In Those Days: A picture is worth many memories

Courtesy of indefatigable collector of mid-county memorabilia Joe Murray, this is a grab from an Irish Press in 1932 showing the weir and the rear of Collins's Mill in Kilcullen, writes Brian Byrne. In addition, they show the hillside cottages, which have their own bit of local history.

According to the late Jim Kelly Snr, tailor and historian, an original row of thatched cottages on the side of the hill was demolished around 1900. The historic Ordnance Survey map of 1829-1842 shows those cottages, but they didn't go as far up the hill. The current houses, which are approximately 720 sq ft in area and comprise sitting room, bathroom, kitchen and one bedroom, were constructed soon after the others were pulled down, because they are shown on the OS maps published in 1913.

The weir also has its own story. The late Jim Collins often spoke of how it provided his father with power via a sluice and wheel to run a milling operation that also gave his dad the lifelong nickname of 'The Miller'.

Jim pointed out how his father kept the very rough-built weir in place against the frequent flood waters, reinforcing it with the chassis' of discarded vans, scrap granite stones, and anything else that would help keep the water diverted through his wheel. Many of those worn-out vehicles were vans used by the postman Jim Barber, who lived in the 1930s where the Murphy Design offices are now, and whose transport was always so clapped out that whatever he was driving was usually described as 'The Wreck of the Hesperus'.

Jim also revisited the story of your editor's father, Jim Byrne Jr, who operated a cinema during WW2 in what is now the Town Hall Theatre, among his business interests. With electricity all but unavailable for such uses, my dad organised a generator to be hooked up to Mr Collins's wheel to provide power to run the projector in the evenings. "People would come from as far away as Allenwood because there was nowhere else to see a film," Jim recalled. "And as an added benefit, because the power was coming from my father's mill, I got free entry to the cinema, so I became an authority on Gene Autry, Tom Mix, and all the other cowboy heroes of the time."

The weir was breached in 1947, requiring Jim Collins's father to find a more modern source of power.

Thanks for the pic, Joe, and the memories it revived.

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