In the Griffiths Valuation of 1859 we see that there was a cornmill in Kirkistown leased by Workman. In reading Dr. Mullin's book, "The Kirk and Parish of Ballyrashane" he tells us that documentation shows that cornmill was leased by McNaughten's in 1720 from Mecan, still a leasee of the Earl of Antrim. Kirkistown land was then leased by McPhedris. This shows the way in which pieces of land were sub-let. Histories of Ireland tell us that it was this sub-letting by middle men which caused so much resentment of landlords during the struggles over tenant rights. The middle men were charging high rents for small pieces of land which had actually been leased to them for a much smaller amount.
The cornmill was originally a broth mill which was the place from where the parish people got their soup in the time of the famine. The existence of a broth mill is proved by its appearance on the Ordnance Survey map for 1830. That it changed to a cornmill between then and 1860 can also be seen by looking at the next edition of the Ordnance Survey Map. The farmers would bring their corn to the mill to be crushed and then used for meal for the animals. It was driven by a large water mill which was fed from dams at Kirkistown and Articrunnagh. The corn was crushed between two stones. One of these stones can still be seen in Mr Carson's garden. This is a drawing of the stone and what it must have been like when in use. You can see where the shaft went between the two stones.
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When it was leased by the Carson family during the first world war it had ceased to be used as a cornmill. Mr Carson's father then bought the mill outright and ran it as a flax mill and he built another larger mill above it. The original mill had 4 stocks and the larger mill had 8 stocks. During the twenties the water power was replaced by engine power and a large chimney was built beside the new mill. At the time of the Depression the business folded and the original mill was used as a rug store. |
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In the forties the chimney and the newer mill were knocked down and replaced by a bungalow. The original mill building is still standing and in good condition. When in operation as a flax mill in the twenties the mill would have employed around 22 men. This was quite a substantial employer since the creamery at this time would only have employed about a quarter of that. |
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Of these 12 would be scutchers, 9 strickers, 1 fireman and a foreman. The one problem was that this was only winter work. During the summer most of the employees who were all local would go to the river Bann for the fishing.
The flax which the mill produced was taken to the market at the Diamond in Coleraine.
Islandeffrick had a mill in connection with a bleaching green. It was then turned into a paper mill around 1824. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs state that it had been used as a paper mill for only 10 years and that before that it was for spinning cotton and previous to that in connection with bleaching for 80 years. The mill must have been in disuse by 1859 as it is not mentioned in Griffiths Valuation. However, locals say that in their parents time (around 1900) it was used to hold dances in.
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The Kirkistown forge was probably knocked down when the present house was built. A former resident of this house remembers digging the garden and finding a path of paved or cobbled stones. He was told by older residents that there had formally been a row of thatched stables with a paved yard there. This is at the corner where the creamery house now is, but the Ordnance Survey Map of 1907 shows a smithy at the corner opposite the church. It is possible that the smithy may have moved to the creamery site between this date and that of the living memory of the present older inhabitants.
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Examples of the work of some smiths can be seen in the iron gates which remain into some of the fields. The variety of designs made are still to be seen even within one townland. The four gates in the examples all come from Articrunnagh. They may be from different smiths, each one with his own design, or they may simply be supplied according to the wishes of the farmer owning them. It is not clear whether each farm had its gates of the one design, because today many of the gates are from farms which have been amalgamated.
Beside the Ballindreen forge there was at some stage after 1859 a carpenter's shop which remained in use until early this century. In it he would have made carts and wheels for the farmers. It is said that this belonged to a family who had 8 sons who all walked the 5 or so miles to Balnamore to learn the trade. When the first four had learned enough they emigrated to Canada and the other four took over.
At some time after 1850 there was a cobbler' shop in Articrunnagh. This man spent his time repairing boots. It is likely that he would have repaired harnesses and such like also. Boots were always made of leather and a pair would have been expected to last for years so they were continually heeled and soled and metal studs put in them so that they would last longer. The thatched shop remained until the Orange Hall was built in the 1920's.
Dr Mullin mentions in his book that a shop was run by Hugh Hamill a a butter and egg merchant but I can find no-one who can remember hearing about this. It is possible that people simply bought these things from this farm man's farm, although it is claimed that a receipt dated 1826 is still in existence.
For a short period of time in the first two decades of the 20th century a carpenter rented premises at Articrunnagh on the site of the Ferguson/McCaughan farm from where he ran a business. No-one alive today has any memory of this so I assume he did not stay for long.
There is a feeling that there may have been another group of shops at Cloyfin around the early part of this century but local memories seem divided on the content of these. The existence of a post office is not in doubt and there may also have been another shoemaker. The post office then moved to the site next to the creamery on which another shop was built in 1955. At the same time a small shop was running above this in Articrunnagh (where the present Post Office is). It would have sold such things as flour and meal, all in loose from wrapped in paper bags.
There ws also a grocer's shop in Liswatty but I have been unable to find out the date.
The creamery shop's existence has always been sketchy. It has been run twice for short periods of time but has never been able to compete with the prices in the town. Even in the fifties when motor cars were not so common there were always travelling grocery and bread vans. Now almost everybody int he parish has a car and regularly goes to the big supermarkets for their shopping.
A few of the local population were employed in the mining of iron ore and boxite in Kilgrain. These mines were closed in after the 1st World War when they became uneconomic to work.
In 1896 the creamery began to operate in a small way. This was as a result of Sir Horace Plunkett's ideas on co-operation between from 1881 onwards to improve the quality of merchandise (Irish butter being a legendary bad joke in England). His ideas attracted enough support and by 1894 33 co-ops were formed mainly creameries dealing with butter only.
Also in 1894 the Irish Agricultural organisation Society formed to "improve the conditions of the agricultural population of Ireland by teaching the principles and methods of co-operation as applicable to farming and allied industries, to promote industrial organisation for any purpose which may appear to be beneficial and generally to counsel and advise those engaged in agricultural pursuits." [Goldstrom & Clarkson]
The creamery was set up by a group of local farmers under the direction of the local Presbyterian minister of the time, Reverend Hunter, who each had shares in it amounting to a total of somewhere around £800. Although it is now under the control of the Milk Marketing Board, it is still owned and run by a committee of local farmers. Despite being set up and run by local people it would seem that they had not the expertise to run it and so employed, initially, an outsider named Smith. His connection with the parish remained tentative as he spent his life lodging with a family in Gorticloughan.
The creamery began as a single building where only butter was made. The farmers would take their milk to the creamery where they separated the cream and returned the buttermilk to the farmer. As time went on the creamery employed a carter to bring in the milk churns on a horse and cart which would have carried about a dozen cans.
The creamery started by employing 3 men and increased slowly until 1936 when there were 12 people employed. These included the manager, a boilerman, a carter, a churner and several dairymaids.
The advent of the creamery produced a better quality butter since the method of separation was much more effective than achieved at home in the farm houses. The farmers left the milk for two or three days until the cream naturally rose to the top of the milk, and then separated it from the sour buttermilk below. This meant that the butter was actually sour by the time it was churned. The churning too, took several hours and a lot of hard work.
When it was separated in the creamery the separation was done straight away and the cream was churned the next day. They also had facilities to cool the cream which helped to prevent contamination which was not so well controlled in the farmhouses. Churning still took place in a large wooden churn and only one person was employed to churn the butter until 1950.
Other farmers still took their milk to the market in Coleraine or round the doors in Portrush. One of the first cars was owned by a farmer in Outhill. It was called a 'dickie' and it was a two seater with a creamery can complete with tap on the back. People came out to the car with their own jugs and bought milk in this way.
There would seem to have been little development within the creamery until the Department of Agriculture took over the existing creameries in the forties and closed many of them down. Ballyrashane was kept primarily because of its geographical location. The Milk Marketing Board then took responsibility and the creamery began to expand rapidly. For a short while (1908 -20) cheese making was tried but it was not a success and almost left the creamery out of business. The reason being that during these years people were very poor and they did not have enough money to buy cheese. After a short period it was discontinued and the creamery managed to pull through. People however had begun to use whole milk regularly and the creamery was heavily involved in pasteurising and making this ready for selling to the general public. The bottling side of milk production took off from this point in time.
During the 40's the creamery began to take over some of the milk runs in the town. This meant an increase in staff bringing the numbers employed up to around 26.
As in farming the development of the creamery really took off from 1950 onwards. At this time the creamery was only two small buildings. Included in these were offices. There was no mains water and it had to be pumped from a nearby spring. Electricity had by this time reached it and there was elementary machinery for washing bottles and driving other equipment. They were still using coal power to make the steam for pasteurising the milk.
In 1950 a machine, called a hopper, was bought to shape butter. It replaced the dairymaids who had previously patted the butter into pounds. It still had to be wrapped by hand at this stage. The amount of milk coming into the creamery was rising but the addition of the machine meant that the staff stayed at the same number.
The milk from the farmers was still coming to the creamery in cans although some of it was collected by private lorry from the farms. Tankers began to appear in 1955 and these belonged to the creamery itself. Ballyrashane was the first creamery to have tankers. This necessitated the creamery building its own garage and employing mechanics. Previous to this the lorries were repaired in the town. At this stage the output is estimated at something like 18000 gallons a day. By 1987 this had risen to 49,000. The creamery has continually made progress and has gained from the closure of other creameries. It has increased its workforce from 26 in 1950 to over 70 today. Many of these, of course, are employed indirectly in the form of tanker drivers, mechanics and milk roundsmen. No doubt the wages too have increased substantially. The average wage for a man in 1950 was £6 per week.
In 1950 the conversion of the cream off the milk into butter had to be manually handled. This meant that when the cream was churned a man had to use a long wooden spade to remove the butter. It was then cut into blocks by a wire cutter which made it ready for wrapping for sale. Today this is all done automatically and the butter comes out of the machinery process ready shaped for wrapping.
In 1973 when Britain joined the Common Market, the creamery saw its biggest period of expansion. The guaranteed high prices to farmers meant that the amount of milk coming in rose substantially. This again meant an increase in the workforce. At this stage some of the milkmen began to lease their own milkrounds on a franchise basis. At the same time the tankers began to take milk further afield and so more tanker drivers were needed. The amount of butter produced and milk bottled has now gone past its peak since the EEC stopped buying up the excess produce. Milk quotas mean that the production will now remain steady. The large cold stores which are now situated beside the creamery are being used to store excess supplies from earlier years. This was not their initial purpose. The creamery produces butter for export to Germany and Saudi Arabia. It is frozen in these stores before shipping abroad. The reason for Germany valuing Irish butter is that it can be produced cheaper and also that Ireland does not suffer so much from contamination of the fields and atmosphere.
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Unlike the past when the government subsidised skimmed milk to the farmers for animal feed, the skimmed milk now goes to another plant for drying. Unlike the past, the farmers now have no more contact with their milk once it has left the farm.
MOTOR CARS
Lady Jamison had a horse-drawn car made for herself in 1881. It was said to be very fine with silver trimmings and blue rugs and cloth to match the ultramarine paint. [Mullin}
The first cars as we know them appeared in the parish during the 1930's. Mrs Carson, however, remembers her grandfather having a car just before the war. The registration number is still clear in her mind. DSZ 803
There must have been a trade in motor cars in the area by the twenties since the marriage records show garage proprietors and motor mechanics in this period but they must have worked in the town as there was no industry of this kind in the parish.
Today the only industry we have in the parish is the Creamery and its workforce is no longer local. The majority of locals work in farming or in various types of employment in the nearby towns.
