The Village Read Online Free Page B

Colony Hill where a nearby house was known as Mulberry Cottage. Adderley was a Member of Parliament for the area and was also a member of the Wide Streets Commission appointed to lay out the new street plan of Dublin. This may account for the width and character of Innishannon’s main street. Adderley, however, went bankrupt and the estate passed into the hands of the Frewen family. Up to that time Innishannon House had been sited beside the river but the Frewens rebuilt it on the hill across the road from the Catholic church. This afforded them a beautiful view down over the village and the wooded river valley. Morton Frewen sat as an Irish Nationalist in Westminster and was married to Clara Jerome of New York; she was an aunt of Winston Churchill, who came to Innishannon on boyhood holidays.
    Much employment was provided on the Frewen estate where local girls were trained in good housekeeping and cooking and the young men in the care of horses and gardening. Among the village people who worked in the Frewen gardens were Jerry the Pink and Tim. One day Tim decided to take things easy in a quiet corner of the garden and was stretched out enjoying a good rest when Morton Frewen came on him unexpectedly. “What are you doing, Tim?” he demanded. Because he had no alternative Tim had to admit, “Nothing, sir.” Walking along, Frewen came on Jerry the Pink leaning on his spade and enjoying the view down over the river. “What are you doing, Jerry?” Frewen enquired. “I’m helping Tim,” came the reply.
    As well as Frewen’s house there were many stately homes around Innishannon. One of them, built beside the bridge atthe western end of the village, had a tennis court, while on the opposite bank of the river a Gothic castle set on the sloping hillside looked down on a croquet lawn. On summer evenings carriages swept up to the old stone bridge and while the local aristocracy played games beneath the sheltering trees on the banks of the river, village children earned six brown pennies for holding their horses.
    After the 1916 Rising many of the village people who worked in these big houses were caught in the crossfire of divided loyalties. Five large Ascendancy houses, including the home of the Frewens, were burnt. When life returned to normal some of these workers found jobs in the factories and shops of Cork and Bandon, and many took the boat to England and America.
    The village was a self-sufficient hive of activity. In the centre of Innishannon the focal point of activity was the mill to which the farmers came, their creaking timber carts laden with bags. In the bags were wheat, barley and oats. The wheat was milled and taken home to make the “wanway” bread that was the staple diet. Crushed oats were fed to horses and hens, and the barley to the pigs to produce sweet bacon. Two men hauled the bags up into the mill with a pulley; one was known as Jerry the Miller while the other had earned himself the title “Try-me” because whenever he was asked if he could do a job he answered simply, “Try me”.
    The six houses on the riverside had large gardens with steps leading down to the river; across the road the houses had long hilly gardens that climbed up to the boundary of the Frewen estate. A forge at each end of the village kept the horses shod and a harness-maker known as Happy Mickey looked after their tackling and made leather belts. Other leather work was done by the shoemaker Robin, who constantly stitched the leather sliotars * of the children on their way home from school. Twocarpentry shops made household requirements and built farmers’ carts with large, spoked wheels. They also made baby baskets and coffins, so they saw things through from beginning to end. Burly was the name of the man who supplied them with nails, recognisable as his by their large flat heads.
    A laundry service was maintained by an industrious woman who washed, starched and neatly ironed the village’s clothes. Up the hill