Athy's streetscape as noted in 1782

On the 8th August 1782 the Irish Antiquarian Austin Cooper, following a visit to Athy, wrote “Athy is a small town situated on the River Barrow over which there is a plain bridge of arches with a low square castle on the east side. Here is a Market House, church and county Courthouse, nothing remarkable in elegance of building. On the north west side of the town is a plain horse barracks and near it another old castle”. The Market House referred to was the still unaltered building erected in or around 1720 which served not only as a Market House but also as the Borough Councils administrative centre or Town Hall as well as the towns Courtroom. The plain bridge mentioned by Cooper was replaced fourteen years later by the present Crom a Boo Bridge with its classical Palladian features. Constructed of cut limestone, the five arch bridge was but a few hundred yards from its near neighbour, “the horse bridge” which was built in 1791 to allow horses pulling canal boats to cross from the canal towpath to the left bank of the River Barrow. On the Castlecomer Road leading out of Athy another new bridge was built over the Grand Canal, the third bridge in the town where once there had been but one bridge. The opening of the Grand Canal to Athy in March 1791 and the building of the Horse bridge and Augustus Bridge brought in its wake huge benefits for the commercial life of the town. The Canal was the first planned major intervention in the town’s streetscape which up to then had been dominated by streets and roads laid down in medieval times. John Roque’s maps of Athy dated 1756 and 1768 were the earliest records of the town’s street patterns and later cartographers were to record the arrival of the canal and later still that of the railway. The opening of the railway line from Dublin to Carlow in August 1846 was only the second ever major planned alteration to the centuries old towns streetscape. Houses at Bothair Bui had to be demolished to allow the railway line and Athy’s fourth bridge to be built. The medieval linear main streets of the town by the mid part of the 19th century featured bridges over the railway line, the River Barrow and the Grand Canal. From the earliest medieval times the navigable River Barrow was the principal, and at most times the only link between the early settlers in Athy and the outside world. The bridge on the Barrow and the fortified building on its eastern side were garrisoned to protect the river crossing from the warlike Irish on the west side of the Marches of Kildare. The Grand Canal facilitated the development of Athy as a market town in peaceful times while the railway line to Athy and beyond was the final confirmation of Athy’s position as a progressive market town. The story and the symbolism of the Athy bridges are fascinating indicators that river, canal and railway each in turn brought immeasurable benefits to the ancient town at different times in its life. Today, 31st October, the third major infrastructural change in the town’s streetscape will be officially opened. The outer relief road is intended to relieve traffic congestion and lessen traffic delays on Athy’s main streets with the expected removal of heavy vehicles from the town’s centre. The new roadway should make a seismatic change in the volume of traffic passing down Duke Street and Leinster Street and when it does, it will bring with it a gradual but steady improvement in the town centres footfall. On Tuesday, 14th November, the Arts Centre in Woodstock Street will be the venue for a Lecture by Dr. Sharon Greene titled ‘Shakespeare, Scrope and Castledermot’. Did you know that a Shakespeare character died in Castledermot? Stephen Le Scrope lived during the late 14th century, the third son of a prominent English family was depicted briefly in one of Shakespeare’s history plays. Sharon, who will tell Le Scrope’s story, is the former editor of Archaeology Ireland and has made a huge contribution to the protection and preservation of many archaeological sites and artefacts in the South Kildare area. The lecture starts at 8p.m. with free admission. That same week Athy Lions Club’s second Book Fair will be held in the Arch on the Kilkenny Road on Saturday, 18th November opening at 10.00 a.m. Further details about the Book Fair next week.