Anyone remember when...

[spudfan]

Anyone remember when CIE distributed parcels around Dublin by horse and cart? I remember the drivers used to sit up front in the open in all weathers. The carts had rubber tyres and usually had a nose bag of feed for the horse dangling underneath. Also the quays used to have horse troughs scattered along the length of the Liffey. I can remember seeing the horse feeding from the nosebag while the driver called at an address with the parcel. Also saw the horses use the horse troughs for a drink. Traffic  was nowhere near as heavy on the quays then. There would not be room to pull up on the quays with a horse and cart to let the horse drink in these modern times.

The horse used to have a small rain cover on his back and any I saw wore blinkers. One of the buildings on the quays not far from Guinness's used to have a big hand painted advertisement on the brick gable for "Petrie's horse covers." And yes there were frequent splatters of manure along the road. I was told that if a driver returned to the depot with a horse covered in lather or sweat he could be sacked. Things were taken at an easy pace at that time. There was a working blacksmith and forge just outside Temple street hospital.

As far as I remember CIE replaced the horses with tractors then the Scammell tractor units with the one front wheel. The Bedfords came then. There was also the urinal along the quays when you went in but your feet were visible underneath the sides which were some inches above the ground on legs. It was like something you see in old time Paris.

Anyway just a few thoughts. It would make a nice depot scene. The "A" class and the horse and cart.

Ah yes times past...…

[PorkyP]

The horses I remember would often wander off up the road with cart attached, while the driver was making his calls...he'd then run after it, cursing, in pursuit !

[Ironroad]

Yes I remember. There were a lot of horse drawn carts in Dublin but the CIE carts were well maintained and whereas most other carts had iron rims and made quite a racket particularly on cobble stones, the CIE carts with inflated tyres seemed very smooth and silent by comparison.  CIE horses always looked bigger and in better shape than most of the other nags, an exception being the Johnson Mooney horses that pulled two wheeled covered bread vans stabled at the back of Fitzgibbon St.  

I used to make a point of passing the Blacksmith's in the lane behind Temple St Hospital on my way home from school and spent a lot of time watching him, the smell is still in my nostrils.

I also remember processions of  very high sided red coloured carts with two outside wheels that seemed to me to be be six foot in diameter rolling down Dorset St and Bolton St piled high with vegetables coming from Nth County Dublin to the City Market .

I have a vivid remember a horse bolting on Mountjoy Square after a lightening flash and thunderclap.

Yes there was a lot of horse manure on the streets but the worst of is was cow dung on the North Circular Road on Wednesdays.

I think a few horse troughs still exist , isn't the one on Cavendish Row, near the Gate Theatre/Ambassador still there? 

[Mayner]

There is the old saying that a horse will always find its way home to the stable or barn.

That takes me back! Horse drawn vehicles were fairly common in Dublin up to the mid 1960s besides CIE, some of the coal distributors and scrap merchants used horse drawn vehicles, although milk and bread was delivered by small battery electric trucks.

In the days before the large supermarket and relatively few people had cars, most of life's essentials were or could be delivered to your door by horse drawn or battery powered vehicle or messenger boys bike. Most grocers employed a "messenger boy" for bicycle deliveries- ending up on a "messenger boys bike" was the ultimate parents threat of a dead end job for kids that did not do well or apply themselves at school.

Horse's had to be treated with care, otherwise the owner or driver could get in serious trouble with the animal welfare people. Some streets in Dublin particularly around Christchurch Cathedral were paved with cobble stones into the late 60s apparently to provide a better grip for horses shoes, but became dangerously slippy for horses after heavy motor vehicle use.

[Mayner]

38 minutes ago, Ironroad said:

Yes I remember. There were a lot of horse drawn carts in Dublin but the CIE carts were well maintained and whereas most other carts had iron rims and made quite a racket particularly on cobble stones, the CIE carts with inflated tyres seemed very smooth and silent by comparison.  CIE horses always looked bigger and in better shape than most of the other nags, an exception being the Johnson Mooney horses that pulled two wheeled covered bread vans stabled at the back of Fitzgibbon St.  

I used to make a point of passing the Blacksmith's in the lane behind Temple St Hospital on my way home from school and spent a lot of time watching him, the smell is still in my nostrils.

I also remember processions of  very high sided red coloured carts with two outside wheels that seemed to me to be be six foot in diameter rolling down Dorset St and Bolton St piled high with vegetables coming from Nth County Dublin to the City Market .

I have a vivid remember a horse bolting on Mountjoy Square after a lightening flash and thunderclap.

Yes there was a lot of horse manure on the streets but the worst of is was cow dung on the North Circular Road on Wednesdays.

I think a few horse troughs still exist , isn't the one on Cavendish Row, near the Gate Theatre/Ambassador still there? 

Cattle were often driven down the North Circular Road from the Cattle Market at least into the late 60s, I once saw a herd of cattle being driven (or stampeeding) across Summerhill Parade at speed, very little traffic on the roads in those days! I had a Grand Aunt that lived in a house on North Richmond Street her landlady's husband "Christy" was a cattle drover that worked between the Cattle Market and the Docks. My father had a story of a bull breaking loose on the North Circular Road early one morning on his way to work, being from a farming background he felt sorry for the bull who may have been put down.

[PorkyP]

Thing with horses being, unlike a car or a van, they've got a brain and a few ideas of their own..!

[Broithe]

Even in the late '60s, in Hampshire, we were still getting paraffin delivered by a horse-drawn 'Esso Blue' tanker.

The quality of the signwriting would lead me to believe that the tank, probably about an 80 gallon oval one, was a bona fide Esso product.

[spudfan]

I remember when we moved from the Coombe to Drimnagh (the back of beyond at that time) the family belongings came by horse and cart. 

[DART8118]

Barges on the canal taking Guinness to far-off places like Athlone.  Guinness dray horses pulling flat carts, empty except for one large straw-filled cushion that was placed on the footpath or road to break the fall when dropping a barrel from the cart.  Horse drawn bread van and the silent running battery driven milk floats. 

[jhb171achill]

I remember a horse-drawn milk float and all delivery carts in the city centre. The was a dairy in Pembroke Lane in D4 before it became a gentrified news, and my aunt used to send me down there with a large half-penny and an empty jug. I would wander in - a child off the streets - no health and safety and food hygiene protective clothing - and I was told to ask anyone I saw to fill the jug.

If I didn't carry it back up the lane very carefully, I'd be in big trouble.

Then there was a little shop where you could get potatoes out of sacks on the floor, Fry's cream chocolate bars, aluminium buckets, and open boxes of biscuits, as well as milk.

As a 6-year-old, I was sent there and given the exact change for a packet of ten cigarettes and a Fry's cream bar by my aunt......  I should add that the cigarettes were for HER! 

And buses were green, clad in flying snails, with a ticket man reeling out those old paper tickets that looked like gauge 1 scale cheap loo rolls...!

And battery-powered bread vans.....will we be going back to that?

 

[Edo]

Yis are all ancient!!

Then I had a young lad in the shop today who took the last ever 20 punt note from a customer and put it through the till as a sterling note!! ( " I though it was one of those Northern Ireland /Scottish banknotes"....).....................had never seen one before - then again he's 18 years old..................Im feeling more on the ancient side now!

[murrayec]

When were were kids there was a farmer chap in Monkstown down the lane between St Patrick's church and the post office, Michael (johnny) Lawlor was his name, he farmed a few cows n pigs and the place stank to high heaven and so did he. He, his horse (which never had a wash) and a single axle deep cart were a regular feature on the local roads delivering cow-shi to the local ladies who did roses and used his product as fertiliser, he also collected kitchen waste from the ladies for feeding the pigs.

Twice in my early teens I welded broken struts to the axle on his cart, the stink I can still remember. When the jobs were done his offer of payment was in cow-shi which I politely passed on to our neighbour who was one of the ladies that did roses.

As far as I know he farmed there into the early 80s, the farm is now a town-house development called Alma Park and the area smells a lot better.

The series of documentaries by David Shaw Smith 'Hands' is an incredible archive on this subject and many other old time subjects throughout the country;-

Eoin

 

 

[WRENNEIRE]

A bit of culture to this heathen site

Who remembers Thomas Hood:

I remember, I remember,

The house where I was born,

The little window where the sun

Came peeping in at morn;

He never came a wink too soon,

Nor brought too long a day,

But now, I often wish the night

Had borne my breath away!

 

I remember, I remember,

The roses, red and white,

The vi’lets, and the lily-cups,

Those flowers made of light!

The lilacs where the robin built,

And where my brother set

The laburnum on his birthday,—

The tree is living yet!

 

I remember, I remember,

Where I was used to swing,

And thought the air must rush as fresh

To swallows on the wing;

My spirit flew in feathers then,

That is so heavy now,

And summer pools could hardly cool

The fever on my brow!

 

I remember, I remember,

The fir trees dark and high;

I used to think their slender tops

Were close against the sky:

It was a childish ignorance,

But now ’tis little joy

To know I’m farther off from heav’n

Than when I was a boy.

 

And I can hardly remember me name now!

[burnthebox]

Jasus, you’re Human after all, well nearly...

[minister_for_hardship]

The actual Wanderly Wagon used in the tv series was a converted CIE dray. 

[Ironroad]

On 3/2/2020 at 7:39 PM, Mayner said:

Cattle were often driven down the North Circular Road from the Cattle Market at least into the late 60s, I once saw a herd of cattle being driven (or stampeeding) across Summerhill Parade at speed, very little traffic on the roads in those days! I had a Grand Aunt that lived in a house on North Richmond Street her landlady's husband "Christy" was a cattle drover that worked between the Cattle Market and the Docks. My father had a story of a bull breaking loose on the North Circular Road early one morning on his way to work, being from a farming background he felt sorry for the bull who may have been put down.

My father told me a similar story, in which the bull got wedged in the hallway of a house. The abattoir being positioned at the junction of Blackhorse Ave and the Nth Cir Rd was unfortunately probably too close the the cattle market itself and no doubt the smell may have caused animals to panic.

 

[DiveController]

On 3/3/2020 at 4:23 PM, Edo said:

Yis are all ancient!!

Then I had a young lad in the shop today who took the last ever 20 punt note from a customer and put it through the till as a sterling note!! ( " I though it was one of those Northern Ireland /Scottish banknotes"....).....................had never seen one before - then again he's 18 years old..................Im feeling more on the ancient side now!

It's still hard to believe that the iPhone has been around for just over a decade. I was asked by the probably 20 year old in 'customer service' for an email address;

 " .......@mac.com", I replied.  

"How do you spell that?"

"Ahem, I beg your pardon, young man, I meant @icloud.com"

I guess age like all things is relative

Edited March 11, 2020 by DiveController

[spudfan]

When we moved from the Coombe to Drimnagh in the 1960's the furniture was shifted on a horse drawn cart.

[Mayner]

My first proper job was as an Apprentice Barman for about four weeks in 1973 after I completed the Inter Cert before one of my teachers persuaded my parents to send me back to do the Leaving.

After being shown how to pull a pint my first customer was a builder who paid for a pint with a Scottish £20 note that I thought was play money, the bar manager was pleased when I asked him about the note and the customer took it in good part and was happy with his pint.

At the time bar trade was unionised at the time strictly male only and took family connections to get the job, I was technically minded wanting to go into engineering but ended up in construction management and regularly got to spend Scottish banknotes 20 years later!

Think Dublin Dairies and TEK used horse drawn milk floats into the 60s. Some smaller Dublin Market traders and coal men used horses into the 70s-80s, there are tales of travelers and traders taking their horses in the lifts of Ballymun Flats, before the 'urban youth horse" culture developed into a major phenomon on the 'praries"  on the Council Estates on the outskirts of Dublin City during the late 80s and 90s.

[Horsetan]

On 9/9/2023 at 5:44 AM, Mayner said:

...., there are tales of travelers and traders taking their horses in the lifts of Ballymun Flats, before the 'urban youth horse" culture developed into a major phenomon on the 'praries"  on the Council Estates on the outskirts of Dublin City during the late 80s and 90s.

You might remember that awkward scene in The Commitments....

 

[Broithe]

Nice cameo for anybody modelling the modern Welsh era.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-13437279

 

[Horsetan]

1 hour ago, Broithe said:

Nice cameo for anybody modelling the modern Welsh era.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-13437279

 

To be fair, when I look at the room available on my daily Thameslink to / from central London, a horse could easily stand - and turn round - in the central section between the sliding doors.

[Broithe]

1 hour ago, Horsetan said:

To be fair, when I look at the room available on my daily Thameslink to / from central London, a horse could easily stand - and turn round - in the central section between the sliding doors.

And it would be handy in the event of a train failure. A friend of mine spent a dull time yesterday stuck on a replacement bus, when that broke down...