February 2024 - Tides & Tales

28/02/202428/02/2024

Flanagans Fish Shop Closure -end of an era

Last week Flanagans closed after a remarkable history of almost 116 years. In fact, a week shy of that, for Martin J Flanagan opened on Friday 28th February 1908. Ironically that was a leap year too.

Waterford Standard – Wednesday 26 February 1908; page 2
The original advert for the company – opened in a leap year of 1908 – on Friday 28th of February

One of many fish shops when I was a child in Waterford, only Doherty’s in Patrick St and Billy Burkes in Ballybricken now remain. Flanagans had vacated the city center of course, moving to the Northern extension and for a time they had a small outlet at Ardkeen.

Flanagans in Broad Street Waterford, Check the original on NLI

The new business advertised heavily to get the word out, including the use of a bicycle.

Our readers will be glad to learn the Mr Martin J Flanagan has opened his new Fish Shop at No. 18 Broad-Street, Waterford. The house and shop have undergone extensive alterations to meet the requirements necessary for this class of business, and the proprietor hopes to merit a share of public support. For the quick delivery of his customers Mr Flanagan has purchased a Rudge-Whitworth bicycle, specially designed with a suitable basket arranged over front wheel, capable of carrying 56lb, so that there will be no delay in conveying the good purchased at his establishment.
Waterford Chronicle – Saturday 29 February 1908; page 2

As a child, however, I knew of Flanagans because of their van which travelled around the harbour fishing villages, buying fish directly from the quays and local homes. My father always sold to Flanagans and as a signal to stop, my mother would put a conch shell on the gate pier.

The van would stop, the arm on a weighing scale would be hoisted, and we would carry out the fish for the official weighing. I say official because we had already weighed the fish on a handheld ouncel, but it was what the buyer’s measure stated that determined the final payment. Weighed by the pound and paid by it, even a 1/4 lb made a difference to cash-strapped families but there was no point in arguing.

An ouncel that saw a lot of fish down the years

Several small peal would be weighed together, but a “fine salmon” would get its own treatment and always attracted more interest. Big fish meant a higher rate of pay per pound. Of course many had already gone to McAlpins, Mr Mac always paid the best prices around for large fish.

Once weighed, the tarpaulin would be lifted off the back of the van, releasing a black wave of flies and blue bottles off the fish already stored there, and as our father’s fish were sorted into boxes we took a careful measure of what was there. Then a docket was written up calculating the weight, price per pound and the all-important calculation of what the catch realised.

A docket of mine from 1989. Note the price difference between a 9 lb salmon and a 7lb (jack as we would call it) and the two peal weighed together.

Hard-pressed fishermen would sometimes have to get the price of the annual licence from a fish buyer. And sometimes that included some new nets and oilskins etc. In this case, the docket would also include a deduction as the loan cost was taken off in a percentage.

When I was fishing in the 1980s the fishbuyer’s practice of coming around started to slow, but I think it was the 1990s before it died out. Most of the lads had cars or vans at that stage and I regularly went to town with Pat Moran in his rusty green Ford van which smelled to high heavens of fish. We would pull up in Arundel Sq at the back of the premises and carry the fish through in a box to the lads. There the filleters were employed, and fish were sorted, weighed, and prepped for the shop floor.

In those days most of the salmon were being sorted and iced in styrofoam boxes, to be dispatched that same day worldwide. But it was the era before the salmon farms. would eat into the market. It was also the era of salmon fishing on the high seas, and small operators like us were starting to become irrelevant.

Russ Parsons had a feature in last weeks Irish Times on Woodstown Oysters – having travelled the world he raved about the quality of the product but pointed out that although some locals stock them including Elaine Power in East Pier Dunmore, we as a nation don’t appreciate or support such products. This attitude may have had nothing to do with the closure of Flanagans, but perhaps our relationship is worth considering. If only to think of how and why we should support our fishermen and fishing industry.

23/02/202428/08/2024

The Millstone Era in Waterford Harbour

Introduction

Over the centuries people have harnessed the power of water via ponds, streams and rivers to drive wheels which created the power to grind wheat, corn and other grains. The fertile valley and hinterland along the Three Sister rivers had many advantages to this practice, an industry that had its peak between the mid 17th and 19th Century.

These advantages included fertile land, the flourishing of religious abbeys and the manorial estate system post-Norman conquest, and a long and navigable river network with bustling ports connected to England and the European mainland. But another advantage, and perhaps less well known, was a ready supply of accessible Old Red Sandstone, that provided perfect material for the creation of millstones.

The Quarries

Quarrying operations took place in areas with suitable stone and also, crucially, proximity to waterways for transportation. The main locations in this area included Creaden Bay, Templetown and Great Graigue on the Hook Peninsula, Ballyhack Hill, Minaun and Drumdowney close to Ballinlaw in Kilkenny. I wonder are there other areas that they tried to quarry that we have yet to discover? I’m guessing there are.

Millstones at the New Quay, Templetown, Hook Peninsula, note Creaden Head in the distance. Photo courtesy of Liam Ryan.

New Quay at Templetown at low water. Photo courtesy of Liam Ryan.

I described previously our childhood visits to the Minaun above Cheekpoint. One of our picnic spots was a rounded rock, and our mother said the Knights of the Round table gathered there. It turned out later that it was an attempt to quarry a millstone from out the bedrock on the hill, but that still doesn’t spoil the memory for me. I have no recollection of seeing others, or locations where they were harvested on the Minaun. I’m also gutted to say I have no images. I think the stone may have been bulldozed when the round tower was built there in the late 1980s.

Ballyhack was another location, and although the area is now overgrown and not a very obvious commercial millstone quarry. However, it was once a hive of activity and was written about as early as 1684. Rober Leigh gave the following description:

“About two miles from Dunbrody to the sewarde upon the river of Waterford there is a creeke and an old Key at the bottom of a steepe rocke, called Ballihack: it is a sad place to looke upon, and has not above halfe a dozen houses and an old pile of a castle besides a fue cabins, but is is a place much frequented by passengers that ferry over there into Munster to a place on that syde called Passagem as alsoe by seamen and the like, for ships often lye thereabouts in the River.

There are two considerable fairs kept at Ballihak, (for black cattle and hogs) in the yeare, the one at Michaelmas, the other upon St James’ day.

In summer and out of the rock that hangs above ye village and Key is wrought a number of very good Milstones, which with noe small skill nor less danger are rowled downe a very high precipice to the aforesaid Key and soe carried by water as the occasion requires”
Source: Hore.P.H History of the Town & County of Wexford. Dunbrody Abbey, The Great Island, Ballyhack etc. 1901

Ava exploring part of the millstone quarry (and frogspawn) on Ballyhack Hill about 15 years ago. Photo Courtesy of Maria Doyle

A discarded millstone at Ballyhack…imagine the hours of work it took only to find that it was no use perhaps because of a flaw? Photo Courtesy of Maria Doyle

Dates of the process

Although the quarrying of millstones in ancient, the need for millstones was driven by the process of local milling which was popular between 1550 & 1850. Niall Colfer speculates that the local quarrying seems to have been at its height between the mid 17th to mid 19th Century. He also speculates that the Creaden quarry could in fact have started sometime in the medieval era, because of some of the extraction methods employed.

The traditional lighter in the foreground here in Waterford. They were used in navigating from the quarries to the mills on many of the local Pills including Ballycanvan, St John’s and the Blackwater (Kilmacow Pill etc). Image courtesy of the Andy Kelly Collection.

Extraction Methods

Various methods were employed depending on the location of the stone being cut. But in all cases the use of hand tools seems to have been the preferred method in the harbour.

The Otter Hole on the Hook – the initials of some of the workmen that extracted the stone from the quarry’s nearby are still to be seen. Photo courtesy of Walter Foley.

Jim Walsh describes the work as perhaps taking a week to cut out one stone of 5 to 6 feet in diameter, a foot thick and weighing a ton. Quoting from William Tighe (1800-1801), he states that the stones from Drumdowney Hill were sent as far as England, and after tariffs were placed on the imports, the local stones were sent coastwards to Cork and Dublin and elsewhere around Ireland. The workmen received 6 guineas for a pair of stone, but they can sell for up to 12 guineas. The work is arduous and sometimes the quarrymen only discover a flaw in a stone after extracting it from the rock

At Creaden Colfer has calculated that perhaps 300 millstones were extracted from the site over the years. Such coastal sites had a number of advantages, including transport and extraction

Part of the expansive remains of the quarrying at Creaden Bay. Photo – Andrew Doherty

Remains at Herrylock on the Hook, photo courtesy of Walter Foley

The extraction method employed using the tides was as follows: A circular trench was hewn from the rock, chiselled down to twice the width of the required millstone. Triangular wedge shapes were then carved and into these timber wedges were inserted. Once completed, the tide washed into the hole, and as the wedges absorbed the water, the swelling wedges expanded, the force of which naturally cracked the millstone from the bedrock.

At Great Graigue, Hook Peninsula. Photo courtesy of Walter Foley

Transportation

Once extracted, the millstones had to be transported to their final destinations. I was raised on stories of the millstones being rolled down the hill of Ballyhack to be transhipped. The method was as follows, the stone was lifted vertically, a beam was placed through the central core, ropes were secured to the ends of the beam (but were free to turn) and then the stone was rolled carefully, the ropes being employed as a break in case the stone took off down the hill.

A broken millstone at Ballinlaw, Co Kilkenny. Can you imagine after hand chiselling a stone for at least a week if not longer, how crushed you would be to see it broken just at the point it was to board a lighter or a ship? Photo Courtesy of Paul Grant.

Waterways, like the Waterford Harbour and the Three Sister Rivers were a natural highway for the movement of such stone. They could be loaded onto boats (I’d imagine Lighters were the craft of choice for accessibility both to the coastal site and as far up areas such as the Ballycanvan Pill, Johns Pill or the Blackwater). Of course they could also be loaded onto ships for transport around the coast. It is certainly possible that the proliferation of quarrying at Waterford harbour indicates a thriving trade to England, and perhaps even the continent.

A nasty spot for the paintwork even on a calm day! Despite the danger, I fancied this as a very natural working point for the lightermen in Creaden Bay. They could have only got in her on specific tides and in favourable weather. Photo – Andrew Doherty

The site at Creaden has a naturally occurring landing site and must have been useful in the rolling of Millstones onto the lighters. Colfer states that water transport was common practice in Ireland. At Templetown on the Hook there is a natural landing area for boats which is called the “oul Key”. See Liam Ryans photo above.

Belfast Commercial Chronicle – Monday 25 November 1805; Page 3 Niall Colfer speculated that the use of the phrase Ballyhack Millstones could have been employed as a type of branding for all the local millstones.

Following publication I received a message (May 2024) from a pal that there was mention of a wreck found in Dublin Bay which had millstones aboard originating from Waterford harbour aboard. An email to David Carroll prompted quick responses from Dr Eddie Bourke and Cormac Lowth with suggestions for follow up. Cormac also provided an introduction to Niall Brady of the Archaeological Diving Company Ltd. Niall was very generous in his time and supplied me with the following image and information. (Niall was also part of the team that discovered the Duncannon wrecks which we have blogged about previously)

Image (above) Plan of shipwreck discovered on the approach channel into Dublin that carried a series of millstones which would have originated in the Waterford Harbour quarries. Drawn for Dublin Port Company Ltd by Rex Bangerter, the Archaeological Diving Company Ltd (ADCO) (www.adco-ie.com).
Niall went on to explain that this image is “of the wreck we investigated in Dublin that carried some of the millstones, the association of which lends its name to how we now refer to the wreck site, the ‘Millstone Wreck’. We discovered the site while monitoring the capital dredging campaign for Dublin Port Company in 2017. A millstone was dredged up and further monitoring, survey and then underwater investigation led to the discovery of the wreck. The dive work was led by my co-director, Rex Bangerter, who drew the site plan. The wreck lies on the toe of the navigation channel into Dublin, at a location that would have been on the Dublin Bar – the naturally-occurring sand bar that forms across the mouth of the Liffey delta and poses a barrier to shipping; hence the dredging campaigns. We suggest that the wreck occurred while trying to cross the bar, perhaps in the eighteenth century, when only limited progress had been made to improve navigation into the city. We do not know the vessel’s name or the story around its wrecking but it is one of some 300 recorded wrecking events on the approaches to Dublin. The millstones were most likely cargo that would have been destined to support the milling industries along the east coast; perhaps this one was meant to serve a mill along the Liffey but never quite arrived there”

Decline

The 19th century saw significant changes in milling technology. Better stones were imported from France which saw the older local stones being used to a lesser extent. The advent of steel roller mills in the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw a decline too. Roller mills offered more efficiency and consistency in grain milling.

Today, the remnants of old millstone quarries offer us a glimpse of these historical landmarks of a once-thriving industry. I’d imagine there may be other sites out there too. Hard work, hard lives but again the harbour and rivers played their part.

Watermills

Just to conclude, here’s a quick overview of the water milling operations that I am aware of. I’m bundling together here mills fed by streams, by the tides etc and some of these did not grind corn, but it gives a sense of the extent of them. I’m also not including windmills.

Kilmokea horizontal mill at Great Island– 5th Century
Two tidal water mills at Dunbrody Abbey
Five mills utilising streams in Slieverue – Ballyrouragh, Ballinlaw, Rathpatrick and 2 in Gorteens. (ref Jim Walsh p215-219)
Foley’s Mill at Gyles Quay (ref Jim Walsh p215)
Historically one is mentioned on the Faithlegg/Woodlands Pill.
2 on the Ballycanvan Pill that I have written about previously
3 on St Johns Pill, the last of which operated to the 1950s
9 mills on the Maudlin Stream near New Ross (ref Jim Walsh p212)
Kathleen Laffen listed 14 water mills on the River Blackwater in South Kilkenny (not all for milling grain however, and there may have been older mills there too)
And of course the mills of Carrick & Clonmel

Updates

August 2024 – while boating on the shore here below Cheekpoint I came upon a piece of broken stone that looks like it was hand cut. Too small for a millstone perhaps but interesting nonetheless. Also, it is a curious location. There is no known quarry at the location, would it have been discarded possibly by lightermen following an accident?

Thank you for extra information to Olivia Murray, David Carroll and Pat Bracken and to photo archives of Andy Kelly, Maria Doyle, Paul Grant and Liam Ryan.

Sources used:

Niall Colfer (2019) Turning Stone into Bread: The Millstone Quarries
of Medieval and Post-medieval Ireland, Industrial Archaeology Review, 41:1, 65-72, DOI:
10.1080/03090728.2019.1594063

Laffan. Kathleen. The History of Kilmacow – A South Kilkenny Parish. 2nd Ed.2005. GK Print, Grannagh, Kilkenny

Walsh. Jim. Sliabh Rua, A History of its People and Places. 2001. Slieverue Parish Pastoral Council.

22/02/202402/08/2024

An Irish record in cargo handling

Earlier this week Dave O’Hallorahan contacted me via Twitter – yes I know it’s got a new name, but it’s bad enough to use the platform knowing the new owner, without embracing the change- to say that an interesting ship was off Dunmore. A quick search on Vessel Finder piqued my interest, and later that afternoon I noticed a post from Philip Doherty on the Waterford Maritime History Facebook Group page with an image of the vessel and cargo. It was the BBC Citrine 153m ship which came from the port of Izmir inTurkey.

In the comments section of Philips’s post, Mike Kiely of Celtic Shipping gave more detail. Mike who was handling the freight explained that the cargo of windmill blades was 80 meters long, and as such this cargo was the longest ever imported into Ireland. Anyone passing along the roadway by Belview, Port of Waterford will have noticed the roundabouts being widened, and it is loads such as these that are being facilitated.

I kept an eye on Marine Traffic and close to high water on Tuesday 20th Feb the ship started its run into the port. Thankfully I was around and the rain held off long enough to get a short video.

From the comments online, I got the following details on their destination – a bog in Co Offaly, the Cushaling Wind Farm. I also read that there will be a second ship later this week with tower sections for the same project.

MV Celtic inbound from the Port of Marin in NW Spain on a more pleasant afternoon – 22/2/24

postscript July 2024 – Info from Port of Waterford on Facebook as well as the image used below: “On Wednesday 31st July, we began transporting out the record 80-metre long wind turbine blades destined for Cushaling Wind Farm, near Edenderry, Co Offaly. The renewable energy project is a €90m development by Statkraft, comprising of 9 turbines, with power generation capacity of 55MW. The transport was carried out by abnormal load specialists Collett & Sons – Transport , using brand new Blade Adapter trailers. The Blade Adapter (Clamp and Dolly System), is a new trailer innovation which enhances the ability to transport larger blades safely. The trailer design incorporates enhanced ground clearance between the blade and road surface, along with improved manoeuvrability and stability compared to standard wing carriers. This is the inaugural use of the Blade Adapter to deliver 80-metre-long blades to the Cushaling Wind Farm in Ireland. This marks a significant milestone as the blades are the largest delivery of its kind in the UK and Ireland to date!“

Whatever the merits of wind energy, there is no denying the climate emergency we face.

Waterford has been earmarked as one of the service ports for the planned offshore wind farms which have been in the planning for several years now. So I guess we will see a lot more of such cargo in the future. When these offshore wind farms go ahead, such equipment will be considered small!

Coincidentally Tom MacSweeney covered the issue of what is being called the marine spacial squeeze in his March podcast. It’s the first item discussed and makes for sobering listening…or course so too does one of the final segments which covers water temperature rises and how this is impacting negatively on fish farming and oyster growing. No easy answers to the predicament we are in.

I just hope our own bitter experience of how the government and its agencies ruined our traditional fishing communities in the harbour with zero consideration will not be replicated now for the inshore fleet off Dunmore…ironically where those who stayed in fishing after the salmon ban in the villages migrated to.