Arklow Heritage Museum

6 days ago

William Proby (1836-1909)
You may remember we made a post discussing Glenart Castle recently: www.facebook.com/ArklowHeritage/posts/pfbid0SddbHkW6otwmzP4HYzsTJ5pAUq5S4o5d8rizfk5tZanuNkt5gbfUL... . On this post one of the many questions I received were about William Proby’s relationship with Arklow and its people and as I delved more into the situation I discovered a story of how a man went from being a hero of the working class during his early years in power, to being seen as a pariah by the end of his tenor.

William Proby, 5th Earl of Carysfort, son of Granville Leverson Proby the 3rd Earl of Carysfort served as High Sheriff of Wicklow in 1866 and as Lord-Lieutenant of County Wicklow from 1890 to 1909 after he succeeded his brother, also named Granville Proby, but his entry into a political standing begins even earlier than that.

Early Life
William Proby was born near Arklow at Glenart castle on January 18, 1836, he was born into a family of immense wealth and political influence. He was the youngest son of Granville Proby, the 3rd Earl of Carysfort. William never had a chance to get to know his mother, as she unfortunately passed away while giving birth to him. He was educated at Eton College and later attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Master of Arts in 1858. As a young man, he served as a captain in the Wicklow Militia. He married Charlotte Mary Heathcote, daughter of Reverend Robert Boothby Heathcote and Charlotte Sotheby, on 11 April 1860 at Chingford, Essex, England, the marriage although fruitful in other ways, produced no children.

Titles and political career
William Proby’s political career began not long after he had graduated college when in 1862 he sat in the main chair of a committee who were to decide upon whether they could help provide fresh water for poorer people in Arklow, a process that had been discussed for over 8 years at this point. Under Williams leadership with Fr James Redmond serving as his acting Secretary, 2 resolutions were passed that night, first that there were to be public pumps put in place in the town (you may have seen a previous Facebook post of ours on these: www.facebook.com/ArklowHeritage/posts/pfbid0vfzJ1t1r62PqdALKaF5k7r4QQ2wQwr888CRs7kA6hb9z3c9WFoZiy...
) and the second resolution was the addition of a new committee to be formed in order to raise the necessary funds. In the end, William not only pushed through the idea that these pumps were necessary, but also donated £50 from the Carysfort estate to ensure the project happened. This push for social change and the betterment of people not born as lucky as him would become a cornerstone of William Proby’s political ethos moving forward. During the Arklow cholera epidemic of 1866, bodies were piled up in the street, with the belief that the bodies were the cause and spread of the disease, nobody wanted anything to do with a person who was dying or had died from it. At this point William Proby and Fr Redmond, who had become his right hand man by this point, stepped into the fold to try and help ease the problem. They started recruiting and organising volunteers and at least according to the folk memory, actually took part in removing the bodies and burying them in some cases. I have attached an article to this post that was printed in the Wicklow Newsletter on December 9th 1866 and it goes into detail about the event and how the public felt about Proby at this time
It was originally expected that William Proby would not inherit any personal titles being that he was the younger son, however when his father passed away in 1868 and then subsequently his older brother in 1872, William succeeded him and became the 5th Earl of Carysfort. Upon succeeding to the Earldom, William took control of Glenart Castle, the magnificent family seat located just outside Arklow. Under his stewardship, the castle and its sprawling estate became a hub of local employment and high society. As a landlord, Lord Carysfort held tens of thousands of acres across County Wicklow, County Dublin, and parts of England (including Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire). In Arklow, he owned virtually all the land situated south of the River Avoca, giving him immense influence over the town's development.

Developer
William Proby used his new found power to continue his work towards the betterment of the town. The first problem he spotted was the poor conditions that the residents, especially the fishing community were living in, he came up with idea of modernising housing in order to bring it up to a model village standard, along the lines of Port Sunlight and Bournville in England. The parish priest who was now Archdeacon Redmond could not be more pleased to see a man he had fought for the rights and wellbeing of Arklow people ascend to the level of Earl and continue his cause despite it (attached is a reproduction of the letter he sent to Proby after his ascension). To this end, his first project was the construction of St Michaels Terrace, known back then as Proby’s Row, a project started in 1875 and completed in 1878, it had consisted of 42 houses on its completion. The following year in 1878, Proby set upon the idea of a civic center, an area where town meetings could be held and matters discussed. However this building, which is now called Marlborough Hall, mostly due to political and sectarian arguments was never used for such purposes. Next he wanted to make it easier for the fisherman to make money from their work and to do this he needed to first improve the harbour, in order to make it fit for purpose. Proby secured a grant of £13,000, however after little of the work had been completed a year later the money was reacquired by the government and Proby’s plans were scuppered.

A hero no more
With the failure of his previous project and a desire to finance his next, Proby could see only one path forward, to raise the rent on the tenets land. He commissioned a valuation to be drawn up of all the property in Arklow owned by him called “Townsend Trench” (a picture of houses on the Wexford Rd I have attached). From this valuation it was found that he was getting £316-7-11 and he deemed after the valuation that he could receive at least £1067-0-9, by increasing the rents town wide. This was the beginning of the end for Proby’s status as the saviour of Arklow in most people’s mind. It was one thing if you lived in the newly built houses and had an increase in rent for living in a modern house, but you felt aggrieved if you were living in old run down ramshackle houses that the locals renamed the area to “Cowld Town” a corruption of cold town. The priest that once was a staunch defender of Proby Fr James Redmond died in 1877 and the town that he wated to advance had mostly turned against him. It is often thought that William Proby was by the end a man of two lives separate, his early years of defending the weak, sick and poor, contrasted his ascent into a confrontational baron landlord of his later years. When Charles Stewart Parnell wanted to help the town advance in 1882, Proby refused to help and deemed Parnell a class traitor for his perceived non devotion to the crown. We do not know if the towns love for Parnell, Proby’s insistence on street preaching Protestantism or the blocking of many projects caused the downfall of the admiration for Proby, but by 1890 the idea of donning your cap to the man was well and truly gone from the public. In late 1890’s Proby turned his ideas insular, he started a major development on Glenart castle and in 1899 the work of building the protestant church St Saviors was completed thanks to funding from Proby.

Death
When William Proby died on September 4, 1909, at the age of 73, the Earldom of Carysfort became extinct. As he had no heirs, his extensive estates were passed down through his sister's family, the political Kirkpatrick / Proby line. Today, his legacy lives on in Arklow through the stones of St. Saviour's Church, the history of the local quarries, and the enduring lore of Glenart Castle. William was buried at Elton, Huntingdonshire District, Cambridgeshire, England and his grave can be found here: www.findagrave.com/memorial/143752578/william-proby

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Arklow Heritage Museum

2 weeks ago

RNLI 200th Exhibition
Ladies and gentlemen the RNLI 200 exhibition is almost ready for viewing, just a few final touches to be done. We will be opening to the public on Friday the 09th of October from 10am and it will be entirely free of charge to view during the entire months of October-December.

The RNLI is Arklow’s oldest institution, so we are so proud to be able to celebrate a historic birthday with the brave men and women who have saved so many Arklow men and women throughout the last 200 years.

Many of the pieces are donated and loaned exclusively for the exhibition, so make sure to drop by and give it a look, as it may be another 50/100 years before they are removed from members storage and we get see them again :P. ... See MoreSee Less

Arklow Heritage Museum

4 weeks ago

Kynochs explosion
Today marks the day that 109 years ago 27 men lost their lives in a devastating explosion that rocked the people of Arklow and left them in a perpetual state of morning without a body, casket or gravesite to grieve over.

The Factories inception
The factories earliest history starts with having been opened by a man name George Kynoch who took over a percussion cap manufactures in 1863, and subsequently renamed it to G. Kynoch and Co. Despite the factory expanding to four different locations, George lost interest quite early in the factories inception. He sold his shares in 1884, but continued as a managing director, then 1186 and 1887 respectively he became a member of parliament and purchased Aston Villa football club and became president of the football club. At this point the board had enough and forced George to resign his role in 1888, as they felt he had become too distracted by these new roles. At this point a man name Arthur Chamberlain Sr ascends his way on to the board and is made chairman by 1891, of what is now known by this point as Kynochs Ltd. Through Arthurs savvy business dealings and his connections to the British parliament, he managed to rescue the ailing business and turned it into a thriving industrial powerhouse. With the massive turnaround in fortunes for the factory, Artur Chamberlain and his business partner A.T Cocking wanted to open another factory here on the east coast of Ireland.

Arklow’s Entry
The establishment of the Kynochs factory in Arklow in 1895 came about due to the vision of Chamberlain and Cocking, initially given two options Brittas Bay and Arklow. The reasons Arklow were multifaceted, first the north beach was situated less than half a mile from the harbour at the mouth of the Avoca River, making it easy to ship explosives to England, Brittas bay would not have had as easy an access to the sea. Arklow also had a rail network nearby which meant workforce and materials could easily be brought in via rail. The population of Arklow was also quite a bit larger than Brittas bay at the time, with an estimated population of about 5000 at the time which facilitated a readymade workforce. The final reason the site here at Arklow was chosen was a major boon to Chamberlains project, the site where the factory was to be situated, was already home to a chemical factory that had previously shut down, with all the equipment still inside and nearby workforce already trained in its use, this was the perfect spot.

The factory in Arklow started quickly with the chemical works hiring on a workforce of about 260 people within the first week, comprised of men, women and children as young as 14 to produce the precursor to the explosive “cordite” a long stringy item that comprised of cotton wool and gunpowder before it was then dipped in nitro-glycerine elsewhere in the final step. However this would not remain the case for long, then factory expanded northwards along the coast of Arklow all the way up to the bay hotel and east to the coast. In the end the Kynochs Arklow location was 1 and a half miles long, consisted of serval mixing houses, danger houses, a recreation building, a hospital, a brick making building and several fancy residential houses for their English staff.

The Explosion
The shift began at 6pm on Friday the 21st of September 1917, all workers made their way through the usual stringent safety procedures. Remove your shoes, take your cloggs (a specialized wooden shoe), then fill the sack that was marked by a number with all of the items in your pockets and your belt and shoes, you were then handed a match box token that represented that bag (shown in the images attached). The idea that you wouldn’t hand over anything that could potentially cause you or others harm was unheard for the most part and punishment was strictly enforced, the lightest thing that would happen to you is getting fired, with 6 month prison sentences handed out to many during WW1 who broke these rules. Now there is no chance of an accidental explosion it is time to work, these safety procedures had been a cornerstone of the factory and served the safety of the factory well for the 22 years that it had now been in the town.

An inspection was carried out at 3.05am and John Kinghorn (a chemist at the factory) was satisfied all was well. Then at 3.45am a large flash was seen in two locations by Private Richard Craig (a sentry standing guard at the back of Seabank House) and George Harvey who was part of the coast guard at the time. This was followed by a thunderous bang and a large mushroom cloud of flame, similar to what is often seen in atomic nuclear munitions. At same time several loud hisses were heard about a mile away by John Goodall who managed the high-risk, vital explosives and cordite manufacturing division, he was tucked up in bed at the time and even though the loud clap and visual of the plume of smoke now emanating from the factory hit him quickly, nothing could’ve prepared him or the town or Arklow for the grief that was about to become known. In an instant 27 men were lost, no body to wake, no coffin to bury and no grave to mourn, it was like they never existed. We can only estimate the feeling of their grief that must’ve eclipsed any who have buried relatives where at least they get to say goodbye in some fashion. In fact the only reason we know these are the 27 men that were lost on that brutal Friday morning is the Match Box tokens and pay tokens in these men’s possession were never turned over and their items were never collected.

Accident or sabotage
There was immediate investigations in to what could have possibly been the culprit for this devastating loss. The theories started with many, but in the end only three could not be immediately ruled out, German U-boat attack, sabotage by the IRA or a worker mishandling the dangerous and volatile liquid.

The German U-boat (original name for a submarine) attack theory was one that held up under scrutiny, unlike similar theories such as a plane doing a fly by or a motor car that place the explosive, that were both dismissed outright. The U-boats were seen off the eastern coast of Ireland very regularly, in fact the coastline off Arklow was actually known as U-boat Alley, due to their prevalence in the waters. Even though the sentry who was on duty at the time Private Richard Craig stated that there was a bright light coming from the sea at around the time of the explosion, the U-boat theory was dismissed in the end by the testimony of Captain George Harvey of the patrol vessel Girl Hilda who had been cruising in the vicinity at the time. As for the IRA there just wasn’t any significant proof that they were involved and it was discovered years later that the IRA had been stealing explosives, so it seems unlikely they would risk sabotaging their pilfering operation. So in the end the investigation determined that it was simply workers folly and the factory resumed operation 2 days later.

Exit of a major industry
By the end of the Factories lifespan there was almost 5000 people working in all aspects of the factory in 1917. The estimated population of Arklow at this time is somewhere between 5042 (1911 census) and 4535 (1926 census), so we can assume at this point there wasn’t many people not employed by Arthur Chamberlain Sr’s son also named Arthur Chamberlain in some capacity in the factory grounds. Many have presupposed that the explosion was the factories last straw and it was the cause of its eventual closure, but this is in fact unlikely to be the case as in 1918 there was still about 3000 workers in the factory. The real reason for the closure is hard to pinpoint, but here are some of the possible reasons for the eventual closer:

1.The British government wanted to consolidate all weapon manufactures into one on the island of Great Britain, under the name Explosive Trades Ltd
2. The demand for explosives by February 1918 had decreased
3. World War 1 ended on the 11th of November 1918 and a large stockpile of explosive had now been accrued.

During this time these effects were felt heavily by the factory grounds, were once there was 3000 workers at the beginning of 1918, they only numbered in the hundreds by the end of that year. Then after many tries by Arthur Chamberlain Jr to secure new contracts for the factory, on December 1919 he returned to Arklow and untriumphantly placed a lock on the doors for the very last time.

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