School: Ballycanew (Mixed) (roll number 15420/15430)
- Location:
- Ballycanew, Co. Wexford
- Teacher: Conchubhar Ua Maoláin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0889, Page 221
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“Years ago farmers dug marl a kind of white clay out of ground and used it as manure for the land.”
From many grown-up men years ago some of whom worked at it.Years ago farmers dug marl a kind of white clay out of the ground and used it as manure for the land. There is evidence of this in every district about this village. Marlholes many of them very deep are to be seen the sides covered with sally and furze while the ponds themselves grow rank rushes affording shelter and good feeding grounds for waterhens and wild duck.
It was a common sight to see up to twenty men in a field at that time tilling the land for beans. All the work had to be done by very long spades to dig the land very deep and marl was extensively used in the manuring of this crop. I saw a field of beans in Tomduff done with the spade. That is now abolished and some of the marlholes are filled up.