A few older members of the audience may recall the days when stamping a card was a very real part of employment. Those countless thousands of insurance and wet-time cards were printed in The Free Press. Farms throughout Ireland had leaflets on Colorado beetle, scabies in sheep and dry cow mastitis that were printed by Wexford men at 59 South Main Street and parcelled by Wexford women before being collected by the dray horse of CIÉ to be transported by train to Beggar’s Bush in Dublin.

The People Office, built partly over Archer’s Lane, produced a magazine that would rival the original British tabloid magazines like Titbits and Weekend. Back in 1902 County Wexford was part of the British Empire. British law prevailed and British magazines predominated. It was against this background that the Walsh family, originally from New Ross, decided to start a magazine. But this was to be no ordinary publication. The idea was to produce a magazine that combined the best of world information with all that was good in Ireland. From the very beginning it subtitled itself as ‘A Journal of Fiction Literature and General Information’, a description that would last for ninety years. Over the years, the rivals grew, shrivelled and died, but Ireland’s Own continued.

From the narrow back street in Wexford it moved to Dublin for a few years, but it was to return to its roots in the southeast from where copies were sent around the world. As early as 1911, the Readers Page had correspondents with addresses ranging from Portugal to Bombay to Ohio and Buenos Aires – helped, no doubt, by its rather unique request to its readers to ‘Pass on your copy to a friend’. It is still going strong today.

Sawmills

There was a court case in 1902 of Patrick and Teresa Cullen v. Edmond Moody t/a R&R Allen, arising out of the death of John Cullen, aged 15, at a sawmill. The boy was collecting waste oil from a gas engine in the factory. He was found on 25 February 1902 in a store called The Forge, lying near a flywheel with an oilcan nearby. He was probably struck on the head. John Sills, carpenter, saw the body, as did Mr Tobin who was in charge of the forge and engine. Cullen was a spoke polisher as was a boy named Gaul. He had to take oil from machines for blowers and shafts three times a day. A spoke polisher finished spokes on an emery- or leather-covered shaft in the wheel department. It was decided that Cullen was responsible for his own death because he was doing something other than his own job.

Foundries

Blacksmiths’ forges and later foundries were once a common sight in Wexford. Joe Murphy is recorded as having a forge in Abbey Street by the round tower of the town wall in the 1800s. In 1809 the Wexford Herald reported on a fire in Back Street – now Mallin Street – saying that ‘sparks fell on a smith’s forge some distance away and burned so quickly that even the bellows was lost’.

In 1829 Nathaniel Hughes was looking for an apprentice for his whitesmith and bell-hanging business.

Behind 80 and 82 John Street, in what is now the garden shed of no. 80 and the kitchen of 82, was a factory that manufactured shovels for the malt stores, while Dan the Nailor’s was at 56 South Main Street.

We even had a Foundry Lane – now called Patrick’s Lane. Donnelly’s in Foundry Lane made bowls. They also erected the ironwork in Stafford’s stores at Paul Quay and made sewer grates. It later became Lees.

Malone’s on Newtown Road employed many Pierce’s workers during the Lockout.

How many of you recall a company with a product called Waico Springs of Brockhouse Industries? The company was established in Maudlintown in the 1930s and operated very successfully for about forty years. It later moved to part of the Pierce’s complex.

Wexford’s Three Main Foundries

Like in so many towns throughout the world the industrial revolution would prove a blessing that turned to a curse. It increased production, employment, wages (to some extent) but it also led to specialisation and to towns becoming almost solely dependent on single industries. In Wexford it was the foundries producing top-quality farm machinery that generated the ancillary jobs in allied trades, in commerce and in construction.

Today when most people think of them they think of the Lockout of 1911. In fact, that was but six months out of over a century of production.

We seldom realise how the three main foundries of Wexford were connected and might very well have come to pass as one major entity. Matthew and Bridget Doyle moved to Wexford town in the 1800s and their first home was in Abbey Street, in what is now a doctor’s surgery.

Another young blacksmith, James Pierce, had also moved to Wexford from Kilmore, around this period. He started a forge opposite Mount Folly and lived in front of it, in a small, whitewashed house. He had four sons – Philip, Martin, James and John – and four daughters – Kate, Johanna, Annie and Alice. James Pierce, blacksmith, joined with Matthew Doyle, fitter. Matthew made ploughs and James helped him in the forge. They prospered and in time were joined by their sons, four Pierces and William and Andrew Doyle. William, like his father, was a fitter and Andrew became a moulder.

The Doyles decided it would be better if they started their own foundry and in 1880 the Selskar Iron Works was founded.

Doyle’s Selskar Iron Works

In 1880 the Selskar Iron Works was founded. It flourished and in 1902 converted to a limited company, sparking a newspaper to report:

William Doyle started the great works on a very modest scale about twenty years ago and went in for making machinery, rather than engaging in the national industry of making ‘glorious eloquence’. His Iron Works now stand on a site of nearly three acres. We hope the new company will go on progressing and making Irish industrial history.

Doyle’s were fortunate in not being involved in the strike of 1890, as their men did not join the National Union of Dock Labourers. They were not so fortunate in 1911, though relations were good and neither brother wanted involvement, especially Andrew, who worked with the men in the foundry.

Because of his patriotism, Doyle refused orders for British war production in 1914. Pierce’s took up the offer, mainly as it meant young Philip Pierce, who was in the British Army, would be released for essential war work. When the 1916 Rising took place, Doyle’s gave work and refuge to many men on the run. Doyle’s made guns, bullets and hand-grenade casings in the foundry. These were moved out by night.