Smyths Of The Bann
written by Paul McCandless

LINEN

Linen is an ancient product and perhaps the oldest textile known to man. It is mentioned several times in the Bible and the body of Christ was wrapped in a shroud of linen cloth. The bodies of the Pharaohs were also wrapped in linen prior to burial, hence the well-known image of the bandage clad mummy.

In Ireland the earliest written report of the cultivation of flax was in the 11th Century. By 1272 ecclesiastical linen made from Irish yarn was being used in Winchester Cathedral. For two centuries, the 18th and 19th, linen was one of the most important manufacturing industries in Ireland thanks in part to the Huguenots who introduced advanced methods of linen production to Ireland.

A report in the 'Banbridge Chronicle' of 1877 stated that the quantity of linen exported to foreign countries in September of that year amounted to nearly 14 million yards. It also stated that Spain and Italy used to be the best customers of the Irish linen manufacturers, but they had been superseded by the United States of America which consumed nearly as much as all the other foreign countries put together. The report went on to say that "the importance of the Irish linen trade from a national point of view may be estimated by the fact that the foreigner pays upwards of £6m a year to Ulster for its staple manufacture." It concluded by adding that the amount of revenue brought in by the manufacture of linen was "completely overshadowed by its twin sister - whiskey"! The linen industry was mainly concentrated in east Ulster, especially in the Banbridge and Lisburn areas. Banbridge's early wealth was created by the linen trade.

So valuable a commodity was linen that theft or even receiving linen known to be stolen evoked the death penalty. In 1783 Patrick and Steven Gordon stole linen from the bleachgreen of Walter Crawford of Ballievey, for which both men were executed. John Wright stole linen from Clibborn's bleachgreen and sold the material to John Holmes; again, both men were executed, Wright being hanged at Banbridge. In 1811 the penalty of death for the theft of linen was abolished and replaced by penal servitude.
In 1725 water driven machinery arrived in Ulster and soon the Bann became one of the most utilised of Ulster's, if not Ireland's, rivers. The Crawfords of Ballievey, Mulligans of the Corbet, Lindsays of Ballydown and Hayes' of Millmount and Seapatrick were amongst the first to make use of this advance in technology.

In Wakefield's '1808 Account Of Ireland' he states that Banbridge had 20 bleachgreens each bleaching 8,000 pieces per year. One yard wide pieces of linen cost eight shillings and cambrics seven shillings to bleach, all with an eight percent profit. In total all the greens inclusive of their profit made over £500,000. Goods for bleaching were being brought to the banks of the Bann from as far afield as Counties Tyrone and Antrim.

The Linen Board Secretary, James Cony, toured Ulster in 1816. He recalled that Banbridge was the largest linen market in County Down, the average price of webs being: coarse linen-£l, fine linen-£2/1 s, lawns and cambrics-£l/13s/4d.

All the webs came to market in a brown state. Coarse linens were half-bleached in the local areas and then sent to the north of England as shirting linen for mechanics and labourers. The fine linens were generally bleached in Counties Down and Antrim, the finer fabrics going to the Dublin market, the West Indies and America, whilst the stronger kinds were sent to London, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Below is a brief overview of the process of turning the flax plant into linen cloth.

FLAX TO LINEN

Rippling - when the flax plant had been harvested the stem of the plant was passed through coarse combs. This removed the seeds and leaves.

Retting or Bogging - this was the soaking in flax dams or lint holes of the pulled plants. The flax beats were weighed down by heavy stones to keep them below the water surface, the flax plant being kept in this state for nine to 10 days enabling the bacteria of the stagnant water to soften the flax stems. It was easy to tell if there was a flax hole nearby because of the stench of the rotting flax. After retting, it was removed and laid on the fields for several days to dry, before being tied in upright standing bundles called gaits.

Scutching - after the flax was retted and dried it was taken to a scutching mill where it was broken up by passing through fluted rollers that broke the stems, removing the unwanted parts. At the end of the process the flax resembled combed hair. McConville's scutch mill at Dromore, County Down is the last of its kind in this area.

Hackling - this process straightened out the flax fibres removing tangles and unwanted bits and was carried out by passing the flax over a series of pins.

Spinning - this was the process of forming the flax fibre into one continuous thread called yarn and was originally done by a spinning wheel and winder wheel. With advances in technology it was then carried out by water-powered spinning frames, which were in turn replaced by power spinning. Multistorey mills were erected for spinning. The first spinning mill in the Banbridge area was Hazelbank, which eventually converted to weaving in the 1880s. The first power loom factory was at Seapatrick where in 1835 'unions' (a mixture of linen and cotton) were being woven. The Seapatrick works eventually changed to spinning and the huge mill, that has since been demolished, was built by the Haves family. Wet spinning was an English innovation producing a finer yarn which was more suitable for Irish cloth and because of this the mills in Ulster changed to wet spinning on a large scale.

Weaving - this was the process of crossing two threads, the warp and the weft, to form a piece of cloth, the process being carried out on a loom. An instrument known as a shuttle carried the thread across the loom. The area of a mill with zigzag patterned roofs were usually the weaving rooms designed in such a way as to give optimum light. The zigzag patterned roofs of Brookfield can still be seen today.

Bleaching - this was one of the finishing processes. Its aim was to change the colour of the linen from its natural grey-brown state to white. It was done by a combination of successive soaking, washing, rubbing and drying. The good clean waters and adequate supply made the River Bann a natural choice for this job. Prior to bleachworks being set up, this process was carried out by the 'farmer linen drapers' using liquids such as buttermilk, potash and even cow urine to bleach the cloth, alongside their normal farming duties. John Smyth (Jnr) had bleaching in mind when he invented the Ozonometer, which enabled him to check atmospheric conditions. Chemicals such as sulphuric acid were eventually used and vitriol works were set up on the Bann, one such being at Mountpleasant between Banbridge and Gilford. After the various chemical processes the linen was laid out in the fields, known as bleachgreens or spreadfields, to bleach and dry. Being such a valuable commodity, watch huts were erected, one of which can still be seen in fields which were once part of the Uprichard family's Springvale bleachworks near Laurencetown. Another hut from the Uprichard's bleachgreens was removed some years ago and placed in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum at Cultra. Bleaching is still carried out on the Upper Bann at Ballievey, now the property of 'Ulster Weavers Apparel Ltd.' The linen tablecloths and napkins used on the RMS 'Titanic' were bleached in Ballievey. In 1834 there were 185,710 webs of linen bleached in Banbridge.

Beetling - this was the process of pounding the linen webs with large wooden beetles that rose and fell in sequence and hammered the cloth for anything from one to two days and sometimes up to a fortnight, adding a smooth sheen which also 'closed' the bleached cloth. My grandfather Samuel McCandless was a beetler in Ballievey factory. The continuous thumping of the beetling equipment left many people, including him, hard of hearing or eventually deaf.

Finishing - this was the last process. The cloth would be fed through a series of rollers under great pressure, after which the cloth was 'lapped' (folded) and the merchant's stamp added.

LINEN HALLS

Like most towns in a linen producing area, Banbridge had a Brown Linen Hall, which is illustrated in a famous print by William Hincks showing the hall situated where the Downshire Bridge now is, the 'Cut' not yet built. The inscription beneath the print reads: "To the Right Honourable Arthur Trevor, Viscount Dungannon and Baron of Older-Fleet in the County of Antrim; this plate representing the Brown Linen Market at Banbridge in the County of Downe. The Weavers holding up their pieces of linen to view. The Bleachers elevated on forms examining its quality." The print gives an excellent insight into what went on at the Brown Linen Hall - the cottage weavers bringing their unbleached cloth to sell to the bleachers, the majority of whom tended to be farmers. This print also shows the 'Bunch of Grapes', the public house that benefited partly from the linen trade. As Linn says in 'A History of Banbridge' - "In wills and the public press of this time reference is often made to the farmer 'linen draper' of Ulster. These pioneers of a great industry were an independent and sturdy class whose sons and grandsons founded the linen trade of Ulster."

SOME FAMOUS NAMES

The names of various Banbridge linen merchants featured in memorials to the Linen Board for the appointments of Seal Masters: in 1820 Walter, Thomas and Andrew Crawford, James Foot, Edward Clibborn, Richard Hayes, Samuel Law, Hugh McClelland and Charles Magee were all mentioned. The Linen Board was set up in 1711 to regulate and finance the linen industry. It consisted of 72 trustees, 18 from each of the provinces of Ireland. The Board gave grants and prizes to weavers, spinners and bleachers and also encouraged new inventions. When the dissolution of the Linen Board was being considered 'Brice Smyth & Sons' and William Hayes represented Banbridge in their effort to save the Board from being dissolved. Other representatives for County Down were John Andrews (Comber), William and James Murland (Annsborough, Castlewellan) and Richard Coulter (Newry), but unfortunately their efforts were to no avail as the Board was dissolved in 1828.

Professor Conrad Gill's 'Rise of the Irish Linen Industry' stated that five great fairs for linen were held annually in Banbridge.

In the 1830s the amount of linen cloth manufactured annually in the town and townlands of Banbridge was 250,000 pieces; 150,000 pieces were bleached and the white and coloured yarns produced totalled 900,000 hanks.

The 1842 proceedings of the Society for the Promotion and Improvement of the Growth of Flax in Ireland showed Banbridge members as 'John Smyth & Co', John Finlay, Frederick Hayes and Samuel Law.

'Pigott & Co's Linen Merchants & Bleachers Directory 1824' mentions among the many linen merchants and bleachers the name of Brice Smyth, Edenderry. It also records William Weir of Lenaderg, a cousin of the Smyths. The Belfast Post Office Directory of 1843-1844 mentions 'Brice Smyth & Sons' linen merchants of Brookfield and 'John Smyth & Co' linen merchants of Milltown.

DECLINE