Page 81 - GAHS Journal Volume 9

GREYSTONES ARCHAEOLOGICAL & HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL VOLUME 9

system. Those that were not post towns had a penny post
system that took the collected mail to the nearest post town for
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delivery to various destinations.
In 1834 the railway was constructed between Kingstown [Dun
Laoghaire], and Dublin City, with extensions into the interior of
the island. Eventually reaching Bray in 1855 and then through to
Wexford very soon afterwards.

Horse buses, and tramways as public services to feed the
railways developed rapidly to serve the expanding populations in
the towns. The Dublin and Blessington Steam Tramway (DBST),
later the Blessington and Poulaphouca Steam Tramway, oper-
ated steam-powered trams between Terenure in Dublin and

Blessington in Co. Wicklow from 1888 until 1932. [8]
The industrial revolution

The industrial revolution started in the middle of England and
the ideas spread by the communications mentioned above,
generated a desire to move away from cottage industry to
collective industry by setting up factories to produce large
quantities of product at a lower price. Some prospered but many
failed through lack of resources, market volume, or changes in
market taste. Examples to be found in County Wicklow are:

2 Flannel is a soft woven fabric of various fineness. Flannel was originally
made from carded wool or worsted yarn, but is now often made from either
wool, cotton or synthetic fibre. Vegetable flannel is made from Scots pine
fibre.

3 Frieze (French: frisé) is a Middle English term for a coarse woolen, plain
weave cloth with a nap on one side. The nap was raised by scrubbing it to
raise curls of fibre, and was not shorn after being raised, leaving an uneven
surface.
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