Waterford County Museum: April 2018

Object of the Week - A Hat Made by Christys’ of London 20th Century

The firm was founded in 1773 by Miller Christy.

The firm supplied helmets to the Metropolitan Police for over two hundred years.

Their main factory was at Stockport, Cheshire, which was the largest hat and cap making factory in the world in 1843.

The firm are still in business.

Object of the Week - Coward’s Cider Label 1930s

The Coward family settled in Dungarvan c. 1925 and Henry Coward worked for Thomas Power producing his Blackwater Cider.

Power's stopped production and the Coward family started their own cider business in Stephen Street, Dungarvan where they also had an iron foundry.

Newspaper Article About Waterford County Museum 1982

Object of the Week - Memo to the Dungarvan Waterworks Committee from Michael Beary (Borough Surveyor) 1893

Michael Beary (1841-1917) lived in Sexton Street, Abbeyside. He was appointed Borough Surveyor in 1882 a post he held until his retirement in 1908. Edmund Keohan states that he designed two schemes of Artizan Dwellings in Dungarvan.

This billhead notes that he was 'Engineer for Labourer's Cottages'. He was interested in local history and was a member of the RSAI. He was also an amateur artist and painted a number of illuminated addresses including that to Captain Veale on display in the museum.

To hear more about Beary and public housing in Dungarvan William Fraher will be giving a talk on the subject at the Group for the Study of Irish Historic Settlement's conference at Lawlor's Hotel on Sunday the 13^th of May.

For more details see www.irishsettlement.ie