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Wexford / Re: corn mill, mayglass,WEXFORD
« on: Saturday 11 September 10 20:47 BST (UK) »
Hi there, I am from Gardamus - there are two mills in Gardamus. The one down the lane at Fortunes was a corn mill. How do I know? My sister lives there. The last Fortune was Thomas, now dead. His branch of the family died with him, he was married to my aunt Statia - they had no children. The farm was bought from Thomas before he married my aunt later in life. My sister married the son of the man who bought Fortunes of Gardamus.This mill was on the river which flows down into Mayglass.
The second mill in Gardamus is on a different river and this one was known locally as "The Tuck Mill". This stream is on the townland border on the Moor road.
Johnny Fortune - Thomas Fortunes father was a bit of an inventor and he had the waterwheel rigged up to provide electricity. He provided a service to the locals charging the wet batteries for the wireless sets. He also had the Pierces Fan for the fireplace driven by an electric motor. This motor was hidden behind the fan and a local man recalls, as a small boy, bringing down a wet battery to be charged to Johnny and seeing the fan turning on its own. He got an shock thinking that a ghost was turning the fan, dropped the battery - which broke and legged it out of there!
Jacob Poole a Quaker from Taghmon tried to set up flax growing in the locality in the early 19th Century I think the Tuck Mill was involved in this industry which failed to flourish.
My great-grandfather was a nephew of Thomas Staunton so my one of my great-great grandmothers was a Staunton I think. My great-grandmother Margaret died in May 1900 and my grandfather Thomas with his only brother Michael and his widowed father Andrew came to live in Stauntons of Gardamus sometime after - certainly before 1911. Stauntons of Gardamus then passed into our family. The mill in Fortunes has a sad history as a local man fell into the mill race and was crushed by the millwheel and died.
The second mill in Gardamus is on a different river and this one was known locally as "The Tuck Mill". This stream is on the townland border on the Moor road.
Johnny Fortune - Thomas Fortunes father was a bit of an inventor and he had the waterwheel rigged up to provide electricity. He provided a service to the locals charging the wet batteries for the wireless sets. He also had the Pierces Fan for the fireplace driven by an electric motor. This motor was hidden behind the fan and a local man recalls, as a small boy, bringing down a wet battery to be charged to Johnny and seeing the fan turning on its own. He got an shock thinking that a ghost was turning the fan, dropped the battery - which broke and legged it out of there!
Jacob Poole a Quaker from Taghmon tried to set up flax growing in the locality in the early 19th Century I think the Tuck Mill was involved in this industry which failed to flourish.
My great-grandfather was a nephew of Thomas Staunton so my one of my great-great grandmothers was a Staunton I think. My great-grandmother Margaret died in May 1900 and my grandfather Thomas with his only brother Michael and his widowed father Andrew came to live in Stauntons of Gardamus sometime after - certainly before 1911. Stauntons of Gardamus then passed into our family. The mill in Fortunes has a sad history as a local man fell into the mill race and was crushed by the millwheel and died.