Brown and Corbett and Company Ltd, Killowen Distillery 1906. 

The two broad  shovels were used to turn the malt barley on the floor of the kiln.

Courtesy of Diana Kirkpatrick, 2008

Irish Whisky

Until 1978 Coleraine town had a thriving whisky distilling industry. There was two distilleries in the Killowen area between 1750's and the 1940's. Aiken's operated until 1802 and by that year only one distillery was still in production in the Killowen area. That was McPeak and Hopkins who closed their doors around 1807 (Townsend, p115). But Killowen also had a thriving poteen industry with many illicit stills spread throughout the Parish.

A dire combination of the 1779 Distillery Act and the illicit stills undermined the production of Irish whisky throughout Ireland and in particular the Killowen area. By 1814, Sampson was stating that the excise was operating as a premium on private distillers. The government tried to eliminate the illicit stills by using severe penalties and military force but Sampson thought that what was needed was,

    "to lower the duties, and thus permit small legal stills to enter into competition."

                                                                                                    (Sampson 1814, p, 243)

That did not happen and between 1821 until 1824 there were 242 successful prosecutions brought against the illicit distillers in the Coleraine area alone from nearly 1,000 illegal distilleries and 120,000 gallons of distilling refuse used to feed swine (potale), 1,600 gallons of the rough first distillation (singlings) and thousands of gallons of spirits and malt were destroyed. The illegal stills were influenced by these prosecutions and for two years in the mid 1830's there were about two prosecutions in the Killowen area.

But by that time the legal distilleries in the Killowen area had all stopped trading and that state of affairs remained for almost a century.

In the mid 1800's Edward Gribbon lived on Captain Street Lower with his wife Mary Ann (Adams). He went on to establish the linen factory on the Strand Road in 1857. When he moved away from Captain Street Lower, his house was demolished to make room for a new distillery, one that would have the famous landmark chimney with 'Killowen' emblazoned on it from top to bottom. Brown, Corbett and Company Limited operated from their Captain Street location until the distillery was bought by William Boyd in the late 1930's.

Killowen distillery stopped manufacture at the start of the second World War and the Killowen chimney was demolished in May 1969.

Rex and the Banntrader

Rex, The Old Sea Dog

In the 1960's Jessie Gamble (Nee McSheffrey) had a big mongrel dog called Rex. When Rex was a couple of years old he would disappear for months at a time and Jessie knew nothing of his whereabouts.

That was until the local newspaper, the 'Coleraine Chronicle' reported how Rex was befriended by several of the local sailors who served on the small coastal traders operating between Coleraine and England.

These costal traders brought coal to Coleraine in exchange for potatoes as well as pit props for the mining industry in England. The ships would usually reload with coal for Coleraine, but sometimes their trading would take them around England and Scotland for several weeks.

Rex was well looked after on these long journeys and as soon as the boat docked in Coleraine he would wander back home, until the wander lust bit him again.

Coleraine Harbour