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The archives of the Office of Public Works and their value as a source for local history by Rena Lohan

Introduction | Historical background | Using the archives | The archives

2 Historical background

The Office of Public Works, or Board of Works*, was established by an Act of Parliament passed in 1831 entitled An Act for the Extension and Promotion of Public Works in Ireland (1 & 2 Will. IV c.33). The necessity for making use of a sum of £500,000 voted by Parliament for relief in the form of loans and grants as a result of the widespread famine of 1831 was a factor in this development, as was increasing governmental concern at the growing number of boards and commissions in operation, including the Directors General of Inland Navigation, the Fisheries Commissioners and the Civil Buildings Commissioners.

When the Board of Works took over the functions of these and other public bodies, it naturally became responsible for the disposal of a vast expenditure of public funds. But, unlike any other department of state, the Board also operated as a lending agency. While funding for previous public relief works legislation passed in 1817 (57 Geo. III c.34) had been made directly from the Exchequer, the new Act now placed the Board in charge of collecting repayments of sums already lent under the 1817 legislation and, under sections 30 and 31, of giving loans for the establishment, extension or improvement of any existing or proposed works capable of yielding an income sufficient to repay the amount advanced. Loans could be made to a total not exceeding £500,000 outstanding at any one time, and free grants to a total of £50,000, the Board acting also as administrator in the management of these. The first loans and grants were for the construction or improvement of roads, extending over the course of the century to inland navigation, coastal fisheries, drainage, housing and railways. As early as 1845 over a million pounds had been spent in grants and loans.

The Board took over the duties of the Postmaster General, inheriting responsibility for the maintenance of hundreds of miles of roads constructed wholly or partly at public expense, mostly in the remoter parts of Ireland. The roads and bridges for which the Board was responsible were all constructed after 1820 at the expense of local Grand Juries. Added to these were the many hundreds of miles of road, also constructed with the aid of public funds and known as grant roads, consigned to the Board's charge by the Directors General of Inland Navigation.

The early concerns of the Board with respect to inland navigation were the upper Shannon, Lough Ree and Lough Derg, along with the Tyrone, Maigue and Boyne navigations. In 1839 the care and maintenance of the entire Shannon navigation was delegated to the Shannon Commission (2 & 3 Vict. c.61). The three commissioners appointed were permitted to draw over half a million pounds, and between 1839 and 1850, when the work was considered finished, piers, bridges and weirs were built and the river channel deepened and cleared. In 1846 the government transferred the duties of the Shannon Commission to the Board of Works. To deal with the extra responsibilities, two additional commissioners were appointed, leaving the Board with five members. Although the 1839 Act had stipulated that these duties should not be transferred until the works were complete, the action was justified at the time on the grounds that they were well advanced and nearing completion. They never received the necessary attention from the enlarged Board, however, and the amalgamation remained largely ineffective. Nevertheless the works carried out were on a large scale and employed significant numbers throughout the famine period.

In 1831 the Board took over responsibility for the completion of Dunleary harbour, then newly named Kingstown. Over £500,000 had already been spent on the project before the Board was established, and the bulk of the work of pier construction had been completed. Dunmore harbour was also taken over by the Board in 1831 and, despite early delays, work on the pier went ahead from the mid-1830s. In 1836 Howth harbour (the construction of which had been completed in the 1820s) and the road connecting it with Dublin, were transferred to the Board by the Commissioners for Woods and Forests. The other Royal Harbours of Donaghadee and Ardglass were taken over by the Board in 1838.

The chief activity of the Board with respect to public buildings, having taken over the responsibilities of the Commissioners of Civil Buildings, was the maintenance of the Law Courts and buildings connected with them, of the official residences of the Lord Lieutenant and the officers of Government in Dublin and of the Phoenix Park. Over the course of the following years other buildings were added, such as district lunatic asylums in 1834. In that year also it took charge of the extension to the Four Courts (4 & 5 Will. IV c.68). By 1836 the Treasury buildings at Dublin Castle were adapted for the use of the newly formed Irish Constabulary. In 1840 the extensive Law Library at the Four Courts was completed and a barrack constructed in the Phoenix Park for the reserve force of the constabulary. In 1842 the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham and the Hibernian School in the Phoenix Park had been added, along with a depot for convicts at Smithfield. By 1843 the buildings of which the Board had charge were the Four Courts, Custom House, Royal Hospital, Smithfield Prison, and in the Phoenix Park, the Vice-Regal Lodge, the residences of the Chief Secretary and under-secretary, the Constabulary Barracks and the Royal Hibernian Military School. In 1845 Maynooth College and the Queen's Colleges at Belfast, Cork and Galway were added as were custom houses and coast guard buildings.

From its early years the Board had certain responsibilities for drainage, but no significant work was accomplished until the Drainage (Ireland) Act, 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c.89) was passed. Providing for the carrying out of arterial drainage work with the consent of the owners of two thirds of the lands proposed to be improved, the Board, with an additional member, was constituted a commission for the purposes of administering the Act. The stipulation in regard to assent proved very difficult to achieve in practice and the level of drainage work proceeding under the Act was not regarded by the Board as adequate. The eventual outcome was the setting up of 140 drainage districts, with works being carried out in 121. The number of acres benefiting from the various schemes was over 250,000, with a total expenditure of almost two million pounds, of which over £200,000 was provided from private funds (initial land surveys had to be funded locally).

When more significant projects, such as famine relief, were undertaken, the Board was allowed greater discretion and more direct control over the planning and carrying out of the works. But at all times the philosophy of government was to involve local landowners in the initiating of drainage schemes, as it was they who, as well as benefiting from them, would ultimately pay for such schemes through increased rent charges.

Under the Landed Property Improvement Act, 1847 (10 Vict. c.32) it was hoped to encourage proprietors in the west of Ireland to drain their lands. Drainage works were then introduced under the provisions of the Poor Employment Act, 1822 (3 Geo IV. c.34). It was believed that useful results followed under this arrangement: over 1,500 baronial drainage presentments in 29 counties, amounting to over £25,000, were granted, approved by the Board, and sanctioned between October 1846 and February 1847. The entire amount was to be subject to repayment by the proprietors on completion. All projects were conducted under the superintendence of inspectors and overseers appointed by the Board. This was seen as an important precursor to the land improvement legislation which followed and under which one and a half million pounds was to be spent.

An acceleration in the rate of progress of drainage works was made necessary by the Great Famine, requiring the government to obtain new Parliamentary powers, and to this end the Drainage (Ireland) Act (9 Vict. c.4) was passed in 1846. This dispensed with the private funding of preliminary expenses, which proved difficult to raise locally, and allowed the government to carry out the works on its own responsibility and under the direct supervision and control of the Board. The assent of the owners of one half in value of the district to be drained was also needed, a less onerous requirement than that under the previous Act. The expenditure on a completed scheme was not to exceed three pounds per acre improved, and where it was necessary to exceed this sum further consents would have to be obtained from the owners.

On the basis of this Act, arterial drainage works were put in hand on an almost universal basis. The scope of the works was nation-wide and far more extensive than anything which had preceded them. Arterial drainage projects seemed an ideal choice for labour schemes, given the amount of valuable work required to be done and the labour intensive nature of the activity. Such schemes also had the advantage that the cost would eventually be recoverable from the landowners benefiting from the resulting improvements. (On the completion of the various schemes in the post-famine period, however, the collection of the required charges became problematical, with landowners complaining of the inadequacy of both the design and implementation of many schemes.)

In 1846 several new Acts of Parliament were passed to deal with the looming famine crisis. The distress caused by the potato blight required the Board to concentrate on providing employment for the destitute poor under Acts passed early in the Parliamentary session of 1846 for the sole purpose of affording relief by employment: 9 Vict. c.1 (public works); 9 Vict. c.2 (county relief works); 9 Vict. c.3 (construction of piers, harbours and other works to encourage sea fisheries); 9 Vict. c.4 (drainage). In August of that year, when the scale of the crisis became clearer, the government was given additional powers for the employment of the labouring poor by means of Treasury loans (9 & 10 Vict. c.107). Difficulties arose with the nature and quality of the work performed on these relief schemes and in controlling the huge numbers of labourers involved. Schemes were largely confined to local works, such as the building of roads, which was generally under the control of the Grand Juries. The limitation of schemes in this way proved unsatisfactory as some areas desperately needed roads whereas others did not, and the co-ordination required where roads in adjoining districts were to be constructed was generally not forthcoming.

The range of services continued to expand after the famine. The number of buildings for which the Board was responsible grew steadily. By 1857 it had taken over constabulary buildings and all buildings connected with the customs, the Inland Revenue, the Post Office and the National Education Board.

Engineering projects included very large civil engineering undertakings, such as the construction of the Ballinamore and Ballyconnell Canal, drainage of the Shannon, the Suck and many smaller rivers, as well as continuing efforts to improve navigation on the Shannon. A major impetus was given to the various schemes on the Shannon by the very severe flooding in 1861 of the lands bordering the river. In an effort to relieve the threat of further severe flooding the Shannon Act, 1874 (37 & 38 Vict. c.60) was passed. This provided for a survey and valuation of the lands by the Board. It proved impossible to get the required number of assents from landowners and a reduced scheme was carried out at public expense during 1880-1884. The other major drainage project carried out in this period was that of the Suck Drainage District, which was certified as complete in 1895 at a cost of over £170,000.

Legislation under which the Board advanced money included the

Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c.46),
the Labouring Classes Lodging Houses and Dwellings Act, (Ireland), 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c.44; 30 Vict. c.28),
the Glebe Loans (Ireland) Acts, 1870 and 1871 (33 & 34 Vict. c.112; 34 & 35 Vict. c.100),
the National School Teachers' Residences (Ireland) Act, 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c.82),
the Dispensary Houses (Ireland) Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c.25),
the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890 (53 & 54 Vict. c.70),
the Tramways (Ireland) Acts, 1860 and 1861 (23 & 24 Vict. c.152; 24 & 25 Vict. c.102) and the Tramways (Ireland)Act, 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c.66).

In 1881, the Science and Art Museum Act (40 & 41 Vict. c.234) sanctioned the erection of a national museum and library at an estimated cost of £100,000. This was the first of many large building projects undertaken by the Board in the following years.

Due to the near famine conditions which again prevailed in the country at the close of 1879, and the prospect of imminent destitution, the Relief of Distress (Ireland) Act was passed in March 1880 (43 Vict. c.4). The passing of this Act followed a memorandum from the Board giving an outline of the type of activity within its power to promote, such as land improvement, loans to sanitary authorities, extraordinary baronial presentment sessions, as well as other miscellaneous relief measures. Under the Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act, 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c.47) the Board of Guardians of any Union was authorised to borrow money for the purpose of defraying the expenses of emigrating the poor. Advances were repayable within a period of not less than 15 or not more than 36 years. Under section 20 of the Act the Treasury obtained power to authorise the Board to make, subject to regulations, grants to Boards of Guardians or to any Union. The fund was not to exceed £100,000 and was limited to five pounds for each emigrant. Further legislation concerning the relief of distressed Unions in 1883 allowed the Board to make grants provided the total did not exceed £50,000.