I bought a postcard of old Athy last week, a copy of which I already
had, but this card was special as it was sent to Mrs. Rd. Krowlis from the local
firm of A. Duncan, Son & Co. Ltd. It
carried the printed message: ‘We have
pleasure in informing you that we have received a large number of autumn and
winter goods. You will find the latest
things in millinery, jackets and dress goods.
A call will be welcomed.’ The
coloured postcard reproduced here was dated October 11th but
unfortunately the year was not given.
It’s interesting for a number of reasons. The large buildings on the left were mills
operated by Messrs Hannons which closed down in or around 1924. The gas lamp at the end of the bridge was
just one of the 47 public lamps in the town which were lit from 1st
September to 1st May each year.
Athy Gas Company which operated the gas works at the end of Green Alley,
opposite what is now Tegrals factory, provided the gas and initially employed
the gas lampers who had the job of lighting and extinguishing the public lamps
every night. The lights were put out at
10.30 p.m. but in 1893 the Town Commissioners agreed to employ its own lamp
lighters. Over the following years two
lamp lighters were employed by the Town Council, but as part of the economy
measures adopted in 1915 only one of these men was then retained to light every
second lamp in the town. The last lamp
lighter, so far as I have been able to discover, was Michael Johnson.
Another interesting aspect of the postcard is the clear view one has
of White’s Castle and the bridge, free of any trees, poles, overhead wires or
the unsightly E.S.B. transformer. Indeed
the side wall of the bridge seems to have provided a good viewing seat for the
men as they kept an eye on a young fellow approaching the bridge with his ass
and cart.
Duncans went out of business selling out to Sam Shaw in or about
1916. This therefore dates the postcard
to sometime before that year, making it at least 90 years old. The major difference between the scene
depicted in the postcard and what we can see today are the absence of the electricity
transformer and the electric wires.
Athy was still lit by gas when on 9th June 1922 Edgar W.
Youell wrote from Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim seeking permission on behalf of Athy
Electric Company to erect poles in the town for electric lighting
purposes. He also sought a plot of
ground between the Courthouse and the River Barrow at a reasonable rent as a
site for a powerhouse. The Council
agreed to the erection of ’50 lights more
or less’, while considering an objection from local solicitor H.K. Toomey
on behalf of Stephen Telford of the Abbey to the proposed powerhouse site ‘as injurious or noxious to residents.’ As a result the Council suggested that Youell
take a site at Garter Lane. Work on
putting up the electric lighting poles went ahead and at the October Council
meeting Councillors Michael Malone, F.R. Jackson and P. Dooley with the Town
Surveyor were appointed to inspect the position of the poles. In January 1923 the Council Solicitors, R.A.
Osborne, acknowledged the Council’s instructions to prepare an agreement
between Mr. Youell and Athy U.D.C. The
town was on the brink of having electricity and even though the Council Minute
Book does not record the fact, presumably the lights were switched on soon
afterwards.
The Council Minutes record in July 1923 a total of 34 public lights
in the town, extending from Model Farm to the Military Barracks on the
Stradbally Road, to Mr. Plewman’s gate at Upper William Street on the Kilkenny
Road, to the Protestant Church on the Carlow Road and to Rathstewart on the
Monasterevin Road. One of those lamps
was placed outside a Mr. Youell’s premises in Duke Street which makes me
believe that Edgar Youell who in 1928 was living in Emily Row was not, as I had
once thought, the same man whose family operated Youells shop in Duke Street in
the 1950s.
Public lamps were still only lit from 1st September to 1st
May and from dusk to 11.00 p.m. each night.
The 1923 tender of the Electric Company of £120 was accepted on
condition that 14 lights were of 200 candle power and 20 lights of 100 candle
power. It was also agreed to leave 3
lights on all night, being those at the Railway Bridge, Market Square and Canal
Bridge. The following year the number of
lights had increased to 38, with 5 all-night lights lit between September and
May. Christmas Eve 1925 saw the public
lights, all 38 of them, left lighting throughout the night. On 27th September of that year Mr.
Youell felt compelled to write a letter of apology to the Council when the
public lights were extinguished on a couple of nights before the regular time ‘due to an error of his employees.’
Duthie Larges, then one of the largest employers in Athy, complained
to the Minister of Industry and Commerce in March 1926 following an unspecified
increase in the cost of electricity.
Nothing further was noted of their complaint, nor indeed was there a
record of any other local businesses complaining of the electricity charge. In its annual report dated 16th
November 1927 Athy U.D.C. claimed ‘the
lighting of the town by electricity has been an unqualified success and a great
boom to the town and it reflects great credit on the enterprise of its
promoter.’
Each year at the end of the summer both Athy Electric Company and
the Athy Gas Company tendered for the public lighting contract, but so far as I
have been able to ascertain the Contract always went to the Electric Company
founded by Edgar Youell. However, on the
29th of August 1929 Mr. Youell wrote to the Council informing them
that he was giving up possession of the powerhouse in Garter Lane on the 1st
of September to the newly established Electricity Supply Board. Within a few weeks Mr. Algar of the E.S.B.
submitted a quotation of £145 for 60 watt lamps and 100 watt lamps to be lit
from dusk to 11.15 p.m. from 5th September 1929 to 31st
March 1930. A decision was deferred by
the Council until the cost of providing electricity to private consumers had also
been agreed. At the same time the
Council passed the Motion, ‘that the
U.D.C. join with Athy Electrical Consumers Association in pressing their claims
on the E.S.B. for a reduction in the charges for electricity in Athy, both for
public lighting and for private consumers.’
Athy Gas Company, seeing its opportunity, quoted £135 for public
lamps, ‘apart from lamplighters wages and
the erection of lamps and making connections’. The Councillors decided to set up a meeting
with the E.S.B. Electricity was to win
the uneven battle however and by 31st March 1930 the Council agreed
to erect a further 30 public lights throughout the town.
This extra demand necessitated the provision of two transformers and
the E.S.B. were granted permission to erect them at Leinster Street and
Woodstock Street. In September what was
described as a new lighting system came into operation in the town. It
consisted of fifty 200 watt lamps, ten of which were pilot lamps lit
from dusk to dawn, while the remaining lamps were extinguished at
midnight. The proposed location of the
transformers prompted objections from ‘influential
ratepayers of the town’, following which the E.S.B. were asked to have them
erected on some other sites. The E.S.B.
refused, ‘as the material was already
brought to the sites’, whereupon the Council at its meeting on 23rd
June 1930 adopted a motion ‘that in view
of the opposition of the entire town to the proposed erection in the Market
Square of an electric transformer as demonstrated in the petition of protests
submitted to us signed by all the clergy, professional and businessmen and
general ratepapers, we the Athy U.D.C. ask our representatives in the Dail,
Messrs Buckley, Wolfe and Holohan to raise the matter in the Dail and petition
the Minister for Local Government to use his good offices with the E.S.B. to
adopt an alternative site offered by us and less than 80 yards away.’
The E.S.B. later agreed to change the transformer from Market Square
to Barrow Quay, even though work had already started on the original site. The Council Minute Book recorded ‘the townspeople are delighted with the
outcome’. The transformer is still
there, no longer serving a useful purpose and remains an ugly eyesore at Barrow
Quay. The postcard sent by Duncans many
years ago shows how we could improve the area around Barrow Quay by its
removal.
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