Local history with Monica McGill: Vicars, widows and pollution from Clondalkin paper mills

Church Terrace is a row of four cottages on Tower Road, Clondalkin. They are an important part of our heritage and history. The cottages were built in memory of Rev. David John Reade in 1879, using local black calp limestone.

The cottages have been carefully preserved and conserved in their original style, allowing for modern requirements as much as possible.

Detailed information about Clondalkin’s history can be found in ‘From Generation to Generation’, a book by Roy Byrne and Ann Graham. It commemorates the bi-centenary of St John’s Church in 1989.

As Rev. Faull notes in his Preface, life in the 19th century was very different from the previous hundred years, with a range of forces abroad and at home “propelling life forward with frightening speed.”

The 1847 Post Office Dublin Directory described Clondalkin as “an inland parish and village, partly in Newcastle but chiefly in Uppercross barony . . . comprising

. . . 4,777 acres, of which 44 are in the village.”

While the overall population totalled 2,546, the people in Clondalkin village numbered 505, living in 96 houses.

By 1880, Church Terrace was in partial use. In all, the cottages comprised “11 rooms, with one to be used as a classroom.”

Memorial plaque to Rev. David John Read, Church Terrace Cottages
(© photo: Monica McGill)

It appears that initially, the tenants (destitute widows) rented only a room and didn’t stay long, being unwilling or unable to comply with the rules.

A committee of local ladies was established to “dismiss any unsatisfactory tenants.” However, matters seem to have settled down by the 1920s when tenants rented entire cottages.

Time and weather erosion are ever the enemies of heritage buildings.

Some of the front garden walls of these beautiful cottages now require expert maintenance and this costs money.

Hopefully, with the aid of private and community donations as well as Heritage Grants, this necessary work will be carried out.

So, who was Rev. David John Reade?

Two generations of the Reade family served as Vicars of Clondalkin and Prebendaries of Kilmactalway.

When Dr John Reade died in 1848, his son Rev. David John Reade was appointed to the same responsibility by the Chancellor of St Patrick’s Cathedral.

In Clondalkin parish, the Protestant Church provided Glebe House as accommodation for the Vicar and his family during his appointment.

The house – now gone – was situated in or near the car-park behind our modern, local County Council premises.

Glebe House was also across the road from today’s Mill Shopping Centre – the location of Clondalkin Paper Mill and its forerunners.

Part of 1837 Ordnance Survey Map. Glebe House is at the top of the map. (Source: https://source.southdublin libraries.ie/handle/10599/2906)

The AskaboutIreland website estimates that Glebe House was built between 1821 and 1852.

From the instant he took up his incumbency in 1848, Rev. David did not want to live there, but it seems he moved into Glebe House in the early 1850s.

According to Byrne and Graham’s book, Rev David complained to the Archbishop in the 1860s that the house was old and had been built by “a mere country carpenter”.

The Vicar wanted a new house built on another diocesan site near the railway line.

Moreover, Rev. David reported to his Archbishop that a Paper Mill had been established directly across the road from Glebe House.

Boiling rags was (and may still be) a necessary part of the paper-making process, especially if the final product is of a high quality.

Frequently, the malodours from the boiling rags were carried by the prevailing wind from the Mill to Glebe House. Rev. David complained that these toxic smells were making his family ill, and they had to keep the house windows shut.

The Archbishop despatched Inspectors to examine the situation. Unfortunately, the outcome did not favour Rev. David’s urgent requests.

When the Inspectors arrived, the wind was blowing another way and no nasty smells were evident in or near Glebe House.

Furthermore, the Inspectors found that Rev. David had not maintained the house and so levied a dilapidation fee against him.

However, they said that if the problem with the smell continued, then a new Glebe House would be necessary.

Later, Rev. David wrote again to the Archbishop, this time reporting that Glebe House had become too small for his growing family. He asked for the new accommodation as before.

Eventually in 1864, the new Archbishop granted permission for a new house to be built.

However, by that time the Mill had ceased production (no more nasty smells), so the parish sold the site at the railway line.

The proceeds were used to extend and repair the existing Glebe House instead.

Rev. David wasn’t pleased, and spent another 9 years serving his flock and living in Glebe House before he died in 1873.

To be fair, Rev. David wasn’t the only churchman to complain.

A later Vicar who lived in Glebe House reported in 1891 that pollution was again coming from the Mill and also the water wasn’t drinkable.

Removing the silt in the well cleared up the drinking water problem. Eventually, the house was sold to Clondalkin Paper Mill in 1948 and was later demolished.

How odd life can be sometimes.

The cottages erected in Rev. David’s memory may be further away from the Mill’s smelly boiling rags than Glebe House had been, the Reade’s family home from at least the early 1850s until 1873.