‘How Navan became the epicentre of furniture and carpet making in Ireland’

One of the “more fanciful” theories as to how the furniture industry in Navan was established was that fallen trees became plentiful following ‘The Great Wind’ of 1839, a speaker told an audience in the Solstice Theatre, Navan during Heritage Week.

The Big Wind occurred on the afternoon of 6th January and swept across Europe, including Ireland and Britain causing major damage and resulting in several hundred deaths.

Twenty to 25 per cent of houses in North Dublin were damaged or destroyed and 42 ships were wrecked. The storm tracked eastwards to the North of Ireland with gusts of over 185km/h (115mph). At the time it was the worst storm to hit Ireland in 300 years.

As part of a Navan and District Historical Society programme in conjunction with Heritage Week, journalist and former editor of the Meath Chronicle, Ken Davis delivered a talk on ‘How Navan became the centre of furniture and carpet making in Ireland’.

He said the story of how the furniture industry started in Navan was “a little more mundane”.

The Athlumney Mill at Boyne Road, Navan was the “cradle” of the industry. The six-storey mill was located on a small bridge at the Ramparts along the Boyne.

It was originally a flax mill built by John Muldowney from Lancashire in 1806-7.

The mill flourished during the 1800s but then declined and the building was semi-derelict by the late 1800s. However, its fortunes took a major turn for the better with the arrival in the town of the nationalist MP James McCann from Channonrock, Co Louth, a wealthy stockbroker who bought large tracts of land around Navan.

There were two mills which he converted, one into a bacon factory and the other into a woodworking enterprise.

He died aged in his 60s in 1904 but his family ensured the enterprises continued.

His sons and others engaged in the enterprise and the birth of the furniture industry could be traced to November 1906.

At one stage there were some 70 to 100 furniture makers in the town.

They were making wooden boxes, crates, axles, coffins, fencing, drawing room, dining room suites. Many of the manufacturers of the time were English but Irishmen soon took up the entrepreneurial spirit and some were making furniture in their back yards and selling it on the street at their front doors.

Some of the outstanding names of the time were Fosters, Bart, Hogg, Elliott.

Joshua Elliot from Co Antrim arrived in the town in 1900 and he was a huge influence in the industrial history of Navan.

‘The Bard’ Walsh was another man who made a huge impact, starting Blackcastle Mill, starting off with 40 employees, then 60 and by 1935 had 135 employees. “By any modern metric his growth was explosive,” Ken Davis said.

Some manufacturers, including Tommy Foster, had begun to crack the UK and European markets.

The speaker also traced the beginnings of the carpet industry in Navan. A carpet factory was started in Navan in 1938 and was known as Templeton Carpets.

The founder and first managing director was Captain Newsom, who was father to the late Eileen, Countess Mountcharles, and grandfather to Henry Mountcharles of Slane Castle.

The site for the factory was chosen because of its proximity to the Blackwater river. Ken Davis said the management selected English and Scottish personnel who quickly passed on their skill and knowledge to the 35 or so local people employed there.

Templeton Carpets also had a base in Scotland and supplied carpets for all the royal coronations up to including that of Queen Elizabeth II in 1950s. They carpeted the White House and all the luxury liners.