In the Pigot directory of 1824 Birr was described ‘as far the most considerable of any of the towns in the King’s County. Birr was the leading town in the county from the 1620s until the 1840s By the 1820s Birr had new Protestant and Catholic churches (the latter nearing completion at the time of the census and the publishing of the Pigot directory), two Methodist chapels and a Quakers’ meeting house. The charitable institutions of Birr, were a fever hospital and dispensary, supported by county grants and annual subscriptions; a Sunday school for children of all denominations; a free school for boys, and another for girls. Birr had a gaol and a courthouse where the sessions were held four times a year. The prisoners were sent to Philipstown/Daingean which was the county town until 1835 for trial for serious crimes. From 1830 when the new gaol was built in Tullamore Birr prison was more a holding centre only. . One mile from the town were the Barracks, ‘a large and elegant building, capable of holding three regiments of soldiers’. Birr has two large distilleries and two breweries, which, it was said, gave employment to the poor of the town.
The population in 1821 was 5,400. The market day was Saturday and the fairs were four in the year. And that was it. The brief introduction to Birr in the 1820s did not engage in any detail with the census of the town in 1821 other than to produce an abstract.
Castle Street was then a crowded place with some 32 occupied houses and over 200 people. Probably the principal business there was the distillery of Arthur Robinson and Robert Robinson (later the Woods brewery and in the 1980s the Williams Waller business). Arthur Robinson (61) was living in Duke Square with his family and Robert (30) with his family in Castle Street. Other distillers included Charles Burris and Michael Hackett in Moorpark Street. Also in Castle Street lived a horse breaker, comber, bakers, a chandler, a hatter, jeweller, a copper smith, publicans and labourers. Not forgetting John Sheilds, the schoolmaster, soon to become a bookseller in Duke/Cumberland/Emmet Square. In Duke Square was the celebrated hotel of Thomas Dooly (70) and his son George (36) and a large family. The other hotel in the town was Coghlan’s in Main Street where James Coghlan (55) innkeeper and publican lived with his family. Also on this street was John Kingston (50) and his son William (21) the ancestors of Charles P. Kingston, County Secretary, 1900–21 and of Caitlin Kingston Brugha ( see a blog this year).
Castle Street was not a poor street and yet about one-third of the houses came within the rates exemption being £4 or less of a valuation. Spinner’s Lane with its 150 people would have fitted that category of much poorer houses with all twenty-six houses exempt from rates.[1] Most of the houses in Castle Street were two-storey, a few were three-storey and there were no cabins. One building was an office for the distillery. Four houses were not occupied and one was occupied by eight lodgers and a housekeeper, whereas all the rest were family homes. A few houses, particularly those owned in the 1840s by George Sharpe, at the junction with Main Street (GV 1, 2 and 3) were in poor condition. Sharpe was the owner of GV 33 Main Street and presumably GV 1–3 Castle Street were built on the back garden of the plot running into Castle Street. Interestingly the three houses were not cabins as was common in Tullamore for side street and back lane developments. Sharpe was served with dangerous building notices in 1861– but was in no hurry to deal with it.[2] One house in Castle Street occupied by the Langley family in 1846 fell down killing Mary Langley and her young son, while her mother, Mrs Sawyer, survived.[3]
The story of the street can be put together from the year 1821 and perhaps even back to the leases of the 1700s and beyond. The street had modest houses and only a few houses for the better off as is clear from the valuation records. In 1821 one gentleman and family lived on the street as did the Protestant rector. Robert Robinson the distiller was chief with a four-storey house and three servants. The family of Arthur Robinson, also a distiller, lived at 3 Duke Square in one of the grander houses with nine members of his own and the Woods family, and with the help of three servants.[4] Domestic help in the Castle Street houses was on a modest scale with many families having only one servant, two families had three servants, and many had none.
There was a striking absence of older people in the age profile of the occupants in 1821. Abraham Downes, the Church of Ireland rector, was 70 in 1821 (died in 1824), Smith the grocer was 65 and one family had two older in-laws living with them. The range of occupations is noted under Trade and Services and was widely spread, but with only one grocer, two publicans, shoemakers, hatters, a jeweller, labourers, a distiller, copper smith and gauger (an Excise functionary). The keeper of the customs presumably was connected with the markets and fairs.
For the entries from the 1821 census for the streets of Birr see Appendix One. Castle Street was in the top ten streets for the number of houses, but yet Castle Street was of modest proportion. While Attorney Cooke had some reservations about the accuracy of the 1821 census so far as Birr town was concerned, he did quote a figure of 1,073 houses.[5] Appendix One provides a listing of the houses in Castle Street by occupier, number in each house, main occupations residents and number of all servants including those assisting in a business and living ‘over the shop’. About a third of the occupied houses had no servants.
The 1821 census is also helpful as to businesses and services carried on.
In the same street in 1821 lived a horse breaker (whose wife had a school for fourteen scholars), combers, bakers, a hairdresser, a chandler, a hatter, jeweller, a copper smith, two publicans and labourers, grocers and two small schools.[6] There were several families connected with the distillery including a gauger and copper smiths. The street had one building contractor, the Warrens, who also appear in Tullamore. There were two publicans one of whom was a widow. There were eighteen servant maids, two servant men and one housekeeper who appears to have been maintaining a lodging house.
Downes, Rev. Abraham, Castle Street, clergy, (house no 9 Castle Street in 1821 census)
Kelly, Patrick (English), Castle Street, Castle Street, teacher
Shields, John (English), Castle Street, academy (house no. 15 Castle Street in 1821 census) – later a leading Methodist and bookseller in Cumberland Square
Dignan, Christopher, Castle St., auctioneer (later a bookseller in Duke Square).[7]
Robinson, Robert, Castle Street. Distillers and brewers (house no. 6, Castle Street in 1821)
Robinson, Arthur, Castle Street, distillers and brewers
Warren, Edward, Castle Street, carpenters, builders (no. 30 Castle Street in 1821 census)
Smith, Mary, Castle Street, grocer (no. 29 in the 1821 census)
Carroll, William, Silversmith, Castle Street (no. 17 Castle Street in 1821 census)
John Sheilds (Shields in the Education Return of 1826 and in the Pigot Directory of 1824) operated a day school in the town of Birr in a hired room in a private house in Castle Street.[8] He catered for fourteen Protestants and had an income of £35 per annum from this source. He had his own bookshop and store by 1831 and was not listed as having a school in the 1846 Slater’s national commercial directory of Ireland. In that year John Shields (sic) and Son were stated to be printers–letter press at Cumberland Square. By 1852 this had become Francis H. Sheilds, the printer, publisher and proprietor of the King’s County Chronicle at Cumberland Square. His father had the bookshop in Cumberland Square. Francis H. was in business with his father John from the late 1830s until the dissolution of the partnership in October 1851. F.H. Sheilds was active in public life and was a member of the Birr Masonic Lodge and for a time a town commissioner.[9]
The 1821 census was followed in 1824 with the Pigot Directory and more were issued over a period of 140 years at national level and one in 1889 at local level. There may also be local directories since the 1920s and yet to be examined. In that of 1824 Revd Mr Downes was the only occupant listed in the gentry and others category. He died in August 1824. Presumably he had lived in Castle Street for many years and needed to be close to the old parish church that was in use until 1815. Cooke, writing in 1826, described the old glebe house as ancient and incommodious and that Abraham Downes was a short time since the rector. He went on to cite J. Paine, architect to the bishop of Killaloe as recommending a new site and condemning the old glebe house.[10] A new rectory was built closer to the new church in the 1830s.[11] [These lands are now under consideration for building].Cooke refers to the old Glebe house as adjoining the old church and burial ground and this is shown on his 1822 map. The house location was probably the site of the later pig market. Castle Street had two small private schools, a baker, a builder, grocer and jeweller/silversmith in 1821.
BCA, Birr Valuation Map for Castle Street and town of Birr, 1853. Courtesy of Birr Castle Archives. A version of this map can also be viewed on AskaboutIreland.com.
Appendix: The houses of Castle Street, Birr in 1821: by house number, occupier, number in each house, main occupations of residents, number of servants and housekeepers. These numbers do not correspond with the valuation map of 1853-4 in that no. 1 in this list commences with the Sharpe cottages at the junction of Castle Street and the north side of the Market Place.
| House no | ‘Family’ name | Number in each house | Occupations of residents | Number of servants and housekeepers |
| 1 | Robinson, Arthur | Office only | – | – |
| 2 | Sampson, Thomas | 7 | Gentleman | Servant maid (2) |
| 3 | Friend, Patrick and Renehan, John | 5 | Labourer and ? (2) apprentice | – |
| 4 | vacant | – | – | – |
| 5 | Molloy, Margret | 3 | None stated | None stated |
| 6 | Robinson, Robert | 8 | distiller | Servant maid (3) |
| 7 | House unoccupied | – | ||
| 8 | Kelly, John | 8 | Taylor [Tailor] | None stated |
| 9 | Downes, Abraham | 6 | not stated | Servant maid (1), servant man (1) |
| 10 | Spirit store | – | ||
| 11 | Miller, Thomas | 8 | gauger | Servant maid (1) |
| 12 | Burke, Michael | 9 | Horse breaker School mistress | – |
| 13 | House unoccupied | – | ||
| 14 | Murray, Ann | 4 | Publican – a widow | Servant maid (1) |
| 15 | Shields, John | 9 | School master | Servant maid (1) |
| 16 | Joyce, Joshua | 10 | Shoemaker (2) | – |
| 17 | Carroll, William | 3 | jeweller | Servant maid (1) |
| 18 | Coghlan, John | 6 | comedian | – |
| 19 | Rafferty Neil | 4 | Copper smith (2) | – |
| 20 | Shea, William | 7 | shoemaker | – |
| 21 | Regan, John | 4 | labourer | – |
| 22 | Flynn, John | 9 | hatter | – |
| 23 | Kennedy, Edward | 8 | clerk | Servant maid (1) |
| 24 | Lyons, Peter | 9 | Hair dresser and ? | – |
| 25 | Blake, John[12] | 6 | chandler | – |
| 26 | Madden, William | Wool comber (3) | Servant maid (1) | |
| 27 | Dunne, Dan | 5 | Publican | Servant maid (1) |
| 28 | Duignan, Christopher | 9 | Baker (2) Clerk Apprentice (3) Labourer | Housekeeper (1) |
| 29 | Smith, Mary | 5 | Shopkeeper Shop girl visitor | Servant maid (1) |
| 30 | Warren, Edward | 11 | House builder | Servant maid (1) |
| 31 | Woods, William | 10 | – | Servant maid (2) Servant man (1) |
| 32 | White, Sally | 9 | Keeper of customs | Servant maid (1) |
The total number of houses in 1821 was 32 with 203 inhabitants. How many people live in Castle Street today? Send us your report.
[1] Griffith’s Valuation, Union of Parsonstown (Dublin, 1854), pp 94—5.
[2]See King’s County Chronicle, 3 Apr. 1861
[3] King’s County Chronicle, 11 March 1846.
[4] NAI, 1821 census for Ballybritt. Arthur Robinson also had 260 acres at Tinnamuck [Tinnakilly] and thirty acres in the parish of Birr.
[5] Ibid., p. 236.
[6] King’s County Chronicle, 20 Sept. 1848. Hugh Brady had a school briefly in Castle Street, but more so at Bengal Lodge – King’s County Chronicle, 26 Feb. 1868.
[7] Byrne, Printing in Offaly, pp 62–74.
[8] Appendix to the second report of the Commissioners of Irish education inquiry, H.C. 1826–27 (12), xii, 664.
[9] King’s County Chronicle, 21 July 1847, 8 July 1857.
[10] [Cooke], Picture of Parsonstown, pp 211–12.
[11] The Glebe Street rectory of almost 4,000 ft on nine acres, a much finer building, was sold in January 2022.
[12] A Margaret Blake, shopkeeper, died aged 100 in March 1868.
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