Park Villas, Peck’s Lane, Castleknock – Local History Castleknock

According to a number of accounts by children who contributed to the Schools Folklore Collection (duchas.ie) back in 1937, Peck’s Lane takes its name from a former resident – Colonel Peck – see below for extracts from these accounts.

Park Villas comprised several rows of artisan houses built along Peck’s Lane in the 1920s for ex-British soldiers. The houses have a distinctive dormer style with a red lattice pattern roof. They usually had four rooms and a scullery, with a front garden and generous rear gardens, for growing vegetables. These ex-army houses were built in small pockets countrywide, usually in blocks of four or six in urban areas and either semi-detached or detached in rural areas. This housing stock was managed by a Trust until the 1950s, when they were offered for sale to the tenants. These ex-army style houses are still recognisable today, despite extensions and alterations. All bar one of the gardens in Park Villas now accommodate new houses.

Park Villas, Peck’s Lane. The last house with its garden site cleared for development.

A large number of families lived in Park Villas. Some who come to mind are the Forans, the Dempseys, the Purcells, the Byrnes, the Walkers, the Caseleys, the Kellys, the Hills, the Spaines, the Harfords and the Christians, among many others. Many of the children from Peck’s Lane were at school in Castleknock – some made contributions to the already mentioned Schools Folklore Collection.

My father’s best man was Jimmy Christian, originally from Blackhorse Lane, as we called it. Jimmy moved to Peck’s Lane after he married. Jimmy’s son, Tommy Christian, was a friend of mine from the scouts and went to my school. When I was about fourteen, one of Tommy’s sisters arrived over at my house on her bike with a jumper she had knitted. I presumed she had knit it for Tommy and it didn’t fit.

Across the lane, Jack Fagan, the local meter reader, lived in a bungalow that backed onto fields. He went about his business on a bike, with a thick ledger strapped to the rear carrier. At the far end of Peck’s Lane just at the Navan Road junction was the Seagraves’ imposing farm house. Tessa Seagrave, who had a head of curly hair, was in school with me. Our neighbour, Mickey Harford, was also brought up in Peck’s Lane.

One of my uncles, Tommy Reilly, an ex-British soldier, lived in Park Villas with his wife, Maggie, and my nine Reilly cousins – Tom, Fanny, Peg, Jen, Agnes, Sadie, May, Josie and Nell. The girls were much sought after at local dances, as they were good-looking, great dancers and always dressed to the nines.

Another uncle, Peter Reynolds, also an ex-British soldier, lived in Park Villas with his wife, Margaret (nee Plunkett) and my Reynolds cousins – Tommy, Peter, Kathleen, Peggy and Nora. My uncle Peter had served in World War I and was gassed at Arras in France. Afterwards, he got a job in the Civil Service where he rose in the ranks. Peggy Reynolds and May Reilly were close friends – they were both cousins of mine but not related to each other.

At the junction of Peck’s Lane and Castleknock Road, Hannah Phelan lived in a two storey double-fronted house with fields behind it. What I particularly remember from my childhood is the stuffed squirrel she had on the window ledge over the front door. Nearby, the Clarke family lived for a while in a cottage with its gable end to the road.

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In 1937, schoolchildren around the country were asked to make contributions giving details about their locality, or how people lived – what they ate, cures, ghost stories or folklore, all of which forms the The Schools’ Collection, originals which are held at the  National Folklore Collection in UCD.

This extract from Kitty Smith of Park Villas is held under Volume 0791, Page 67.

And here is another extract from the Schools Folklore Collection by Marie Cassidy:

And another contribution from Rita Purcell of Park Villas:

And another contribution from Sheila Byrne of Park Villas:

Another contribution from Rita Purcell of Park Villas:

And another contribution from Peg Reynolds of Park Villas:

Clarke’s former cottage, Lower Road, Strawberry Beds

Lower Road, Strawberry Beds.

The Clarke family lived in the cottage in the photo from about the mid 1940s to the late 1970s, when Mrs. Clarke moved to Ashtown. Unable to identify the children.

In the background is the Iron footbridge that spanned the River Liffey, known as the ‘Guinness’ bridge.

Farmleigh newspaper delivery round – Local History Castleknock

Front Lodge, Knockmaroon          College Lodge

One of the newspaper delivery rounds from our shop, ‘Glen Stores,’ was the Farmleigh round, which also covered residents in the Phoenix Park. The route by bicycle from our shop in Carpenterstown started along the College Road, right turn at the College Lodge and along Tower Road.

Farmleigh’s Gate Lodge at Clock Tower, former Lennon family home. Courtesy Reynolds Family Private Collection

Gate Lodge, Clock Tower                             Clock Tower

Next, it was in past Farmleigh’s clock tower and the gate lodge where the Lennon family lived. On up the avenue and straight up to the front portico door of Farmleigh where a retainer answered the door or sometimes, he’d be out front waiting on the newspaper.

Farmleigh, former home of the Earl of Iveagh

After delivering at the big house, it was down the front avenue, past the ornamental lake and out through Farmleigh’s main entrance gate into the Phoenix Park.

Farmleigh’s front gate lodge

Park Lodge, Phoenix Park (beside White’s gate)

The first delivery was to the park keeper, Fred Fisher, who lived at Park Lodge beside White’s Gate.

Entrance gate, Ordnance Survey

Back on my bike again, I continued my paper round at the Ordnance Survey. In through the gates to deliver newpapers to four or five residents there. When they upped security for some reason at the Ordnance Survey, deliveries had to be left with the gateman which suited fine as it made the round quicker.

Originally, the Ordnance Survey building was home to Lord Mountjoy. It was later converted into a cavalry barracks called Mountjoy Barracks. This is how the nearby crossroads junction at Chesterfield Avenue became known as ‘Mountjoy corner.‘ In 1824, the Ordnance Survey of Ireland (OSI) took up residence and officers had charge of a survey that mapped Ireland for valuation and taxation purposes. After 1998, military involvement with the Ordnance Survey was phased out. Over the years, the building expanded to include a print works and a shop with maps for sale that is still open to the public.

Rose Cottage, Phoenix Park

Out the Ordnance Survey gate and back into the Phoenix Park. The next delivery was to the park deerkeeper, who lived at Rose Cottage, a detached hexagonal-shaped cottage surrounded by a high hedge. The cottage is unchanged today.

As this ended the newspaper round, it was back to White’s Gate and down White’s Road past Lord Iveagh’s farmyard at Farmleigh. Incidentally , it was never called White’s Road when I was growing up – locals always called it Weekes’s Road. Straight through the crossroads then down the College Road towards home.

White’s Road (aka Weekes’s Road) with Farmleigh’s farmyard in the background

National School, Phoenix Park – Local History Castleknock

National School, Phoenix Park

The national school in the Phoenix Park was known locally as the ‘Park School.’ It was attended by children of families living in the Phoenix Park and the adjacent area – Blackhorse Lane (as we knew it) and Ashtown. My mother’s family – the Reillys – lived in a cottage directly across the road from the entrance to St. Vincent’s, Navan Road so all the Reilly children attended the ‘Park School’ in the late 1800s/early 1900s. (My mother was born in 1898.) Children did not learn the Irish language at school back then as Ireland was still ruled by the British. Along with many others, my mother started to learn the Irish language in 1922.

The Park School closed as a national school in the 1960s but has since been used as a school for children with intellectual disabilities.

The school is used as a polling station for General elections and referenda; the President of Ireland, who resides at Aras an Uachtarain in the Phoenix Park, is often photographed going into the school to vote.

Reilly sisters from back left:- Genevieve Smith, Helen Reynolds, Mary Reilly, Maggie Reilly

Concrete cottage, Phoenix Park

Beside the Park School, there’s a turreted cottage. It is known as the ‘concrete’ cottage, because mass concrete was used in its construction.

“Castleknock, Memories of a Neighbourhood” – Book Review by History Ireland

Book review of “Castleknock – Memories of a Neighbourhood” in History Ireland:–

 

https://www.historyireland.com/book-reviews/bookworm-73/

Last year Tony Reynolds turned 90, and, fortunately for all of us, he decided to set down his tale of a lifetime in Castleknock, the (now) west Dublin suburb. As he puts it, Castleknock: Memories of a Neighbourhood is ‘a sort of blurring of lines between memoir and social history’. Though the details are specific to the area, the story of a rural idyll subsumed into the metropolis is a familiar one in the development of modern Ireland. But Reynolds has a nice way with words, occasionally bordering on the poetic:

‘I hear the final ring of the till at cashing up time, the light goes off in the shop and the bolt is drawn across for the evening. Our front door opens and emits a fresh channel of light before it closes over.’

Local History Talk about Castleknock took place on Thursday 12th of April 2018 at 7.00 p.m. in Blanchardstown Community Hall

Book cover: Castleknock, Memories of a Neighbourhood 

With many thanks to the Woodpark and Area Residents’ Association for the Invitation to give a local history talk about the Castleknock area at their A.G.M.

The talk took place on Thursday evening, 12th of April 2018 at 7.00pm at Blanchardstown Community Centre.

Cattle Market, North Circular Road, Local History Castleknock

From the top deck of a bus on Wednesday mornings, it was some sight to see cattle being driven on foot through the city centre. As the bus inched its way forward past the walls of Gavin Lowe, passengers got a bird’s eye view of the animals penned in at the cattle market and heard their roars. The cattle market was located between North Circular Road and Stoneybatter (nicknamed ‘Cowtown’), bounded by Prussia Street, Aughrim Street and St. Joseph’s Road. In its heyday in the 1950s, the cattle market in Dublin was the nerve centre of the nation’s livestock trade, handling up to a million cattle, sheep and pigs annually, with cattle being the main stock-in-trade. It was the largest weekly livestock sale in Europe. At a time when the country’s economy depended in particular on the cattle trade, prices were effectively set at the cattle market in Dublin and went on to affect prices at fairs and markets throughout the country.

Particular families engaged in the business of cattle trading or as sales masters in the market, often starting in the family business from an early age – the Barrys, Dolans, Lyons, Connons and Barretts come to mind. Dealers and buyers acting for sales masters such as the bought cattle at fairs or off the land right across the south, midlands and west. These cattle were then moved by train or road east to the counties of Kildare, Meath and Dublin to be finished or sold immediately in the market. Livestock going directly for sale were kept initially in ‘cattle parks’ for a day or two at least – these were located mainly along the Navan Road, in what are now established north Dublin suburbs such as Cabra, Finglas and Castleknock. The livestock were shifted by local drovers from the ‘cattle parks’ herded into yards around Prussia Street, before being finally moved into the market on the morning of the sale.

Cattle market, North Circular Road, at the corner of Old Cabra Road and Hanlon’s Corner.

Held each Wednesday, the market kicked off early with the gates opening for livestock at 3 a.m. The sale started at 5 a.m. and everything was done and dusted by noon at the latest. With pens for around 5,000 head, the drovers had to move cattle into and out of the market and tether them with skill and speed. Two men held the cattle up to the pen while a third put a rope around its neck and tied it around the bar. They put them in order – the tallest beast at the top, and then the next tallest, down to the smallest one at the end. Groups of cattle were tethered in lines on either side of walkways through the market so buyers could browse and view the stock. Expert stockmen, the drovers were invariably inner city Dubliners. A lot of drovers used collie dogs crossed with terriers – ‘short hairs’ – as they were known.

The market attracted buyers not only from Dublin’s abattoirs but also British livestock traders acting for slaughter houses and farmers throughout England and Scotland. Although butchers and meat processing plants bought up a significant proportion of the sheep and heifers, exporters were the premium buyers. Many English buyers came across by boat the evening before and stayed overnight in local bed and breakfasts or at the City Arms Hotel in Prussia Street until they eventually started to fly in and out on market day. Either way, the goal was to assemble their ‘lots’ of animals before breakfast. Having settled their accounts and arranged for shipping, they’d head for the airport or the boat. The market’s proceedings got media coverage on television, radio and in the national newspapers, which impacted on cattle and sheep prices at fairs around Ireland.

Of the one million cattle, sheep and pigs exported ‘on the hoof’ annually from Dublin, almost all were bought at the market. As soon as they were sold, the animals were let out of the pens to run along the streets either to nearby abattoirs or all the way down to cattle boats moored along the North Wall. Drovers on bicycles worked lines of livestock in and out between the traffic and trams or along the North Circular Road. The animals were inclined to run straight, two or three abreast, heads down, leaving a trail of dung in their wake. Young lads stood at all the crossroads along the way to steer stray animals back onto the route. Short hair dogs barked to keep the cattle out of the way of oncoming bell-ringing trams.

Up to the 1960s, the Dublin cattle market was the country’s premier outlet for the livestock trade as the only co-op marts operating in Ireland at the time were in Waterford, Kilkenny and Bunclody, Co. Wexford. Farmers felt they were getting a raw deal and they wanted more transparent sales, so the mart movement grew and the number of mart societies and the network of private operations expanded steadily until they had reached 61 centres in number by 1970.

This factor had a profound impact on the Dublin market, as country fairs had been their primary source for cattle. A decline in the export of live cattle also contributed to the decrease in the weekly numbers being sold at the Dublin cattle market. The overall deficit convinced Dublin Corporation that the cattle market had no future, but the market nevertheless lingered on until the last cattle were traded on the 9th of May, 1973.

Some of the Auctioneers such as Ganly Craigie and Doyles went on to have marts in Ashbourne, Maynooth and Blessington. When Ashbourne and Maynooth were both sold for housing in the boom, these auctioneers went into land sales and housing.

This photo is from the Dublin City Photographic Collection.

Red brick social housing units now sit on the site of the former cattle market. Some names remain that are unique to the area, such as Red Cow Lane and Oxmantown Road. Vestiges of architectural features remain too, like cottage windows in Manor Street/Stoneybatter that are exceptionally high up off the ground, built to prevent passing herds breaking the window glass; some of the windows even have bars for this reason.

Fawn Lodge and adjacent houses up to the Phoenix Park Racecourse – Local History Castleknock

    

These two storey houses opposite the Castleknock gate of the Phoenix Park, were built  c. 1885. Courtesy National Inventory Architectural Heritage.

When I was growing up, ‘Fawn Lodge,’ the dashed house on the left in the photo above, was home to Dr. Merrick, a former British Army doctor. Both houses are gone now and the apartment block that stands there now carries on the name, ‘Fawn Lodge.’ This was the grant of planning permission for ‘Fawn Lodge’:-

PLANNING PERMISSION – DECISION TO GRANT – 31st August 2008:

Location: Deerpark House and Fawn Lodge, Castleknock Road, Dublin 15. Proposed development: demolish house and outhouses/stables for a three-storey block with 18 apartments (five two-beds and one three-bed at ground floor, first floor and second floor level). Car-parking, landscaping and site works. Applicant: Fiancon Builders Ltd.

An elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Sikes, lived in Deerpark House beside Fawn Lodge. It was said that they had been tea planters in India. Mrs. Sikes used a large basket chair to get around – of course, there was virtually no traffic on the road back then. An opening to one side of Deerpark House led to a large stable block at the back. Over the years, many race-horse trainers including the Grassicks operated from here as it was ideally located beside the Phoenix Park and the race-course. In the early morning, the race horses were brought to ‘the gallops,’ a ploughed area at ‘The Fifteen Acres,’ which extended in front of the American Legation and beyond where the Pope’s Cross now stands.

On the opposite side of Fawn Lodge, just around the corner, the Robinson family lived in a large old house. I remember two sons of the family – Frank Robinson was in my class at school and his brother, Christy Robinson, was a member of the scouts and involved in the community. He used to do some gardening for my father.

Beyond Robinsons was a block of three two storey houses – the local Jubilee nurse worked from the last house and further on was Mahady’s cottage. At a point near where Castleknock Garden Centre once stood, was the lodge leading up to the ‘Rasher’ Byrne’s house and horse training establishment.

Photo of W.J. (‘Rasher’)Byrne. Courtesy Irish Racehorse Trainers Association

Beyond that was a wide entrance to the Phoenix Park Racecourse which operated between 1902 – 1990. The grounds once housed a branch of Squash Ireland as well as Silks Nightclub.

The more familiar entrance to the Racecourse was on a bend opposite the Ashtown entrance gate to the Phoenix Park, with ornate railings and a tudor lodge style kiosk, now demolished.

Longford Bridge, Ashtown Mill and the 10th lock, Royal Canal – Local History Castleknock

 

Longford Bridge, Ashtown. Photo courtesy niah.ie

Where is Longford Bridge? From Ashtown, take the road from Kelly’s pub – ‘The Halfway House’ – and head down towards the Royal Canal. Before long, you are climbing up and over this narrow limestone bridge which straddles the Royal Canal at the 10th lock. The Royal Canal Company was established in 1789 for the purpose of constructing a canal for freight and passenger transport between Dublin and the River Shannon. The first stone was laid at Phibsborough in 1790 at a point now known as the 5th lock and by 1792, construction was completed as far as the 10th lock at Ashtown. The bridge was named for one of the original directors of the Royal Canal Company, Lord Longford, who invested in the company – it is commemorated on carved stone plaques in the bridge. The Royal Canal gave employment to lock-keepers who were provided with housing at the lock points in ease of opening and closing the lock gates. Generally lock-keeping was an occupation that ran in families with the job passing from father to son.

Double lock at the 10th lock, Royal Canal. Photo courtesy niah.ie

The term ‘barge’ is a general term for work boats – normally flat-bottomed cargo-carrying vessels – which were initially horse-drawn or towed by other vessels, eventually to be replaced by motorised barges. The building of the Dublin–Sligo railway line adjacent to the Royal Canal commenced in 1846 and although transport by barge continued, the locks and canals began to degenerate in the 1930s. While barge transport got a boost during WWII due to the shortage of fuel, it did not survive the competition from rail and road after the war. Commercial traffic on the Royal Canal eventually ceased in 1955.

Ashtown Mill. Photo courtesy niah.ie

Before she married, my mother worked at the Ronuk wax polish factory based at the Ashtown Mill which was built around 1820. Canal water was used an energy source for the mill; the water was returned to the canal through a small arch on the city side of Longford Bridge. Some parts of the mill-race are still visible from the tow-path; the mill pond to rear of the premises is now overgrown. A 1837 Ordnance Survey map describes it as a linseed oil mill and indeed, many products were manufactured from linseed oil but the premises was also used for many other purposes over the years, including candle-making by the Rathborne firm. A copper clock which once graced the front façade of the mill was stolen in 2012 – it was said to have come from the former Newgate Jail in Dublin’s Green Street. These former occupations are now reflected in the names of new housing complexes in the locality – ‘Waxworks’ and ‘Rathborne village,’ to name a few.

 

The Reillys of Ashtown – Local History Castleknock

Reilly sisters, clockwise from back left: Genevieve Smith, Helen Reynolds, Mary Reilly and Maggie Reilly.

My mother’s family, the Reillys, lived in a cottage right opposite the entrance to St. Vincent’s on the Navan Road, an institution established by the Daughters of Charity. My grandfather, Philip Reilly, and my grandmother, Frances (nee Kavanagh) had eight girls and three boys. My mother was Helen Reilly.

Entrance to St. Vincent’s Centre, Daughters of Charity premises, Navan Road

My grandfather worked in the Zoo. My grandmother, a wonderful needlewoman, made dresses for ladies of local grandee families. My mother was often tasked to deliver costumes to the big houses before a hunt ball or other social functions. My wife once asked my mother about the great hand-me-downs she must have got back in the day, fabulous dresses and shoes. My mother told her, “my mother wouldn’t take hand-me-downs or anything she was offered, she’d be too proud.” As well as dressmaking, my grandmother reared chickens and turkeys and sold eggs.

Belleville House and Kelly’s pub faced each other at Ashtown crossroads. Like many pubs at that time, Kelly’s was also a shop that sold basic provisions. In the 1930s, it was all fields on both sides of the road from the crossroads, as far as the Reilly’s cottage, with the exception of St. Patrick’s Home and its gate lodge in between. Beyond the cottage in the direction of town was fields too, all the way down as far as Our Lady Help of Christians church, apart from a petrol pump that stood on a road just off the Navan Road, at a place now called Kinvara Avenue. Adjacent to the petrol pump, a makeshift wooden shop stocked basic provisions such as milk, bread and sweets which were sold through a window. A man called Brown ran the shop and petrol pump. On the opposite side of the Navan Road, there was only a line of newer bungalows between St. Vincent’s Centre and Belvedere playing fields on Baggot Road. Back in the 1930s, there was no Kinvara estate or Darling Estate and no rows of houses along Baggot Road or fronting the Navan Road. Hard to believe but it was all fields.

Back to the Reilly’s cottage. Located close to the roadside, a hedge ran along the length of its road frontage. In through a pedestrian gate and up a short path to the door of the double-fronted cottage. Just inside the gate, a large shed backing against the roadside hedge housed chickens. If you looked into the shed at night time, you’d see tiers of roosting chickens. The shed held turkeys in the lead-up to Christmas. A chicken run enclosed by wire fencing extended into the adjacent field. At the back of the house, a line of chicken sheds enclosing the yard was broken by a gateway that led into a field. That huge field stretched all the way down to the Royal Canal and across to St. Patrick’s Home. Every morning, the fowl were released into the field to forage for the day.

A tall pump and a water trough for cattle stood in the middle of the field. The fields surrounding the cottage were used for regular grazing as well as holding cattle brought by drovers up to Dublin in the run-up to auctions at the cattle market on the North Circular Road.

Tony Reynolds and sister, Maureen Reynolds at the pump beside my mother’s old family home, the Reilly home in Ashtown (opp. entrence to St. Vincents. Courtesy Reynolds Family Private Collection

Paddy Reynolds with children, Tony and Maureen Reynolds

My mother’s sister, Aunt Jen, lived on in the cottage with her husband, Ned and Joe Lyng. Ned had a job as a doorman at a building in Kildare Street, until he was knocked down by a car and sustained injuries; after that he walked with a limp. He looked after the cattle in the fields behind the house and tended a large vegetable and fruit patch. Aunt Jen worked across the road at St. Vincent’s Centre as well as continuing to rear chickens. Aunt Jen was like a second mother to us. When our mother was hospitalised with pneumonia a few times, she came to look after us.

The Reillys attended the national school in the Phoenix Park – it closed as a national school in the 1960s. The President and Phoenix Park residents still cast their votes at that school when there is a General Election or Referendum.

National School, Phoenix Park, attended by my mother. Courtesy Reynolds collection.