HOW MANY SECRETS BURIED IN THE DALE?

Protection signs need to be erected

THERE has been much talk and debate about ‘ The Dale’ down the years and how best to preserve its natural beauty and charm and at the same time, protect and enhance it for the good of the community.

But I wonder is it an area of official protection - because I don’t see any signs up.

Walking through the area last week, it was great to see rabbits bounding around the place and one can only imagine what else exists in the wilds that grace the place.

I think signs would be great just under the bridge off the Marsh Road and even for our Tidy Towns efforts, would be ideal as a place of untouched natural beauty.

The Dale has been the subject of so many stories - one from 1950 stating that ‘a stench coming from the brook in the Dale, Drogheda, was partly due to an open sewer on the Dublin Road, and partly to the rubbish which was being dumped in the brook, was stated at a meeting of the local Corporation on Tuesday night.

‘ The matter was raised by Coir. Kevin Quigley, who said the report of the Sanitary Officer attributed the stench to the dumping of rubbish, which practice, lie added, had ceased. Was it not due to an open sewer on the Dublin .Road ?

The Acting Borough Surveyor (‘Mr. Hoey) said he could not say if the sower was responsible as ho had not examined the position himself.

The Town Clerk (Mr. J. Carr) said that plans for sewerage schemes for the Donore Road and the Dale were at present with the Department. The Sanitary Officer had found that refuse was being dumped in tho brook and it was a combination of this and tho open sewer that was causing the stench. There was no excuse for the rubbish being dumped there as the Corporation carts serviced the area.’

Four years earlier it got a light - at the Dale steps - to make life safer for locals.

In 1955, the place hit the headlines again, thanks to its great history.

The discovery at the Dale of spurs and part of a cannon ball of the Cromwellian period once again focused attention on the need for a civic museum in Drogheda. Tho spurs were found some years previously when repairs were being carried out on the banks of the Dale brook. The finder, a lady who resided at tho Dale but wished to remain anonymous, kept them and only rediscovered them during spring cleaning operations. Fearing they might be lost again, she gave them to Mr. J. J. Sheils of James Street for safe keeping.

They were ferocious-looking spurs, seemingly made of iron, partly rusted but otherwiso well preserved. Tho actual spur part was a good three inches in diameter, a wheel of long spikes.

Mr. Sheils consided that the spurs probably belonged to a Cromwellian officer attacking after the first breach was made in the town wall during the siege of 1649.

How many more secrets lie beneath the soil at The Dale?