THE MAGICAL TALE OF BALLYCASTLE
HOW A SOUTH AFRICAN DISCOVERED AND IS EXPLOITING MINES OF
SURPASSING RICHNESS IN ULSTER—THE PROSPECTIVE RISE OF
A GREAT INDUSTRY
BY ALEX. MCDONALD
NOW that the Government has done so much for the Irishman in general by establishing the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, and has also by its crowning act placed within the hands of the tenant farmers the power, and the money, to enable them to purchase their own holdings, the rest remains with the people themselves. The Government has done its part, the individual must now justify his existence and his claim to be something more than a perpetual receiver. He has been given his cue and his place is now on the stage. Already in Ulster the individual is at work. The manner of his coming and settling down to his task reads like a chapter of highly coloured fiction ; totally unlike as it was to the prosaic matter-of-fact doings which we associate with this commercialised age of ours. One of the oldest, if not, indeed, quite the oldest, coalmines in Great Britain is situated at Ballycastle, until recently a sleepy hamlet-sized town in North Antrim. The exact date when the mine was first worked is not known, but written records show that I60 years ago, when the old workings were discovered by a new generation, there were found ancient tools such as wooden picks, tipped with iron, which crumbled away when touched by the human hand. The finding of the workings 160 years ago was the beginning of a period of prosperity for Ballycastle, which soon became a veritable oasis of activity in a desert-like land. The coalmine exuded its hundreds of tons of coal weekly, salt-pans prepared for the tables of the multitude that condiment in plenty ; a flourishing tan—yard was in existence, while the glassmaking industry was in full swing. Forty vessels, owned by Ballycastle men, traded between that port and English and Scotch cities with these commodities, while as many more vessels, owned by Saxon shippers, carried the coal and other products of the district at intervals.
The Work of Hugh Boyd
The pivot of all this activity, he who conceived it and whose energy directed it, was Hugh Boyd, one of the type of men who made our colonies what they are to-day. In 1756 Boyd died, and with his passing a change came over the scene as then presented in Ballycastle. It has often been said, and quite truly, that no man is indispensable ; that there is no void in the ranks of humanity that cannot be filled. Hugh Boyd was one of the exceptions. While he lived the district flourished; soon after he died the industries began to lose ground, and in a few years time the echo of the miner’s pick ceased to resound throughout the mine; the tannery closed its doors; the salt-pans were neglected; the glass industry became a thing of the past, and Ballycastle a part of the desert-like land. In addition to Boyd’s death one of the most powerful factors in producing this unfortunate development was the absence of proper harbour and dock accommodation. The piers of the harbour built by Boyd were of sandstone and were gradually washed away by the sea, with the result that the sand choked the entrance to the harbour andthe ingress or egress of vessels was prevented. So Ballycastle harbour stands to-day, derelict, unused by any vessels and only suitable for large—sized rowing boats.
At the end of the eighteenth and at long intervals in the nineteenth century efforts were made to resume the working of the coal-mine. Whether or not most of the efforts were ill-directed is not now clear, but it is certain that they were badly paid. In I896 the most systematic effort was made by a company, specially formed for the purpose, and local people had visions of a return of Ballycastle’s industrial glory. Once again, however, disappointment was the only reward of the projectors, who, it should be added, had themselves largely to blame for their failure. They made an inexcusable blunder at the outset and decided to reopen the mine at a point only fifteen feet from the waters of the North Atlantic, with the inevitable result that the mine was flooded before work could be resumed. A powerful pumping plant was installed, but even this was insufficient to keep down the rising water which rushed through the fissures of rock. Finally the enterprise was abandoned and five years ago it was agreed that to spend more money on the attempt to open the mine would be like throwing it into the sea. Only one thing was necessary to confirm the opinion of the people that there was no more coal in the mine, this was the opinion of some expert. This view was forthcoming in I903, when Professor Hull, at the request of the Royal Commission upon Coal Supplies, published his report upon the quantity of available coal in Ireland ; and there is no doubt that in his report he makes use of the following phrase: “That the Ballycastle coalfield may be considered practically exhausted.”
The New Man and the Hour
History furnishes numerous examples of slight accidents or apparently common-place incidents having remarkable results. Ballycastle must henceforth hold a prominent place in such history. The seemingly trivial action of a South African mining magnate selecting that town for a few days’ holiday during the spring of I904 had a far-reaching effect, for it was the first incident towards the rise of Ballycastle once more to a position of eminence and importance in industrial lreland. This magnate, Mr. G. L. Braude, was struck, during'his rambles through the district, by the geological peculiarities of the earth and stone. His expert knowledge enabled him at a glance to see sufficient to induce further investigation. The more minute his examination, the greater was his interest in the subject, and he decided to pursue his investigations to their natural end. He first of all wrote to the Dublin branch office of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland, at that time under the English Board of Education, and now under the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, for a copy of the Geological Survey expert’s report. Government offices in Ireland, as in England and Scotland, are not noted for the celerity with which they answer the communications of the inquiring public, so several days passed before Mr. Brande received Professor Hull’s report, which laid it down that the miners of former generations had practically removed all the coal procurable. In the interval, however, Mr. Braude had been quietly, but systematically, continuing his investigations, so that when Professor Hull’s report arrived he had seen with his own eyes sufficient to convince him that the professor’s conclusions were erroneous, and that minerals of some kind existed in the locality. Naturally, Mr. .Braude decided that personal observation was the surest guide, and he came to the decision to disregard entirely Professor Hull’s report and survey the district for himself. This he proceeded to do, and each succeeding day brought forth some new proof to convince him that he had come to a piece of Mother Earth surpassingly rich in those minerals which have done so much to raise Great Britain to her present commercial position. One fact especially struck Mr. Braude, and it was this—-that coal apparently existed in quantity outside the area mapped out by the Geological Survey.
Fifty-five Million Tons of Coal
So convinced was Mr. Brande of the accuracy of his observation and the valuable result of This survey, that he took over the mining and mineral rights of the old company for a period of sixty-six years. These rights had come down from Hugh Boyd, who acquired them from the Earl of Antrim, and included land covering about seven miles from Fair Head to Knocklade with a wide semi-circular sweep inland. In addition, Mr. Braude, who by this time had associated with him a number of gentlemen under the title of the North Antrim Mining Syndicate, secured rights to a large piece of additional land adjoining that referred to in the original lease, the whole extending to about 10,000 acres. This step accomplished, there followed a series of boring tests. These were carried out by a Lanarkshire firm of experts whose word is law in that department of boring. Every test only served to confirm the opinion formed by Mr. Braude that coal existed in abundance, and it was clear thus early that the quantity, when finally arrived at, would astonish even the most sanguine.
Experts will, no doubt, find the following table, describing the strata, useful.
Ft. In.
Top Splint Coal 3 9
Strata 10 0
Second Coal 3 0
Strata 50 0
Black-band Ironstone 0 6
Strata 100 0
Main Coal 4 10
Strata 100 0
Black-band Ironstone 2 6
Coal for Belfast at its own Doors
A feasible explanation of what at first seemed Professor Hull’s incomprehensible error is that he, with others, was deceived by the Great Gaw Dyke, an enormous mass of basalt dividing the old workings from the new ground leased by Mr. Braude. The professor was not alone in thinking that this dyke was the end of the coal deposit, whereas it was only the beginning of the virgin bed of coal, as the amount of minerals in the former workings is infinitesimal compared‘ with what exists under the additional ground taken over. Professor Hull erred gravely, but he was no more to blame, if indeed as much, as the system which permits the opinion-of one man, however eminent he may be, to have such far-reaching consequences.
The important question, of course, was how to make full use of the nearest approach to a gold-mine to be found in Ireland. Happily for the commercial prosperity of the country the full significance of the discovery was grasped and arrangements were made to exploit the mines by means of the Belfast Coal and Iron Company, with a capital of £ 500,000. The first analysis of the coal proved it to be a very rich seam showing only the very small percentage of ash of between 4 and 5 per cent. If the anticipations formed proved correct, and the coal be of good quality, useful in factories and the house, the industrial future of Ulster is likely to be completely altered. At the present time Belfast, which, it should be recollected, is only one of six important seaports in Ireland, imports 1,219,056 tons of coal annually. In 1905 this total was made up of 725,943 tons of English and Welsh coal and 493,113 tons of Scotch. Of the total, again, two-thirds, roughly, were steam coal, and the remaining third house coal,-so that if the Ballycastle mines only produced coal good enough for steam purposes there will be found, practically at their own doors, a market sufficient to consume the 2000 tons per day which it is hoped to raise when the mines are in full working order within a short time. Of course all will depend upon the price, and it is safe to assume that the English, Welsh and Scotch coal-masters will not relinquish such a profitable end of the trade as Belfast without a stern struggle. At the present moment, a cargo of coal from Cardiff, or Ardrossan, or Maryport, can be landed on Belfast quays cheaper than from Ballycastle. It will entirely depend upon what harbour accommodation is provided at Ballycastle in the near future, whether this incongruity is altered or unaltered. It should be added that the mineral expert attached to the Department of Agriculture, in a paper on Irish Minerals and Quarries read at the Industrial Conference held at Cork in 1902, mentioned that boring for coal might be advantageously carried out at Ballycastle.
A Harbour for Ballycastle
In coal, as in everything else, manufacturers and heads of households will buy in the cheapest markets, be these English, Welsh, Scotch or Irish. There is no room in this hop, step and jump life of ours for the dreamer who buys a certain article because it is manufactured in a certain country. So the products of the Ballycastle mines will compete solely on their own merits with the products of the mines of other countries. The first step towards meeting that competition, on anything like even terms, will necessarily be the building of a first-class harbour at Ballycastle, for it should be remembered that every time-saving device that the human mind has invented has been pressed into the service of the coal-carrying traffic between the two islands, with the result that dozens of vessels are now making the double journey in twenty-four hours across the Channel and back, always carrying to Ireland a full cargo. With the indispensable facility alluded to there seems no reason why Ballycastle coal should not be used extensively over all the province of Ulster at least.
There are also deposits of black-band iron-stone; and it is the intention of the company to both ship and smelt the ore, and for the latter purpose huge blast- furnaces are being laid down. The extent of the market in Ulster for pig- iron is indicated by the fact that, during the quarter ending September 31, 2435 tons were imported into Belfast. A plant will also be installed for the manufacture of fire-clay articles, particularly bricks, which, at the present time, cost 82s. per thousand to deliver in Belfast.
A Health Resort
In addition to the improved harbour accommodation in sight, a light railway is being constructed between the pit head and the Ballycastle Railway Company’s station, which is eighteen miles from Ballymoney, one of the chief stations on the Midland Company’s Irish branch. Here also there will be a great disadvantage in distributing the coal, as the Ballycastle Company’s line is a narrow gauge and will thus necessitate the refilling of the waggons at Ballymoney. Of course there is a possibility of this drawback being removed by the purchase of the Ballycastle Company’s system by the Midland Company and the relaying of the line. This step, besides supplying a better means of distribution, would give Ballycastle an additional chance of attaining the position of a popular health resort, to which its climate and its own splendid natural advantages entitle it.
It will thus be seen that all the essentials are present to transform Ballycastle into a busy centre of activity. At present the population is about 1400, and it is no stretch of imagination to say that ere another year has passed away it will be four times the number. Even with the most up-to-date machinery and latest labour-saving appliances which are being introduced, the mines are certain to give employment one way or another to 2500 men and boys. What this means to a town whose rateable value at the present time is about £5285 need not be enlarged upon; it is so obvious. The rise of several of our most important towns in England and Scotland—Barrow—in-Furness for instance——has been contemporary with some such discovery as has taken place in Ballycastle, and the wresting from Mother Earth of some of her endless riches. Is it too much to hope that during the next sixty-six years, during which the mines at Ballycastle will exude their thousands of tons of coal, iron and fire-clay, the foundations will be laid of an industrial prosperity, not limited by the lease of the mines, but extending further and further into the next century and the century after? At all events Ulster has been the theatre of the first bold attempt to lift Ireland from the commercial slough of despond. The people have slept too long while their markets have been filched from them—witness the lamentable decline of the flax industry — and the only consoling feature of the situation is the sign that the sleep is over and the people, awake — wide awake.
HOW A SOUTH AFRICAN DISCOVERED AND IS EXPLOITING MINES OF
SURPASSING RICHNESS IN ULSTER—THE PROSPECTIVE RISE OF
A GREAT INDUSTRY
BY ALEX. MCDONALD
NOW that the Government has done so much for the Irishman in general by establishing the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, and has also by its crowning act placed within the hands of the tenant farmers the power, and the money, to enable them to purchase their own holdings, the rest remains with the people themselves. The Government has done its part, the individual must now justify his existence and his claim to be something more than a perpetual receiver. He has been given his cue and his place is now on the stage. Already in Ulster the individual is at work. The manner of his coming and settling down to his task reads like a chapter of highly coloured fiction ; totally unlike as it was to the prosaic matter-of-fact doings which we associate with this commercialised age of ours. One of the oldest, if not, indeed, quite the oldest, coalmines in Great Britain is situated at Ballycastle, until recently a sleepy hamlet-sized town in North Antrim. The exact date when the mine was first worked is not known, but written records show that I60 years ago, when the old workings were discovered by a new generation, there were found ancient tools such as wooden picks, tipped with iron, which crumbled away when touched by the human hand. The finding of the workings 160 years ago was the beginning of a period of prosperity for Ballycastle, which soon became a veritable oasis of activity in a desert-like land. The coalmine exuded its hundreds of tons of coal weekly, salt-pans prepared for the tables of the multitude that condiment in plenty ; a flourishing tan—yard was in existence, while the glassmaking industry was in full swing. Forty vessels, owned by Ballycastle men, traded between that port and English and Scotch cities with these commodities, while as many more vessels, owned by Saxon shippers, carried the coal and other products of the district at intervals.
The Work of Hugh Boyd
The pivot of all this activity, he who conceived it and whose energy directed it, was Hugh Boyd, one of the type of men who made our colonies what they are to-day. In 1756 Boyd died, and with his passing a change came over the scene as then presented in Ballycastle. It has often been said, and quite truly, that no man is indispensable ; that there is no void in the ranks of humanity that cannot be filled. Hugh Boyd was one of the exceptions. While he lived the district flourished; soon after he died the industries began to lose ground, and in a few years time the echo of the miner’s pick ceased to resound throughout the mine; the tannery closed its doors; the salt-pans were neglected; the glass industry became a thing of the past, and Ballycastle a part of the desert-like land. In addition to Boyd’s death one of the most powerful factors in producing this unfortunate development was the absence of proper harbour and dock accommodation. The piers of the harbour built by Boyd were of sandstone and were gradually washed away by the sea, with the result that the sand choked the entrance to the harbour andthe ingress or egress of vessels was prevented. So Ballycastle harbour stands to-day, derelict, unused by any vessels and only suitable for large—sized rowing boats.
At the end of the eighteenth and at long intervals in the nineteenth century efforts were made to resume the working of the coal-mine. Whether or not most of the efforts were ill-directed is not now clear, but it is certain that they were badly paid. In I896 the most systematic effort was made by a company, specially formed for the purpose, and local people had visions of a return of Ballycastle’s industrial glory. Once again, however, disappointment was the only reward of the projectors, who, it should be added, had themselves largely to blame for their failure. They made an inexcusable blunder at the outset and decided to reopen the mine at a point only fifteen feet from the waters of the North Atlantic, with the inevitable result that the mine was flooded before work could be resumed. A powerful pumping plant was installed, but even this was insufficient to keep down the rising water which rushed through the fissures of rock. Finally the enterprise was abandoned and five years ago it was agreed that to spend more money on the attempt to open the mine would be like throwing it into the sea. Only one thing was necessary to confirm the opinion of the people that there was no more coal in the mine, this was the opinion of some expert. This view was forthcoming in I903, when Professor Hull, at the request of the Royal Commission upon Coal Supplies, published his report upon the quantity of available coal in Ireland ; and there is no doubt that in his report he makes use of the following phrase: “That the Ballycastle coalfield may be considered practically exhausted.”
The New Man and the Hour
History furnishes numerous examples of slight accidents or apparently common-place incidents having remarkable results. Ballycastle must henceforth hold a prominent place in such history. The seemingly trivial action of a South African mining magnate selecting that town for a few days’ holiday during the spring of I904 had a far-reaching effect, for it was the first incident towards the rise of Ballycastle once more to a position of eminence and importance in industrial lreland. This magnate, Mr. G. L. Braude, was struck, during'his rambles through the district, by the geological peculiarities of the earth and stone. His expert knowledge enabled him at a glance to see sufficient to induce further investigation. The more minute his examination, the greater was his interest in the subject, and he decided to pursue his investigations to their natural end. He first of all wrote to the Dublin branch office of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland, at that time under the English Board of Education, and now under the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, for a copy of the Geological Survey expert’s report. Government offices in Ireland, as in England and Scotland, are not noted for the celerity with which they answer the communications of the inquiring public, so several days passed before Mr. Brande received Professor Hull’s report, which laid it down that the miners of former generations had practically removed all the coal procurable. In the interval, however, Mr. Braude had been quietly, but systematically, continuing his investigations, so that when Professor Hull’s report arrived he had seen with his own eyes sufficient to convince him that the professor’s conclusions were erroneous, and that minerals of some kind existed in the locality. Naturally, Mr. .Braude decided that personal observation was the surest guide, and he came to the decision to disregard entirely Professor Hull’s report and survey the district for himself. This he proceeded to do, and each succeeding day brought forth some new proof to convince him that he had come to a piece of Mother Earth surpassingly rich in those minerals which have done so much to raise Great Britain to her present commercial position. One fact especially struck Mr. Braude, and it was this—-that coal apparently existed in quantity outside the area mapped out by the Geological Survey.
Fifty-five Million Tons of Coal
So convinced was Mr. Brande of the accuracy of his observation and the valuable result of This survey, that he took over the mining and mineral rights of the old company for a period of sixty-six years. These rights had come down from Hugh Boyd, who acquired them from the Earl of Antrim, and included land covering about seven miles from Fair Head to Knocklade with a wide semi-circular sweep inland. In addition, Mr. Braude, who by this time had associated with him a number of gentlemen under the title of the North Antrim Mining Syndicate, secured rights to a large piece of additional land adjoining that referred to in the original lease, the whole extending to about 10,000 acres. This step accomplished, there followed a series of boring tests. These were carried out by a Lanarkshire firm of experts whose word is law in that department of boring. Every test only served to confirm the opinion formed by Mr. Braude that coal existed in abundance, and it was clear thus early that the quantity, when finally arrived at, would astonish even the most sanguine.
Experts will, no doubt, find the following table, describing the strata, useful.
Ft. In.
Top Splint Coal 3 9
Strata 10 0
Second Coal 3 0
Strata 50 0
Black-band Ironstone 0 6
Strata 100 0
Main Coal 4 10
Strata 100 0
Black-band Ironstone 2 6
Coal for Belfast at its own Doors
A feasible explanation of what at first seemed Professor Hull’s incomprehensible error is that he, with others, was deceived by the Great Gaw Dyke, an enormous mass of basalt dividing the old workings from the new ground leased by Mr. Braude. The professor was not alone in thinking that this dyke was the end of the coal deposit, whereas it was only the beginning of the virgin bed of coal, as the amount of minerals in the former workings is infinitesimal compared‘ with what exists under the additional ground taken over. Professor Hull erred gravely, but he was no more to blame, if indeed as much, as the system which permits the opinion-of one man, however eminent he may be, to have such far-reaching consequences.
The important question, of course, was how to make full use of the nearest approach to a gold-mine to be found in Ireland. Happily for the commercial prosperity of the country the full significance of the discovery was grasped and arrangements were made to exploit the mines by means of the Belfast Coal and Iron Company, with a capital of £ 500,000. The first analysis of the coal proved it to be a very rich seam showing only the very small percentage of ash of between 4 and 5 per cent. If the anticipations formed proved correct, and the coal be of good quality, useful in factories and the house, the industrial future of Ulster is likely to be completely altered. At the present time Belfast, which, it should be recollected, is only one of six important seaports in Ireland, imports 1,219,056 tons of coal annually. In 1905 this total was made up of 725,943 tons of English and Welsh coal and 493,113 tons of Scotch. Of the total, again, two-thirds, roughly, were steam coal, and the remaining third house coal,-so that if the Ballycastle mines only produced coal good enough for steam purposes there will be found, practically at their own doors, a market sufficient to consume the 2000 tons per day which it is hoped to raise when the mines are in full working order within a short time. Of course all will depend upon the price, and it is safe to assume that the English, Welsh and Scotch coal-masters will not relinquish such a profitable end of the trade as Belfast without a stern struggle. At the present moment, a cargo of coal from Cardiff, or Ardrossan, or Maryport, can be landed on Belfast quays cheaper than from Ballycastle. It will entirely depend upon what harbour accommodation is provided at Ballycastle in the near future, whether this incongruity is altered or unaltered. It should be added that the mineral expert attached to the Department of Agriculture, in a paper on Irish Minerals and Quarries read at the Industrial Conference held at Cork in 1902, mentioned that boring for coal might be advantageously carried out at Ballycastle.
A Harbour for Ballycastle
In coal, as in everything else, manufacturers and heads of households will buy in the cheapest markets, be these English, Welsh, Scotch or Irish. There is no room in this hop, step and jump life of ours for the dreamer who buys a certain article because it is manufactured in a certain country. So the products of the Ballycastle mines will compete solely on their own merits with the products of the mines of other countries. The first step towards meeting that competition, on anything like even terms, will necessarily be the building of a first-class harbour at Ballycastle, for it should be remembered that every time-saving device that the human mind has invented has been pressed into the service of the coal-carrying traffic between the two islands, with the result that dozens of vessels are now making the double journey in twenty-four hours across the Channel and back, always carrying to Ireland a full cargo. With the indispensable facility alluded to there seems no reason why Ballycastle coal should not be used extensively over all the province of Ulster at least.
There are also deposits of black-band iron-stone; and it is the intention of the company to both ship and smelt the ore, and for the latter purpose huge blast- furnaces are being laid down. The extent of the market in Ulster for pig- iron is indicated by the fact that, during the quarter ending September 31, 2435 tons were imported into Belfast. A plant will also be installed for the manufacture of fire-clay articles, particularly bricks, which, at the present time, cost 82s. per thousand to deliver in Belfast.
A Health Resort
In addition to the improved harbour accommodation in sight, a light railway is being constructed between the pit head and the Ballycastle Railway Company’s station, which is eighteen miles from Ballymoney, one of the chief stations on the Midland Company’s Irish branch. Here also there will be a great disadvantage in distributing the coal, as the Ballycastle Company’s line is a narrow gauge and will thus necessitate the refilling of the waggons at Ballymoney. Of course there is a possibility of this drawback being removed by the purchase of the Ballycastle Company’s system by the Midland Company and the relaying of the line. This step, besides supplying a better means of distribution, would give Ballycastle an additional chance of attaining the position of a popular health resort, to which its climate and its own splendid natural advantages entitle it.
It will thus be seen that all the essentials are present to transform Ballycastle into a busy centre of activity. At present the population is about 1400, and it is no stretch of imagination to say that ere another year has passed away it will be four times the number. Even with the most up-to-date machinery and latest labour-saving appliances which are being introduced, the mines are certain to give employment one way or another to 2500 men and boys. What this means to a town whose rateable value at the present time is about £5285 need not be enlarged upon; it is so obvious. The rise of several of our most important towns in England and Scotland—Barrow—in-Furness for instance——has been contemporary with some such discovery as has taken place in Ballycastle, and the wresting from Mother Earth of some of her endless riches. Is it too much to hope that during the next sixty-six years, during which the mines at Ballycastle will exude their thousands of tons of coal, iron and fire-clay, the foundations will be laid of an industrial prosperity, not limited by the lease of the mines, but extending further and further into the next century and the century after? At all events Ulster has been the theatre of the first bold attempt to lift Ireland from the commercial slough of despond. The people have slept too long while their markets have been filched from them—witness the lamentable decline of the flax industry — and the only consoling feature of the situation is the sign that the sleep is over and the people, awake — wide awake.