TIMBER that came from America more than 160 years ago for the construction of miner’s huts in Allihies, has recently been repurposed to make a new exhibit for the local Copper Mine Museum.
It was a conversation at a wedding, that led keen local historian Michael Downey to contact Anne McNally of the Allihies Copper Mine Museum about the project.
Tadhg O’Sullivan of the Allihies Copper Mine Museum outlined the background to the story, saying that the wood came to Allihies from the east coast of the US around 1860, when there was a huge demand for housing for miners working in the copper mines in Allihies.
‘An order was sent out to Pennsylvania, which was a very heavily wooded area, to send over flatpacks of slabs of what we believe is American Redwood,’ he said.
Tadhg said nine of these timber huts were constructed in Allihies by 1861, near to the mountain mine in Allihies.
‘This was one of the peak times in mining in Allihies, but it started to wind down in the 1870s, and eventually it closed in 1882.
‘After the closure, these huts, which were still in excellent condition, were auctioned off. As it happened, an auctioneer in Skibbereen, a man called WG Wood, bought it and used it to build a house on an acre site on the Baltimore Road in 1915.
A model of one of the nine miner's huts, built in Allihies more than 150 years ago.
Nelson Roycroft, a miller in Skibbereen, later bought the house from WG Wood after the second World War in the late 40s and Larry and Lily Roycroft made it their home in 1950.
Five children were reared in the house purchased from WG Wood, namely Richard, David, Noel, Carol, and George, and the house remained habitable up until 2014.
It was only after it became vacant that the property started to deteriorate.
The Roycroft family decided to clear the site, and take down the old structure to make way for a new dwelling for George’s son, Damien, his wife Christine and their son Matty Roycroft.
George Roycroft told The Southern Star that the bungalow on the Baltimore Road in 1915 is credited with being the first bungalow built in West Cork, and maybe even in Ireland, and it remained in pristine condition for more than 100 years.
He recalls that the family lived in it very happily and the children, in particular, took delight in its big, long corridor which was ideal for races.
The Roycroft family subsequently did a sensitive demolition of the property, and arranged to have the best of the timbers sent back from Skibbereen to Allihies.
Tadhg O’Sullivan admits that they toyed with the idea of recreating the full-sized miners’ huts with the wood, because there is still a lot of good timber available to them.
However, deciding that it wasn’t feasible, they asked Allihies Men’s Shed members to make a scaled model of an original hut, which was recently unveiled at a new exhibit at the Copper Mines Museum in Allihies.
There is just one more twist to this tale, and that is that the men’s shed members are now going to make a model of the Roycroft family’s old timber home, and present it to them in Skibbereen, making for an excellent example of how the great wheel turns!
