About The Society

 

Blundell and Downshire Rule

The soil of Edenderry was through the marriage of Sarah Colley and George Blundell, for the most part of the 18th century in the hands of the Blundell family who resided at the elegant Easthampstead Park in Berkshire, England. On his debt in 1756, Lord Blundell left Edenderry in the hands of his three daughters. The ownership of Edenderry next passed into the hands of the Marquis of Downshire’s family in 1786, when, Arthur Hill, the marquis’s eldest son, known as Lord Kilwarlin, married Mary Sandys, heiress to Edenderry through her grandmother a sister of Lord Blundell. The first marquis of Downshire, Wills Hill, was elevated to the title of marquis in 1789 and died in 1793; his son Arthur then assuming the title of marquis of Downshire. Heavily troubled by financial debts, Arthur died in 1801 after loosing much of his place and privilege in society including his seat on the Privy Council owing to his opposition to the Act of Union in 1800. Until 1809 the Downshire estates which included Hillsborough and Dundrum in County Down, Blessington in County Wicklow, Clonderlaw in County Clare, a small estate in County Kilkenny and the elegant Easthampstead Park in Berkshire were under the control of Arthur’s wife, the Dowager marchioness Mary Sandys.

When Arthur Blundell Trumbull Sandys Hill, third marquis of Downshire, came of age in 1809 he was faced with clearing the considerable death that his predecessors had accumulated, while his mother continued to receive two thirds of the rent from the estate at Edenderry until her death in 1836. Regarded as an improving landlord, the third marquis did much to improve Edenderry and immediately began his tenure by replacing the mud walled cabins of the main street by building slated stone houses. He was helped in this regard by his agents who included John and James Brownrigg, Thomas Murray and briefly Matthew Lynge.



1798 Rebellion

The town of Edenderry and the surrounding countryside was deeply troubled by the events of 1798 and indeed the Defender disturbance of the 1790s. Although no rebellion broke out in the summer of 98 at Edenderry, their was a high level of United Irish conspiracy in the years leading up the 98. The Battle of Rathangan in May 1798 saw men from Edenderry pitted against one another on the Yeomanry and United Irishmen sides. Two locals William Kennedy and Stephen Hyland were executed for their part in the failed attack on the charter school in Carbury in May 1797. Much of the local lore concerning 1798 however concerns the execution of the Wexford rebels Fr Mogue Kearns and Col Anthony Perry, executed on Blundell Hill 21 July 1798. For more information about the 1798 rebellion at Edenderry see Ciarán Reilly’s Edenderry, County Offaly and the Downshire estate 1790-1800 (Dublin, 2007)



Industry 

Industry in the town of Edenderry is inextricably linked with the fortunes of the Alesbury family, an industrious Quaker family who originated from Bristol. Daniel Alesbury first set up a timber factory in Edenderry in 1878, before moving to a more permanent factory after his original factory was consumed by fire. The same fate befall Aylesbury’s located beside the Grand Canal in 1904 when a massive fire gutted their purpose built premises. However they survived this setback and continued to prosper until 1932 when business ceased. It was replaced in 1935 by the Edenderry Shoe Company which remained in business until 1991.

The development of the bogs by Bord Na Mona in the 1940s also greatly influenced the area around Edenderry. Men from the locality were employed at Ballydermot, Shean, Derrygreenagh, Lullymore and Clonsast board of works, while others were employed in the peat processing plants at Allenwood, Rhode, Portarlington and Croghan Briquette factory In more recent times industries like Glanbia and Rationel Windows were the largest employers in the area.



The Grand Canal

‘The canal now flows serenely it has given what it can’- The Grand Canal played an integral part in the history of Edenderry, since it passed close to the town in the 1790s. A decision was taken to extend the cut of the canal to the town which was completed by 1804 when the first barges arrived carrying merchandise to and from Dublin. For generations turf, wheat, flour, butter and people were brought to the capital, and the numerous breeches the canal suffered never failed to cease the spirits of the people of Edenderry who understood the importance of this mode of transport. Severe breeches occurred in 1833, 1855, 1916 and 1989. The last barge left Edenderry with passengers in 1962 (at the same time as the demise of the Railway line) and signalled an end of a way of life for many.