Take a virtual walk around the Industrial Archaeology of Peel using the map below.
The map and the text is taken from a brochure produced by Peel Heritage Trust for its guided walk on 7 May 2002
Click on the numbers on the map to read the descriptions
Douglas and the present station was erected as a replacement
for the original harbour facing one, which dated from 1873. The existing station is now incorporated into the House of Manannan, although it pre-dates the Heritage Centre by 90 years.
About 150 years ago, the houses in Peel were lit by paraffin lamps and candles. Peel Gasworks was built in the 1850s and it provided gas for the street lamps and a method of cooking and lighting for the households which could afford the installation. Incredibly, electricity only came to Peel in 1933! The production of gas from coal stopped in 1970, when LPG came from Douglas.
Moores Kipper Yard (now a working museum), built in 1881-83 is a fine example of an original purpose-built industrial building. It is perhaps the best preserved kipper curing establishment on the Island. It is now owned and managed by the Desmond brothers from Ramsey. Herring are cured here in the traditional way and there are tours around the complex at various times during the day. These tours are fascinating for both visitors and locals alike and are highly recommended. There is a shop well stocked with sea food as well as, of course, kippers.
In 1907 (the same year as the railway station was built) Neakle, Watterson and Cashen, Shipbuilders, relocated from where Quirk’s coal yard now stands, to a riverside location next to Moores Kipper Yard. This new location extended up to the Commissioners’ yard. The shipbuilding firm had been formed 10 years earlier in 1897 and the highly respected business attracted may orders for fishing boats from Ireland. The last years of trading saw the company move to the other side of the river. The slip and shed are still there. William Watterson, the original partner died in 1937 and the firm ceased trading. An article entitled ‘The End of an Era’ published in the 2001 Manx Traditional Boat Festival brochure, describes the most interesting history of the firm.
N. R. Corlett took over the riverside location and made concrete roof tiles for the building industry, and at one time prefabricated concrete garages.
Riverside Building Supplies was set up in 1995 by Michael Horne, and his sister Bernice Corcoran. This local firm sells timber and a good range of supplies to local builders and DIY enthusiasts.
Boat building was carried out on the river bank here and some boats were side launched into the river.
The concrete bridge across to ‘West Marine’ was built in 1929. West Marine carried on the fibreglass production, and built and repaired boats. Opposite the road end of the bridge stands a building which was once the showroom for Peel Engineering, including of course the P50.
These bungalows were built by the MEA to house its workers. Large diameter insulated pipes joined the cottages together as they were heated by waste heat from the power station itself.
As we stand on the riverbank in front of the Martin’s garden it is difficult to realise that we have walked virtually the whole length of a railway (or more correctly, a plateway). This was used to carry clay from the claypit opposite, along the bank, the route turning right by the Commissioners’yard, across the ‘main line’ of the railway, and into the brickworks.
The claypit is now full of water. Obviously the remaining clay is so impervious it holds the water - the lake surface is now higher than the river.
A few yards along the back lane a sandstone building can be found. The side of the building facing the former power station appears to be little altered, it once had a notice fastened to the wall which said ‘Close Chiarn Camp’. It was at one time a holiday camp (hardly in the Butlin’s category), but it did have three ‘classes’ of accommodation. The first class was in a dormitory on the upper floor of the building. Whether it was cubicled or not isn’t known. The second class was in a line of spartan chalets (huts really). These ran perpendicular to the building where now there is a line of garages. It may be that these garages stand on the site of these former chalets. Each one was single roomed and very basic. Ruby Garrett was housed in one of them with four of her friends from Scotland. They came as kipper girls and worked long hours slitting and gutting herring for little pay.
It was certainly a hard life in the 1940s. Ruby remembers washing in the ‘big house’, but this was not allowed when guests were around. Third class accommodation was in a bell tent in the field. The sandstone building (the big house) was originally a rope factory, obviously serving the ship building enterprises near the harbour. The ropewalk is visible on the photograph (kindly loaned by Mr Fred Radcliffe, who lived in the premises around 1940). The upper floor is supported by large cast iron pillars. The building is owned by the MEA and is used for storage.
The was a great deal of pride shown in Peel when the power station was built in the mid 1950s. The contrasts between the original one and the new one are so marked. The exhaust pipes in Peel A were only about 20 feet above the ground and the noise level was such that conversation was difficult even on the railway line. The exhaust noise could be heard all over the town when the wind was blowing in that direction. One of the conditions of build for the new power station was that the old one must be demolished within two years of the commissioning. The condition was not honoured, much to the annoyance of Peel Town Commissioners (and indeed the Trust). However the building has been re-clad and it blends in very well with its surroundings. It is used for storage of MEA equipment.
In the 1881 Isle of Man Directory, is an advertisement for the ‘Mona Chemical Works’ which operated in the brickworks field, according to Fred Palmer. The chemical field is the open field south of the Total installations, or it could be under them. It was certainly south of the brickworks but the exact whereabouts of the works isn’t known. The Peel scouts paid rates on a property in the chemical field, whether this was the former chemical works, or a building nearby isn’t known. The late Bob Forster wrote a very interesting article about the works in the Spring 2000 edition of the Peel Heritage Trust newsletter.
The Total offices are built very close to the rear of Peel Mill in the garden of Mill House, demolished in about 1993. Mill House was formerly owned by the Commissioners and rented, at one time, by Eddie Leece’s parents. The photograph shows Mill House and its outbuildings before Keltic Windows took over. The road linking the railway to the river at this point was the route taken by the brickworks plateway.
Peel B power station is so different from Peel A. The only common fact being diesel generation. The noise from the huge engines is almost completely silenced by well designed sound insulation. Workers inside the building, and visitors too, must wear ear protectors. The Mirlees engines are so much more efficient than the original ones in Peel A. ‘Forty years on’ has produced a world of difference in generating efficiency. The main bone of contention for Islanders was, and still is, THAT CHIMNEY! It can be seen from so many parts of the Island and rumour has it that is visible from the Mull of Galloway! The chimney was ‘slip formed’, a process where a continuous pour of concrete was coiled around the stack.
The MEA has recently connected the Island with a cable link to Bispham in Lancashire, and now off-peak electricity can be purchased from the UK, and our spare capacity can be exported when the price is right. There are plans to bring natural gas on shore north of Peel and to pipe it underground to the Pulrose station, which when rebuilt will be gas-fired.
The new power station was built on land once occupied by Peel brickworks, a company which at its peak of production could turn out 250,000 bricks a week. Clay was brought into the works, formed into the familiar shape and fired in huge honeycombed chambers. The fuel for the fires was coal in the form of fine slack (which was not suitable for domestic use). The coal was brought by boat from Talacre, the port for the North Wales coalfield, into the harbour in Peel and unloaded by ‘men with shovels’.
It is not known how many men worked in the brickworks in its heyday. The photograph shows some of them, perhaps all of them, posing for the camera in front of a building known as the Machine House. The date of the photograph is about 1880. The men are wearing caps, many are in waistcoats. Corporate overalls and hard hats are certainly for the future!
Some of the men who sit and put the world to rights at Weatherglass Corner are not sorry to see the brickworks go. The work was very hard indeed, the handling of the bricks hadn’t the benefit of anything mechanical to help the workers. The work, and the atmosphere, were dirty and the pay was poor. Conditions were Dickensian....
In 1887 Robert Kneen packed a total of 6,200 bricks and was paid 13 shillings, machine boy, Robert Kewin, worked for six days for 11 shillings, fireman William Gelling put in a 7 day week for one pound, one shilling (21 shillings) and the works manager, John Ellis, earned one pound, 15 shillings (35 shillings). However, the brickworks company did put food on the table for many a Peel family at a time when considerable numbers of Manxmen had to go off the Island to find work.
The brickworks has gone ...well, nearly all of it. The concrete areas on the House of Manannan overspill car park are relics of the works yard and, of course, the sole surviving building is the works office. What a success story that has turned out to be!
Manx National Heritage acquired the land between the rear of the fishyard’s buildings and the railway line to form the overspill car park. MNH proposed to demolish the 1926 building because no use could be found for it. PHT delayed the demolition and MNH offered a 5 year lease, which some of the committee members felt was not enough. The offer was withdrawn and MNH prepared once more to demolish it.
At the eleventh hour the Manx Transport Museum Group stepped in, accepted the 5 year lease and rolled up its sleeves. This highly practical and committed group has transformed a building which was derelict, into what is the headquarters of the group. It will contain a museum of Manx transport when the building is opened to the public at Easter 2002. Jonathan Irving most generously paid for the felting and rebattening of the front roof and the retiling of it. Broken tiles on the front were replaced by good ones from the back. The rear roof (which is difficult to see) has been fibreglassed. The group has put in new ceilings, rewired, replumbed and reglazed, where necessary, and decorated.
It shows what can be done when there is a will, many skills, a generosity of spirit and plain determination.
On the other side of Mill Road is another success story. The Trust is in the process of leasing the triangular piece of land from the Department of Transport so that the railways display may be completed. The coach body survival is quite a remarkable story, too long to tell in this brochure.
Isle of Man Railways have been so supportive in that Ian Watson, the former permanent way manager, had the short length of track laid. The signal, which was originally at Lezayre, has been restored and the gates and sign donated, all by IOMR. Plans have been submitted to build a platform in front of the coach and to erect a platform lamp, again kindly donated by Mr David Howard, Director of IOM Transport.
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