The Great Big Greystones History Quiz Thread

Charlie-Bravo

So here goes - if you are first to answer correctly, you get to ask the next question. I know some questions will be topical, this is just for fun so please don't clutter the thread with petty remarks!

I thought of this quiz because I have lived here for a number of years now and realise I still have lots more to learn - Greystones is a fascinating place to live.

You do realise if you answer correctly first, you'll have to come up with the next question - So make it interesting, it doesn't have to be difficult, this way we can fill the thread with facts/hear'say about our lovely town.

The first question is:

When was Greystones first put on the map?!

recedite

Nevill's map of 1760 shows Gray Stones, just off the main road through Black-Lyon. Did I win?

pixbyjohn

about 1795

Charlie-Bravo

Ok maybe that's a bit of a difficult question to get answered precisely. I'm not asking when it was first established.

Would love to see a copy of that map though recedite. I think, and this is going by what is info is available on the net about Topographia Hibernica, that John might have a close answer of 1795, but that is when the book was published. So perhaps before then?

But putting Greystones on the map was achieved by building the railway line to Greystones and that was in.....???

videos

Station first opened in 1855, on october 3oth ( around about tea-time, i think....?)

pixbyjohn

The railway line to Greystones was built in the years 1854 to 1856.

Charlie-Bravo

ok, we'll give that one to PixbyJohn!

So John, make your question a good 3,000th post!

pixbyjohn

What was the approximate population of Greystones at the time of the building of the railway line to Greystones ?

Son of Jack

Great thread.

Hard to imagine but in the census of 1851,
the population of Greystones was just 93.
The next census was in 1861.

So around the time of the building of the railway
the population was 100 approximately.

Mostly fishermen and their families
and the coastguard I presume.

'20 houses and 93 inhabitants in 1851
through to 55 houses and 238 people in 1861'
More than doubling of the population on account of the 'coming of the railway'.

pixbyjohn

You are up next Son of Jack. well done.
A great thread I agree.
Just imagine tunnelling through Bray Head for a few rich Greystones residents.
And all the trouble we had to get the Dart to Greystones

Son of Jack

Evidence of Stone Age settlers

to the North of Greystones at Rathdown

was uncovered in 1992, when what happened?


Understandably these early settlers didn't set up camp at windswept Greystones
They chose a more sheltered spot, with a fresh water spring nearby.

recedite

A shell midden was exposed by erosion at the cliff?

Son of Jack

Yes well done Redecite

a cliff collapse in 1992

revealed evidence of a Stone Age settlement to the north of Greystones.

a shell midden no doubt and neolithic flints were among the finds.

To be honest I had to google 'shell midden'

and I found it means 'A mound or deposit containing shells, animal bones, and other refuse that indicates the site of a human settlement'.

I live and learn.

Your turn!

recedite

Whats the local connection to the copper mines at Tankardstown on Waterford's "Copper Coast"?

woodsy2

I'm gonna go ahead and make a complete guess: by any chance was Isambard Brunel (the guy involved in the construction of the tunnel through bray head) in some way involved in the construction of the mine, like the steam pump engines or something?

recedite

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Just imagine tunnelling through Bray Head for a few rich Greystones residents.

Don't underestimate the importance of getting fish to market quickly in the days before refrigeration. Greystones had a thriving herring fishery at the time. Baltimore was connected to Cork at around the same time primarily to transport herrings. Having the old railway line there nowadays seems a bit bizarre, now that the herrings are gone. The town declined afterwards, unlike Greystones.

woodsy2 wrote: »

I'm gonna go ahead and make a complete guess: by any chance was Isambard Brunel (the guy involved in the construction of the tunnel through bray head) in some way involved in the construction of the mine, like the steam pump engines or something?

Nope! good guess though.

Son of Jack

Any hints

Would answer be related to
a person
or geology?

recedite

Both

Son of Jack

Clutching at straws here...

From Centenary Magazine (Holy Rosary and St. Killian's) 2008

In the early years of the 20th century
Fr. Michael Flood, Greystones oversaw the completion
of the nave and tower at the front entrance at Holy Rosary Church.

The tower was adorned with a spire of copper.

''Sometime (I guess in the late 1940’s)
the copper spire was removed
from the tower. I have got varying reasons for its
removal including water seepage, the danger of it’s
toppling over and the insurance costs, even in
those days, of retaining it''.

Did the copper for the spire come from Tankardstown, in The Copper Coast?

...Seems unlikely to be right as

''Eventually, the last few tons of copper were sold in 1879 and the mine closed''.

Charlie-Bravo

Would the La Touche family be part of the answer?

recedite

I'll give the answer now, the question is a hard one. Tankard family were a mining family and in the 1850's were at the cliffs around Windgates overlooking Greystones. Not sure if they were prospecting or found any worthwile copper there, though it does occur in seams of quartzite around Wicklow, always at the edges of the main Granite bedrock area. Bray Head and Sugarloaf are quartzite.

Griffiths valuation shows various landowners of the time including Thomas Tankard, though it seems most of the Irish miners went off to Montana USA or Australia by the late 1800's.

Lets open the quiz to the floor now, the next person to come up with a decent question fire away....

woodsy2

When the initial construction of houses started in Charlesland, the oldest "______" ever discovered was found in the remains of a fulacht fia.

Alan_P

woodsy2 wrote: »

When the initial construction of houses started in Charlesland, the oldest "______" ever discovered was found in the remains of a fulacht fia.

Wooden pipes.

What was the name of the hotel that used to stand on the site of St. Brigid's school, and who stayed there the night of October 10th, 1921 ?

pixbyjohn

Alan_P wrote: »

Wooden pipes.

What was the name of the hotel that used to stand on the site of St. Brigid's school, and who stayed there the night of October 10th, 1921 ?

White's Hotel, Dev,

Son of Jack

Alan_P wrote: »

Wooden pipes.

A fantastic find!

http://homepage.tinet.ie/~bronzeagehorns/wicklowpipes.html

"In the winter of 2003 a number of wooden tubes or pipes were uncovered during a rescue archaeological dig at Charlesland, Co. Wicklow near the East coast of Ireland. In December 2003 the pipes were formally identified by as parts of a wind instrument and named ‘The Wicklow Pipes’.

A carbon dating test was performed on the pipes and ... placed them at the transition from the Stone Age into the Early Bronze Age.

The set of six pipes and fragments which were recovered at Charlesland are being studied by Dr. Peter Holmes and Prehistoric Music Ireland on an ongoing basis. The first experimental reproduction so beautifully made by Dr. Holmes allows for the pipes to be sounded and relationships established between notes.

They were blown briefly by Pat Kenny for the first time in public on the live television chat show called The Late Late Show in December 2004. In early 2005 the first composition for Wicklow pipes, double bass and marimba by Michael Holohan was performed as part of a concert in Drogheda, Co. Louth.

The great age of these pipes and the undoubted complexity of the design and manufacturing involved, place them in the forefront of recent music archaeological finds and there is no doubt that further research will reveal a great deal more about them and the people who played them".

Alan_P

pixbyjohn wrote: »

White's Hotel, Dev,

I've heard it called both White's, and Lewis's hotel.

This page calls it Lewis's, for example.

http://www.stdavids.ie/about-the-school/holy-faith-sisters-in-greystones/

And no, it wasn't Dev :- it was Michael Collins. He stayed there the night before he left for London for the Treaty Negotiations. He was a regular visitor to Greystones at that time, visiting Dev's family who were living in the Burnaby.

Charlie-Bravo

I thought I'd resurrect this thread for a little bit of fun - so here's an easy one:

What date did Mrs Robinson's 'officially' open?

P.S. Remember, if you answer correctly first, you'll be prompted to post a new question!

Son of Jack

Thank you for reviving this thread.

I´m hoping that Monday 19th December is the correct answer ...

(and good luck to all who sail in her )

Charlie-Bravo

I'll give you that - I just read back on some posts but one seems to confirm when it actually started serving. Another post did mention the 20th, but that is over-rided by this post by Fiachra2 in attendence on the 19th.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=76090522&postcount=116

So, your turn Son of Jack - what's the question?!

Son of Jack

After whom is Whitshed Road in The Burnaby named?

Pablo Sanchez

Son of Jack wrote: »

After whom is Whitshed Road in The Burnaby named?

Admiral Whitshed?

When did the DART come to Greystones?

pixbyjohn

The last one arrived at 20.19

Son of Jack

I never realised how tricky it is to ask clear questions
My last one question doesn´t have a clear answer for sure. Apologies.
I suppose you could say it might called after any of the Whitshed family
as I am not sure what Elizabeth Whitshed (the landowner) had in mind during the building of the Burnaby Estate (from 1901).

1860 "Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed was born in London. But she spent most of her childhood and teenage years at Killincarrick House, Greystones, Co.Wicklow. She came from an upperclass background, being the daughter of Captain Sir St. Vincent Hawkins-Whitshed, 3rd Baronet".
As you can see the family names were employed in the naming of a number of areas of The Burnaby.

Elizabeth´s first husband Colonel Frederick Burnaby (born 1842) spent the winter of 1875 riding across Russian Asia. He wrote a book about this journey 'A Ride to Khiva'. There is a mock Tudor type house in The Burnaby called Khiva.

I think, knowing the history behind the placenames of the area where you live contributes to one´s sense of place

orchidsrpretty

Pablo Sanchez wrote: »

Admiral Whitshed?

When did the DART come to Greystones?

It was early 2000ish I think(without google:)) so could be off.