Ballincollig Royal Gunpowder Mills

Surviving mill stone on the site

Sluice gates at Ballincollig

A large circular coal store, since overgrown

One of the most important trades in the 19th century mills was that of the millwright. The millwright was responsible for the construction and maintenance of the waterwheels and gearing which came off them to run the machinery. At its peak in Ballincollig in the middle of the 1850s there was over 20 waterwheels – 12 in the composition or incorporating mills, and wheels in the charcoal mill, sawmill, glazing house, and also in the corning and press houses.

As much of the millwright's work was done on site, one of the most important tasks was to ensure that the gears which transferred power from the waterwheels to the millstones engaged properly. To achieve this the gears were all driven in before the teeth were cut to shape. "Had the shaping been done beforehand the teeth would have been damaged by the blows…then there could be trouble from the outset, starting from the outset, starting with a faulty engagement which worsened until it set up a train of damaged gears".

Millwrights preferred to have engaging teeth of iron and wood. In this way almost all the wear of the engaging gears was taken up by the wooden ones and these had to be periodically replaced. As well as this, it was felt that iron and wood engaged better than iron and iron and that quieter and smoother running resulted.

The charcoal men and the sulphur and saltpetre refinery played an important part in the manufacture of gunpowder. Gunpowder had to be uniformly good and this depended on pure ingredients being produced by these men.

The mixer's job was to mix these three ingredients in the gunpowder. The mixture – now called the 'green charge' – was stored in small low houses called charge houses before being taken to the incorporating or composition mills. This was the most important process because here gunpowder was produced. For the men involved this was a difficult and dangerous task. Two large millstones, set on edge, and called edged runners, ground the mixture on a bedstone with a trough. The millmen remained outside, entering only to moisten the charge with distilled water and to ensure that none of the charge stuck to the millwheels.

Coopering involved the making of barrels or casks of staves that were bound together by hoops of copper or wood. They were fitted with a head and bottom. The barrels were made of oak and had to be fitted extra tight so that dampness would not seep into the powder when it was stored. Copper nails were used. In the late 1830s, 16,000 barrels of gunpowder were produced each year in Ballincollig. By 1856 there were about 50 coopers and apprentices employed in the mills.

Coopers had to undergo a five-year apprenticeship. The apprentices had to be at least fourteen years of age and to be able to read and write. Their training was governed by the rules of the Cork Coopers Society. They usually worked from 6am to 6pm in summer and from light to dark in winter. In 1887 all boys in the society in the second of their time had to pay 2d (1p) per week until the end of their apprenticeship. Many of the Ballincollig coopers had sons in the trade with them.

From the 1870s, the number of coopers in the Ballincollig Powder Mills declined. Some of this was due to the decline of production, but some was due to the use of metal canisters to hold powder as the mills changed their production to sporting powders. Some of the decline was also due to the importation of barrels from Royal Arsenal, Woolwich.[8]

After a temporary problem in the summer of 1886, when the mills were closed to the lack of water, there was a general distress in 1889 amongst the powder mill workers, but the coopers were particularly hard hit. "All the coopers are idle for a considerably period; several have gone to England… the remainder…are watching every chance that may turn up to give them employment… but they cannot succeed.

The difficulties the coopers experience lead to industrial trouble. In 1892, the coopers were in dispute with the management over the importation of powder barrels which meant that for the previous 3 months coopers were only able to earn twelve shillings a week.

In 1886, the coopers were again in dispute over the introduction of new machinery which would cut their "already low wages" by 33 per cent. When they refused to accept the managers terms they went out on strike. Eventually, the manager agreed to take back all but three who were regarded as ringleaders, who should be suspended for some time at least as "an example". The company threatened the closure of the cooperage and the use of machine made casks. There was a general decline in coopering in Cork at the end of the last century so that efforts to get the permission of the Cork coopers society to try to find work in the city were in vain.

As a result of the decline in demand for coopering, coopers and their families started to emigrate to England in 1889. Some went to find work in England and Scotland. Others found work elsewhere in Ireland, at least temporarily. In 1886 the Cork Coopers were not pleased when they heard that Ballincollig coopers had found work in Limerick. When the Powder Mills finally closed in June 1903, coopers still appealed to the coopers society to allow them to find work in Cork City, but the society refused.

As a number of gunpowder wagons made their way along George's Street (present day Washington Street) in August 1803, vibration disturbed one barrel and, unnoticed by the car men, the contents flowed along the ground in a steady trickle. A stumble by one of the car men produced a spark and without warning the escaped gunpowder exploded. Though many bystanders were shaken by the blast no injuries were noted. A far different tale would have been told if the powder casks had become engulfed in the explosion. A local newspaper reported the incidents and urged that caution be exercised in the future.

"As we know not of any similar case having occurred in this city, we need not, through apprehension of its being repeated, enjoying any lesson of caution; but upon the whole, the transportation of so formidable an article of destruction, subject to so many accidents, should be in all cases the object of incessant vigilance."

Two years later the same newspaper returned to the subject of gunpowder when it warned of the dangers of storing large quantities in city retail premises. It is suggested that powder be stored in a detached depot and that retailers only stock limited quantities. On 15 October 1805, the mayor of Cork was complimented for drawing attention to the fact that a main street grocer was stocking far more powder than his licence allowed. The gunpowder was seized and lodged in the ordnance store. A couple of days later the powder stock of a South Main Street grocer was also seized and confiscated. Early in 1806 further precautions were taken and it was ordered that gunpowder be shipped from Blackrock and not from the cities quays as was the current practice.

In November 1810, Ballincollig gunpowder was again associated with a major disaster in the city itself. At about 10 o clock on the evening of 3 November a violent explosion rocked the Brandy Lane area of the city, with three houses demolished and a number of others set on fire. Crowds of people converged on the area. A scene of chaos awaited them ; dismembered bodies, clothing, household furniture and ware, plus other debris, were strewn around. Parties were organised to comfort survivors, fight fires and carry out other tasks. Rescuers worked through the night, and by morning 19 bodies had been pulled from the ruins. The deaths of three survivors in hospital brought the number of fatalities to 22. The cause of the tragedy was ascribed to the pilfering of gunpowder from the Ballincollig Mill. A worker had found a market for the powder in quarries near the city and each evening he brought small quantities to his home in Brandy Lane. It surmised that carelessness while drying the powder with candles was the cause of the explosion. The apparent greed of one Ballincollig mill worker had sent over 20 people to premature graves.[9][10]

A fatal accident occurred at the Ballincollig Powder Mills on 25 June 1841, when two men were killed by an explosion in the corning house. Little is known about this incident, but two years later another fatal accident took place. Shortly after reporting for work on Saturday, 29 July 1843, John Carol and Jeremiah Long donned their working clothes and special shoes and went to their place of work at the granulating (corning mill). In the building at the time were 21 barrels, each containing 100 lb (45 kg) of gunpowder. One of the men put the machinery in motion and two minutes later a massive explosion rocked Ballincollig. "Slates, timber, lead and stones were thrown to a great distance, not a stone in the mill was left standing; even its foundations were torn up and scattered ; and the only part of the machinery standing is a large metal wheel used in the process of granulating. Carrol and Long were killed instantly, their bodies were cast a considerable distance, and in quite different directions. They were wholly denuded of clothes and presented a shocking appearance – mutilated and scarcely recognizable."

Prior to the accident three troops of the 2nd Dragoon Guards had been inspected by General Sir Octavious Carey in a field near the mill; they had moved to the far end of the parade area just a few minutes before the explosion otherwise the casualty list could have been far greater. At an inquest on the following day a verdict of death by accident was returned.

Just three years later two men were injured when another mill exploded. One man had his clothing burned, the other received a severe back injury when he was hit by flying timber. On 15 April 1847, the military were called in to help contain a fire at the cooperage in the mill complex. Their efforts to prevent the fire spreading to the neighbouring powder store were successful, but the cooperage itself was reduced to ashes. Again, in June 1858, an explosion demolished a small mill in Ballincollig, but no injuries were reported.

Between 1859 and 1862 three explosions claimed a dozen lives at the Ballincollig Mills. The first of these explosions took place in the dusting house on a Saturday in August 1859.[11] In this building the dust was removed from the gunpowder. Early in the morning the pure gunpowder was removed between 30 and 40 barrels were brought alongside the barge-boat and 20-year-old John Corcoran looked after the barge-horse. The dusting house workers were William Looney, the foreman; Timothy Lyons and James Merrick. As the unloading proceeded, a sudden explosion demolished the dusting house and the adjoining press house; a buttress wall of stone and earth which separated the two timber buildings was also levelled. The five men were killed instantly and the huge crater left by the explosion was soon filled with canal water. Three of the bodies were recovered and brought to a nearby shed; a search commenced for the others.

A more melancholy sight then this could not be imagined, surrounded as if it were relatives of the deceased, bewailing their fate with loud and incessant lamentations; but it was horrible in the extreme to see from time to time persons coming in, bringing in, wrapped in grass or cloth, a blackened cinder that was once a hand, a foot, or other portions of one of the dead men. Those awful relics were scattered far and wide, some of them having been found on the brow of the hill on the opposite side of the river, nearly half a mile away from the scene of the catastrophe.

Nearly two miles at Lisheen House young Morgan O Connel was knocked unconscious by a window which was displaced by the blast. The cause of the explosion was a mystery and it was surmised that friction between barrels or a spark from a pebble was to blame. A verdict of accidental death was returned by the jury.

The tragedy was soon forgotten and a new 'pressing mill' was constructed on the site. The hydraulic equipment for working the machinery was situated under the floor and, as an added safety precaution the floor itself was covered in leather. Shortly before noon on 23 October 1861, the building was cleared and eight barrels of powder and eight barrels of dust were brought in for processing. Twenty minutes later an explosion was heard and when workers arrived at the scene little of the building or its contents remained. Five men who were working in the mill died in the explosion; they were; Owen Begley, the foreman, Thomas Long, George Davidson, Thomas Hailey and Timothy Merrick. A verdict of death by accident was also returned in this case. But a couple of days later it emerged that one of the men who was retiring because of ill health had decided to treat his companions. He had crossed the river and purchased drink which he brought to the mill. The Cork Examiner noted:

It is a fearful warning as to the consequences of yielding to a momentary temptation, while on the other hand it is in a certain degree satisfactory for the sake of those engaged in similar operations, to know that the catastrophe arose from causes which are avoidable and that it would probably never occurred had the unhappy victims but adhered to the rules of the establishment.

The third fatal accident occurred in the drying house or 'west stove', almost exactly 12 months later, on 25 October 1862. Thirty barrels of gunpowder exploded and the small building was "blown utterly to pieces, leaving not a trace of its existence save a few beams, sticks and stones on the ground" John Hallissy and David Leahy were killed by falling rubble.

During the next few years further explosions took place. On 22 January 1864 a blast at one of the composition mills caused a chain reaction which blew up 3 other mills. About 220 lb (100 kg) of gunpowder was involved, little serious damage was caused and three of the mills were expected to be operational within a few days. Again, on 8 October 1869. three compounding sheds were destroyed in an explosion the material was in an unfinished state and little damage resulted. Two more sheds at the 'Black Mills' were demolished in an explosion in June 1870; only "a few fragments of timber and debris of stone work discoloured by the powder remained to mark what had existed". Following an explosion at the Black Mills in April 1872, a man named John Corcoran died. His companion, 70-year-old William Dinan was severely injured in the blast. Three months later an explosion demolished another shed at the Black Mills. In March 1877 an explosion occurred at the incorporating mill and Thade Connel received severe burns. In this mill, rollers driven by water power moved around a trough and crushed certain ingredients; as a safety precaution – workers were not allowed to remain in the building while the machinery was in motion. The equipment was stopped before workers entered and it was thought that Connel may have been scraping encrusted powder from the roller when the blast occurred. Though hopes were entertained for his recovery, Connel died a few days later.

This Heritage Centre remains closed - but Ballincollig Regional Park is open to the public every day of the year and many of the other ruins associated with the gunpowder manufacture can be seen.

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• Cocroft, Wayne D (2000). Dangerous Energy: The archaeology of gunpowder and military explosives manufacture. Swindon: English Heritage. ISBN 1-85074-718-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• County Council (2017). "Ballincollig Gunpowder Trails" (PDF). corkcoco.ie. Cork County Council.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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• Kelleher, George D (1993). Gunpowder to Guided Missiles, Ireland's War Industries. John F Kelleher. ISBN 0-9514264-0-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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• Webb, Jenny; Donaldson, Anne (2006). Ballincollig Royal Gunpowder Mills: A Hidden History. Nonsuch Ireland. ISBN 978-1-84588-540-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)