THE LONG READ: The naming of the lanes of Tullamore before 1840

Last week we looked at the street names of Tullamore in 1837–38 and what was done by the Ordnance Survey officers, mainly John O’Donovan (the J.O’D below), to standardize spellings such as Ardan in place of Arden and Spollanstown instead of with an e or an i (now look at the name plates we pass every day without taking stock). The lanes of Tullamore are less in focus because many of the old lanes were closed by the town council over the years from the early 1900s to the 1950s when the Tay Lane houses (now O’Connell Street where the new Aldi is located) were finally abandoned.

Among the lanes closed before 1900 were: Emmet’s Lane, Willis’s Lane, Flanagan’s Lane, Molloy’s Lane and Sally Grove. The best place to see the location of the old lanes is on Geohub. The selection of maps from 1838 to 1910 and onwards does not include the important five-foot scale maps for Tullamore of 1838 and 1888-89. You can get over some issues here by using AskaboutIreland.ie for the five-foot valuation map showing the lanes and the printed Griffith Valuation with the names of all head householders.

Now how did the lanes come about? It was mainly to provide very basic housing at a profit by householders on the main streets who developed what was sometimes called ‘a cabin suburb’ on the long garden strips to the rear of the front-of-street dwelling house. Examples would be Brides Lane (formerly Ruddock’ Lane/Swaddlin Lane) at the rear of the Italian restaurants in Patrick Street. Offally Street was developed as Wheelwright Lane after 1795 as was Chapel Lane W. by the same developer, Thomas Acres.

Other ‘cabin’ developments were on the principal roadways into Tullamore such as that from the Dublin road via Tinnycross and on to Puttaghan’s Rapparee Alley. The Kilbeggan Road had few cabins and was not then the main road to Dublin. The Daingean-Ballinagar Road came in at Whitehall (with perhaps 12 to 20 cottages and was along the old Connaught Street close to the line of the post 1798–1803 line of canal to the Shannon. Some of the cabins here were demolished when the harbour was built in 1800 and others survived up to the 1960s.

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Lanes as described in the Ordnance Survey Placenames volume for Tullamore of 1837. This is not the entire of the lanes and we can look at that in a piece on the naming of the lands almost fifty years later in 1885.

Ball Alley Lane

Connects William St. with Thomas St., and is near to Bury Quay [and behind Eugene’s Bar].

Barrack Lane

Leads from the Barracks to the canal [also called Tay Lane]

Brewery Lane

Leads from the High Street to the Brewery. [This was Deverell’s old brewery north of the Esker Arts Centre].

Bridge Lane

Leads from Bridge Street and runs along the back of Charleville Sq.

Distillery Lane

Leads from the High St. to Molloy's Distillery. [the access to Bridge House Hotel today This lane is now greatly changed and was made into a wide street in 1995 as part of the construction of the Bridge Centre. It was known as Parvin’s Lane in 1783 and later Still Yard Lane. It connected Bridge Street with the distillery in use from the 1780s to 1954. In 1995 the lane was greatly widened to facilitate access to the new Bridge Centre. The widening followed on the demolition of the former Hoey & Denning premises in 1992 and was carried on to Water Lane off Patrick Street and after 2000 to Main Street.]

Gunnoodh's Lane

Lana Mhic Nuadhat.

Gunoud's Lane J.O'D.

Leads from Lower Barrack Street to the Canal. [west of the former Hugh Lynch pub and called Gunwood Lane in the 1854 printed valuation leading to some confusion for Dr Moran in his 1962 history].

Market Lane

Leads from Church Street to the Corn Market.

Mile Stone Lane

Runs from Lower Barrack Street to the Canal. [ cleared in the 1930s and ran from Kilbride Street to what is now Pearse Park]

Molloy's Lane

Leads from the High Street and is opposite to Charleville Square. [south of the Brewery Tap]

Pensioner's Row

West of the Barracks and near to the Canal. [ the new O’Molloy Street from the mid-1930s]

Rapparee Alley

A Nickname. Opposite to Bury Bridge and on the road to Tyrrellspass. [now part of Tyrrell’s Road from the north side of the canal at Bury Bridge]

Tinker's Row

Outside the town of Tullamore and on the Canal. [later Quarry View and now Clontarf Road]

Ruddocks Lane/[Swaddlin Lane – now Brides Lane]

Leads out of Barrack St. [behind the Italian restaurants in Patrick Street. This was in the 1760s also called Swaddlin Lane. The latter is accessed between the two Italian restaurants in Patrick Street. The first Methodist church was in this lane until destroyed in the Balloon Fire of 1785.]

Tanyard Lane

Leads from Charleville Square towards the Church [of Ireland, Hop Hill]. On one side is a brewery and on the other is the salting establishment of Mr. Aylward.

Water Lane

Runs from the Barracks towards the Pleasure House in Miss Crowe's garden. [This was the gazebo shown on the 1838 map on the river east of Main Street]

Wheatley's Lane [off High Street E and now a carpark behind Spollen’s pub]

Wheelwright Lane

Runs parallel to William St. [now called Offally Street]

Williams Lane

Runs from William St. to Corn Market [ just south of the junction with Harbour Street and leading to the Market Square as did the passage at Lumley’s (now Galvin’s in the 1960s).

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An examples of sources for the history of the street names

Bride’s Lane (Patrick St N.). Swaddling Lane 1821 (FDJ). Ruddock's Lane 1838, 1890; Brides Lane 1910 (OS). One-storey houses each side (OSN 1885). The home of the first Methodist chapel c. 1762 Ruddock was a property owner with a dwelling house to the front of the street (OHA, 24 Mar. 1786, lease, Bury to William Ruddock). Described as Ruddock’s Lane (RD, 18 Mar. 1833, Ruddock to Wade, 1833/9/73). 38 cabins in 1843–54 (Val.1, Val. 2). 87 inhabitants in 1901 with 27 houses and 27 families (Census). The modern name is derived from the name of the parish, Kilbride. In giving evidence to a housing inquiry in 1910 it was described as a very congested district surrounded by a high wall with no thoroughfare through it (MT, 3.9.1910). It later became known as the Wade estate and was sold in 1912 (TKI 2.11.1912). The name Ruddock’s Lane was still in use in 1918 when twenty-five cottages here were offered for sale of which twenty-four were weekly tenants paying 1s. 4d. per week (TKI 30.3.1918). Clearance order published for demolition of dwellings (MT 21.12.1935). Now it has new homes since the 1990s of which those on the east side are called Haviland Court.