A major collection of photographs of Kilkenny (c.1946) 
by the acclaimed archaeologist – Scottish parentage but born in India – Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford has been presented to Kilkenny Archives by Mrs. Richard (Julia) Crampton of Maidenhall, Bennetsbridge, Co. Kilkenny, the only daughter of Hubert and Peggy Butler.
More…
Archbishop Thomas White Papers – another donation for Kilkenny Archives.
Co. Laois born, Ossory clergyman, Holy See diplomat, Archbishop Thomas White died 7 May 2017.
Some months later his family donated artefacts and papers to Kilkenny Archives Ltd. The papers include a series of letters written by Ossory bishops : Rev. Patrick Collier, Rev. Peter Birch and Rev. Laurence Forristal. Archbishop White lived the last years of his life in Kilkenny.
This small but valuable clerical collection (which includes artefacts such as his travelling crozier, mitre etc.) is a welcome addition to the holdings at Kilkenny Archives Ltd. Other recent donations have come to us from Willoughby Jewellers (Kilkenny, through the good offices of Fonsie Mealy Auctioneer), the Home Rule Club (Kilkenny, custody only), The Nin Bligh Collection, The K.M. Lanigan Collection and lastly a very rare ledger which documents the details of the Charitable Society of the City of Kilkenny which ledger covers the years from 1830 until 1849. The details this ledger holds relating to the Famine years in Kilkenny are particularly notable. More…
Glanbia Archives
Mr Herlihy was delighted to see Glanbia’s own archives, representing a number of the old co-operative creameries, which are now part of this ever explanding dynamic Irish company. Minute Books and other records are in situ. There also also records from non-dairy companies and these records have been fully accessioned and are currently available for consultation.
Inch Creamery
Awaiting to be catalogued are the records from Inch Creamery, Co Wexford, which only arrived at Kilkenny Archives recently. These include Minute Books, milk records and a number of framed illustrations including a portrait of Francois Mitterand, President of France, partaking of a Yoplait Yogurt. Inch was an early creamery. Around the beginning of the 1890s the first of the Irish creameries were established. By 1893 there were at least thirty in the country. In 1895 the farmers around Inch came together and set up their creamery with a foundation date of 29 March 1895. The clergy often paid a key role and Inch is no exception with the then Archbishop of Dublin advancing a loan of £100.00 provided a creamery along the lines of those advocated by Sir Horace Plunkett, who is perceived as the founder of the Irish creamery movement. To put the archbishop’s loan into perspective the site of new creamery was purchased for £10.00 plus ten £1 shares in Inch Creamery. By 1900 there were over 800 co-operatives in the country of which 350 were creameries.
Barrowvale Creamery
One of the oldest illustrative items in the Glanbia Collection is a view of the old Barrowvale Creamery at Goresbridge which buildings have been subsumed into later developments on the site which is just off the Main Street, at Goresbridge, very near the bridge from which ‘Goresbridge’ derives its name: the really old name for the area as opposed to the site at the bridge was Grange Silvae. The surname Gore commemorates a family of that name which built the nearby Barrowmount House in the very early years of the eighteenth century, which for many years in the last century was owned by Jack Donohoe, formerly of Lower Grange and Ballellen, whose family would have supplied milk to Barrowvale. Jack Donohoe and his wife Lulu are best remembered for their ownership in the 1960s of the famous mare, Height O’ Fashion.
Other Archival Collections
Kilkenny Archives is also home to the following collections: The Prior-Wandesford Family Papers; The Barton of Ballyline (Callan) Papers; The Paper of the Estate Office of Kilkenny (A.G. Davis); Kilkenny Castle Papers; Gowran Castle Papers; Kavanagh Estate Papers, Ballyragget; The Maidenahll-Lavistown Papers; The Briggs-Swifte Papers; The Wheeler-Cuffe Papers of Lyrath and The Papers of the Praesidium of Our Lady Queen of Charity (Legion of Mary).
Kilkenny Archives’ direct landline number is 056-7753622
Website: www.kilkennyarchives.ie
Arising from this extended facility Kilkenny Archives are in a position to accept further donations.
History of Glanbia on view in St. Kieran’s
Glanbia became the first commercial company in Kilkenny to recognise the worth of Kilkenny Archives Ltd., and see a community value in what it does. Last year it handed into the safekeeping of Kilkenny Archives all its old Creamery Records and a very generous dontation which paid for the accessioning and boxing of these valuable Kilkenny Creamery records, most of which were old Minute Books. Continue reading History of Glanbia
The papers of the Clarke family of Graiguenoe, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, the Butlers of Maidenhall, the Doudneys and Lennox-Cunninghams of Lavistown House, in effect the family of Hubert M. Butler (1900-1990). Continue reading Maidenhall Lavistown Papers
Over 2000 letters written by Capt. Richard Henry Prior-Wandesforde, during the Great War years, to his wife, Florence, starting from the time of the couple’s engagement in 1895 until their deaths in the 1950s have been gifted. The letters contain many hitherto unknown details about the operations of the Castlecomer Colliery and much too about their private family life, during the early years of the Irish Free State.
Material will shortly be accessioned and become available.
NEW addition to the Kilkenny Archives collection: Letters written by Captain Richard Prior-Wandesforde and his son, Lt Christopher Prior-Wandesforde during the Great War years. Donated November 2012.
Continue reading New addition to the Kilkenny Archives Collection – Prior Wandesforde letters