before the Famine

By David Griffin

By 1830 Banbridge was long established as a major of which I speak 19-20ths of the tradesmen centre of the linen industry. In fact Sir Robert Kane, were able to weave on their own account, and 1784 described the Upper Bann as, all the profit on the webs wrought came to themselves. For some 19-20ths of "the most fully economised river in Ireland" years past them weave to extensive manufacturers, who Along the Bann between , Newtown and are not able to weave for themselves and the there were eighteen mills engaged in the wages are so low that in general it requires various processes of the linen trade. Indeed the mill constant and hard to clear from owners combined in 1836 to form the Bann Reservoir close, work, II- to 8/- or 91- in the week, and in doing so Company and build the reservoirs at Lough Island it requires a great part of another person's Reavy and Corbet to power the mills on the river. The time in the family to attend them; many of industry continued to expand and in 1837 a quarter them fall considerably short of these sums, if million pieces of cloth a year were being woven in the the yarn happen to be bad or if they be not Banbridge area. 2.The Ordinance Survey memoir for exceedingly diligent. At the same time I believe Seapatrick Parish (1837) describes the manufacturers pay them as high wages as "the cultivated fields studded with com richly the state of the market will afford but their fortable cottages, the snowy appearance of the earnings by the loom no longer enable them bleachgreens and noisy manufactories with the to pay high rents, high tithes and high cesses around them and the noise growing villages and the farm seldom does more than increase of the busy shuttle which may be heard in their difficulties. Thus whilst the operative nearly every house." tradesman in the linen business is getting ex However the wealth of the linen trade did not bring ceedingly poor, a few manufacturers are to the whole The nature of the prosperity community. monopolizing the trade and are getting ex the introduction of the wet industry changed following ceedingly rich. For if they have but a shilling James of Preston in 1825) spinning process (By Kay of clear profit on every web woven to them and the weavers become on the increasingly dependent their yearly gain will be very considerable; so mill-owners. Women in the home could earn spinning that whilst they are most eminently useful in little more than Id a and the bleachers day imported giving employment to thousands and vast of which out' quantities mill-spun yard they 'put thousands, the principal benefit settles with to the weavers. In Brice of Brookfield Banbridge Smyth themselves; and whilst there may be as much outweavers and Dunbar of employed 2,000 Hugh money in the country as there was 16 or 20 a further 1,700. Huntly years ago, it is far from being so equally divid As the Rev. James Davis, Unitarian Minister, ed among the community: the operatives in the Parish comments in the 1837 in Seapatrick "Inquiry linen trade are becomng more and more to the condition of the of the Poorer Classes in Ireland" dependent, the money is leaving the hands of the stucture of the changing industry brought great this useful class of men and is accumulating hardship to the weavers and very considerable wealth to an immense extent in the hands of their to their employers. employers." "The of small farmers, some great majority Banbridge developed quite dramatically in the 1830s years ago, were in the habit of the connecting and this no doubt was largely due to the accumulation weaving of linen with the management of their of wealth in the hands of the mill-owners. The Mar little and their farms mere farms; regarding quis of Downshire also contributed to many of the ly as of accommodation, looked to places they developments. Indeed few of the town's familiar land the profits of their trade to enable them to pay marks predate the 1830s, although the Downshire their rents and all other demands. At the time Arms are and Iveagh House two exceptions. 34 AND DISTRICT LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY _POYNTZPASS

"The Cut" with the old town hall on the right. Unitarian Church, Downshire Road.

WILLIAM SMYTH & GO.,

BLEACHERS AND MERCHANTS,

Mflltown Bleach Works,

LENADERG, BANBRIDGE

Belfast; 8 James Street, South. Manchester: GfyFountain Street. POYNTZPASS AND DISTRICT LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY_35

At this time there were many complaints about the 1830s. The Market House also housed the Petty Ses severity of the climb through Banbridge and the sions and a Reading and News Room. At the back of possibility of by-passing the town was seriously the Market House stocks were provided that "will discussed. Faced with such a threat, the Marquis of answer occasionally for culprits" 3. Downshire, local mill-owners and merchants, combin The wealth of the town in the 1830s is perhaps best ed to employ William Dargan (Ireland's greatest shown by examining the flurry of church building. The railway engineer) to build a new stone bridge across split between Unitarianism and Presbyterianism the river. However the greatest engineering feat of the resulted in the building of Street Church in period was the building of the 'Cut'. The old linen hall 1830. Indeed the Unitarian Meeting House on the which had dominated the town was taken and Lurgan Road could no longer provide for the thriving the hill lowered. The original 'Cut' was 200 yards in congregation and the splendid church on the Downshire length and a mere 15ft wide and cost ?19,000 (It was Road was completed in 1845. In 1837 Holy Trinity widened in the 1880s). Parish Church opened its doors, as St. Patrick's Church There was much debate about the siting of a new (Seapatrick) was too small and too far away. Work on Market House and it was eventually built on the site St. Patrick's, Dromore Street was in progress and a of the 'Bunch of Grapes'. The Market House, which Wesleyian Church was also built. cost ?2,000, became the centre of a flourishing and However, there is another side to the picture. While varied trade. Three banks were also opened in the the mill-owners and merchants lived in their fine

The Brown Linen Market at Banbridge in the Pieces of Linen to View, the Bleachers elevated County of Downe. The Weavers holding up their on Forms examining its Quality. 36 POYNTZPASS AND DISTRICT LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY

Perspective View of a Bleach Green taken in the and Dry Bleaching, and the outside View of a County of Downe. Shewing the methods of Wet Bleach Mill on the most approved construction.

houses, many of which were scattered along the Bann, Workhouse (on the site of the modern hospital) and the poor classes lived in single roomed cabins. Banbridge became the centre ofthe newly formed Poor Law Union. The Workhouse which was built to house "The cottages are in general from 15 to 18 feet was to a when famine struck in the long and from 10 to 12 wide and are compos 800 play vital role ed of stones and mud rudely put together." 4. later 1840s. The provision for the poor was totally inadequate. There were one hundred and thirty registered beggars but many others were forced to resort to the town's /. Paper by John Smyth, British Association, 1784 2. O.S.M. Parish. three pawnbrokers at regular intervals. A single dispen Seapatrick 3. P.R.O. D671/0/14/3/2. sary provided for the medical needs ofthe poor as the 4. to First ofthe Commissioners for County Infirmary at was too far away and Appendix Report into the condition of the Poor Classes in the Fever Hospital inTandragee had few beds. A major inquiring Ireland. development in 1841 was the opening of Banbridge Upper Iveagh. POYNTZPASS AND DISTRICT LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY_37

F. W. HAYES & CO., 3Liimt QHjtttitr jEmmfactttitrs,

SEAPATRIGK MILLS. BANBRIDGE.

? Principal Agencies New York: 202 Church Street (H. B. Shaen ft Oo.) . London: 76 Aldemanbury. Manchester: 7 Dale Street. Miller Qlasgow:.11 Street^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ mm*' ^^^mmmmmmmmmmmm^m^^k^^"- ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^IBl^^^^^^^H