Photos Batchelors Pea Factory Workers / Group of Workmen

Over the years of writing the Eye on the Past I have received many photographs of local events and local people.  Unfortunately many of the photographs do not readily lend themselves to identifying those photographed or the occasions which prompted the photographer to capture the people or the events on film.  Over the Christmas period I am taking the opportunity of showing some of these photographs, hoping that my readers  can help me put names and dates on the black and white records of yesteryear. 

The first photograph shows a group of happy women playfully enjoying themselves on the forecourt of a petrol station.  The protective head gear worn by the women would suggest that they were workers from a factory.  The forecourt appears to me to be what was the Hurley petrol station on the Monasterevin Road.  This was located next door to the Bachelors’ Pea Factory which leads me to believe that the happy women were workers from that factory.  Hopefully my readers can identify the women in question and perhaps put a date on when the photograph was taken.

The second photograph will pose greater difficulties in identifying the men or the occasion captured on film.  It shows 23 men and 4 youngsters in a photograph taken around the 1900s or thereabouts.  I cannot identify the building behind the men, although it has some resemblance to a church and I wonder whether those photographed were construction workers for that building.  The hatted and suited man on the right in the middle row was probably the builder or the architect.  Everyone photographed, including the youngsters, wore head gear, even the young lad who was without shoes.  This photograph is an important record of some construction workers, probably from this area and probably taken on completion of some major work.  The building behind the men I believe holds the key to solving the mystery of who the men were and may also help to date the photograph. 

Happy New Year to all the readers.