PHOTOGRAPHED AUGUST 2018 PUBLISHED 15 JANUARY 2024
There were two buildings on the banks of the river Nore and they were collectively known as The Tea Houses and as part of the ongoing development of the Abbey Quarter site, Kilkenny County Council recently completed the refurbishment of the Tea Houses on Bateman Quay. The buildings are located at the entrance to the new Riverside Garden and Skatepark amenity area which was officially opened in the summer of 2021. The Tea Houses are also strategically located adjacent to the bus stops for the City Bus Service and the Market Yard car park.
The Houses, dated 19th Century, and were known as “Pleasure Houses” have a history of operating a coffee/café type service as historically they were used by the gentry to take their afternoon tea on the banks of the River.
There is also a memorial tree here the “Tree Of Heaven” erected by the Bereaved Parents Support Group Kilkenny
There is now a pedestrian bridge connecting John’s Quay to Bateman Quay which is home to a courthouse and the new Thomas Woodgate Memorial.
On the former Smithwick’s Brewery and Bateman Quay sites, historical maps reveal that the area was subdivided into long plots of ground with one end on the main street known as burgage plots. These burgage plots were first established by William Marshall in 1207. A ‘burgess’ rented a burgage plot for a shilling a year and built a house on the street. Behind the house stretched a long narrow garden for growing fruit and vegetables. The burgesses built sheds in these gardens and in some instances, a dovecote, which ensured a supply of fresh meat for the family all year around.
I first photographed this memorial in March 2021 but forgot to publish the resulting images.
In 2021 I used a Sony 7RIV with a Sony PZ 28-135mm Lens and in 2022 I used a Canon 5D MkIII with a Sigma 24-105mm Lens.
Thomas was from Callan in Co Kilkenny, the son of Edward and Hanora Woodgate of Mill Street, and until recently it was assumed that he was 18 when he signed up to the Royal Air Force in late 1918. He died on board RMS Leinster on 10 October 1918, when it was torpedoed by a German submarine close to the Kish Lighthouse while on its way to Holyhead.
Altogether, 501 lives were lost in that incident, which occurred just a month before the end of the war.
In recent years, while research was being carried out into the hundreds of people from the Kilkenny area who died during that war, it was discovered that Thomas was actually 14 when he was killed.
Thomas is buried in Grangegorman military cemetery in Dublin.
The sculpture was created by CDS Architectural Metalwork. Martin Stapleton began his career working with his father Michael in the Farm Building Business. He began his apprenticeship in 1986 and in 1989 he represented Ireland in the World Skill Olympics where he finished 3rd behind China and Korea. After this intensive training, Martin realised that there was a market for quality metalwork in the construction industry which could be manufactured and installed to an extremely high standard, which was not an “off the shelf” product but instead crafted to suit each individual project requirement. This metalwork utilized mildsteel, stainless steel, copper, brass, glass etc and maximised the fabrication techniques and procedures to produce spectacular results.