Bank Place and Bindon St, Ennis, census returns on the radio

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pwaldron
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Bank Place and Bindon St, Ennis, census returns on the radio

Post by pwaldron » Thu Apr 07, 2011 5:57 pm

The Today with Pat Kenny show on RTÉ Radio 1 is scheduled to do a feature on the 1911 and 2011 censuses on Friday, April 8 between 10am and noon (UTC+1). See http://www.rte.ie/radio1/todaywithpatkenny/
Some interviews (including with your truly) were recorded on the previous Wednesday on the street which had been picked as an example from the 1911 census, then known as Bank Place in Ennis.

From this experience, I learned a lot about the Bank Place area of Ennis and about using the online census returns for 1901 and 1911 at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ and http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... census.htm
I hope that some of this may interest other readers of this forum.

Bank Place today leads from the centre of Ennis across the River Fergus north to St. Columba's Church of Ireland, where the street turns sharply right into Bindon Street.

In 1911, there were seven households in the part of Bank Place in Ennis No. 1 Urban District Electoral Division (D.E.D.), along with three uninhabited buildings, namely a private dwelling, estate offices and a photo studio. In 1911, Kennedy's drapery shop at the southern end of this short street was the only house in Bank Place in Ennis No. 2 Urban D.E.D., as it was in 1901. In 1901, an uninhabited part of Bank Place was in Ennis No. 3 Urban D.E.D. But at first there appears to be no sign in 1901 of any of the seven households on Bank Place that appear in Ennis No. 1 in 1911. I wonder if those who divided a short street between three different D.E.D.s set out deliberately to confuse future genealogists!

One explanation for the seven missing households might be that these houses were all newly-built between 1901 and 1911. Sure enough, there is no sign of Bank Place in Griffith's Valuation (1855). Griffith's map shows no bridge across the River Fergus, and no houses on the nameless street running down to the Fergus from the north. Eric Shaw assures me that the bridge was built by his ancestor William Carroll shortly after the date of the Griffith map. I learned at http://www.clarecoco.ie/ga/planning/arc ... /#ACAEnnis that prosperity `led to the construction of Bindon Street, 1830s and Bank Place, 1850s'. So the `newly-built' theory doesn't seem correct.

With Eric's help, I learned that the bank building which gave its name to the street was built in 1864, and that the terrace of four red-brick Victorian houses which survives today was roughly contemporary with the bank and certainly appears on an 1879 map. Further details are given in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage at http://buildingsofireland.ie/niah/searc ... type=quick Another explanation was required.

Thinking laterally, I went round the corner and had a look at Bindon Street. In 1901, there were 21 buildings recorded on Bindon Street; but by 1911, this number had fallen to 16. Were five buildings on this street demolished between 1901 and 1911, or were they re-classified as being in Bank Place?

The only way to check is to go through the heads of family in 1901 in Bindon Street (currently mistranscribed as Bindin Street at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... in_Street/) and try to match them up with 1911:

1. John M. Galway Foley (RIC)
2. James B. Molony, Solr.
3. John H. Harvey, Clerk of the Crown
4. William Healy, Solr. [No. 3 in 1911]
5. Michael G. Hickie, Farmer
6. Samuel D. Budd, bank manager [replaced by John R. Hadden, agent, Bank of Ireland, No. 7 Bank Place, in 1911]
7. John Cullinan, Solr. [No. 5 in 1911]
8. [uninhabited]
9. Edward J. O'Meehan, Solr.
10. Frederick G. Kerin, Solr.
11. Rev. J. H. Griffith, Rector of Drumcliffe [Rev. Griffith died in 1907 and was replaced by Rev. Thomas Haines Abrahall, No. 12 in 1911]
12. Delia Cullinan, sister of Henry C. Cullinan B.L. [No. 11 in 1911]
13. N. S. Waring, bank accountant [No. 6 in 1911]
14. Alexr. Martin, bailiff
15. Wm. Stamer, retired surgeon
16. John Murphy, Supervisor Of Inland Revenue
17. Daniel McEnery, Inspector of National Schools
18. Honoria Miniken, widow
19. Michael Roche, Post Office, postmaster [replaced by Patrick Mulcahy, postmaster, No. 4, Bank Place, in 1911]
20. John C. Casey, National Bank, bank manager [No. 5, Bank Place, in 1911]
21. Church of Ireland, uninhabited

Of the 20 households identifiable in 1901, eleven were gone by 1911, and only 9 could be clearly identified, three of those with a change of personnel (without going down to the level of comparing numbers of windows and other building characteristics). But three of the households that could be matched up had moved from Bindon Street in 1901 to Bank Place in 1911! Problem solved.

The Rectory, no. 11 in 1901 and no. 12 in 1911, is actually known locally as 1 Bindon Street; see http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/clarem ... _extra.htm

So the next lesson is not to assume that the 1901 census numbers, the 1911 census numbers and the local street numbers are the same; the same house and same occupants can actually have three different numbers.

New arrivals in the 1911 census were:

Bindon Street:
1. Joseph Edward Craig (another lesson: this family reversed their first names and surnames on the census return, so can only be found by searching for Craig as Forename!)
2. Margaret Greene, doctor's widow
4. John B Lynch, solicitor
7. Randal Counihan, M.D.
8. Denis Roughan, iron monger
9. James Lynch, solicitor
10. Francis Pilkington, solicitor
13. Patrick Joseph Breen, gardener

Bank Place:
1. Warren Wise, dentist
2. William Henry Allen, Civil Engineer
3. William Henry Fogerty, solicitor
6. Elizabeth Collins, dress maker

William Henry Fogerty's address was No. 1 Bank Place in 1917, 1919 and 1945 (see http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_det ... lty=104579 and http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_det ... lty=476267 and his obituary in The Irish Times of 12 Jan 1945).

At http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... nis_No__3/ Bank Place is not listed at all, but the 1901 house and building return for the uninhabited part of Bank Place in Ennis No. 3 Urban DED is actually online at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/r ... 000463608/
There is just no link to enable those who are not comfortable editing URLs to get at it! It shows one unoccupied Shop.

Those familiar with the microfilm version of the census return will understand how I figured out the URL for Bank Place from those for Arthur's Row and Brewery Lane, the streets before and after Bank Place in the alphabetical listing for Ennis No. 3 Urban.

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