I had hoped to locate Crow’s Well but failed to do so.
Sometime in 1891 Mr Fennessey, proprietor of the well-known seed warehouse, High Street, Kilkenny, and of the extensive nurseries convenient to Kilkenny City, leased the long-disused Archersgrove Mill, for the purpose of converting the premises into bone-crushing and linseed cake-crushing mills and perhaps sawmills. At the time it was hoped Fennessy’s enterprise would convert a silent ruin into a busy centre of employment.
The townland of 487 acres on the east of the River Nore was originally called Archerstown. The Archer family were one of the most important Kilkenny families for several hundred years. The Archer’s lands were confiscated after Cromwell conquered Ireland. Archerstown was granted to the Duke of Ormond. He leased the townland to the Waring family and they changed the townsland name to Warrington. In 1864 Warrington Mills was advertised for leasing as: “A good corn mill in good working condition”. The distillery became know as “The Still” and part of the original building remains today.
Fennessy’s Mills, Kilkenny, on the southern bank of the River Nore. ‘post-medieval water mills’. It is recorded as cornmills, named as ‘Archers Mills’, at the time of the Civil Survey of 1654–5. A grant by the earl of Ormonde to William Archer is recorded in 1426. Two stone mills are referred to in 1416, and the Quarryland Mill opposite Fennessy’s is referred to in 1633. In 1850 the mills were owned by Richard Sullivan; however, by 1891 they are described as ‘disused about to be converted to a bone crushing plant’. The mills survive in ruins and contain a weir to the west of the buildings.
This photograph dates from May 2017 but it was published in September 2022.
When I first photographed this building about ten years ago a waiter in a nearby restaurant told me that it was to be converted into a hotel but this proved to be untrue. It would appear that it has been incorporated into a larger 17-storey office complex. The historic building and the new build structure will be linked at first and second floor, grouped around a central courtyard.
The same waiter also told me that the Ewart building was originally a box factory but further investigation leads me to believe that the business in question was located at 35 Bedford street which is now the Bridge House JD Wetherspoon [a superpub].
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