The original Suir Blueway!
On this day in 1756, a £1,500 contract was signed between Clonmel Corporation and Joseph Grubb, Richard Shaw and William Markham to construct a towpath supported by a dry-stone wall along the northern bank of the River Suir between Clonmel and Carrick.
Starting at the Clonmel end, the plan was to develop the towpath down to Carrick. By 1789, the towpath was complete. Up until this, boats called ‘noddies’ carrying loads of 7+ tons had been pulled up the river by gangs of men and women with ropes on their shoulders up the south bank of the river (the Waterford side). But now with the completion of a new towpath, horse-drawn barges were able to pull cargoes of 40 tons up the new towpath on the Tipperary side of the river. These new developments permitted merchandise to be moved in less time and more economically between the two towns.
Because of the existence of the navigation from Clonmel to Carrick, it made these towns significant collecting and distributing centres. The traders supplied and purchased goods over an area embracing the towns of Tipperary, Thurles, Templemore, Cashel, Roscrea, Fethard and many smaller places. The principal articles carried inland were coal, grain, flour, manures, seeds, foreign timber and a variety of shop goods. The goods brought down river included corn, oats, flour, condensed milk, wool, eggs, native timbers and more.
The opening of the Waterford to Limerick railway in 1854 was to herald the eventual demise of the river trade between Clonmel and Carrick/Waterford although trade was to remain strong for a number of years afterwards. Michael Ahern claims that it was the 1920s before trade declined to the point that the Suir Navigation Company, which charged tolls on the river traffic, was ‘moribund’.
Source:
Michael Ahern, Rare Clonmel, pp252-261.
