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1845 Skibbereen Petty Sessions., 2 Starving Little Brothers. Half Fed Half Clad. Sentenced to 10 Days Imprisonment in Cork County Gaol for Having a Few Bundles of Withered Furze and a Few Rotten Sticks At the Prosecution of the Rev. Thomas Fitzgerald Stephens Townsend Brother and Heir at Law Of The late Colonel John Townsend, Castletownshend
1814, Thomas Godson Agrees at Breenybeg, Kealkil to Sow Furze Seeds and 12 Perches of Lawful Double Ditches
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yearly rent of £14. 14. 0, payable half yearly on the 29th September and the 25th March. Godson agrees to sow furze seeds and to erect 12 perches of lawful double ditches, failure to do so will incur an additional 12 shillings on the rent. The former lease was held by John Godson (grandfather of Thomas Godson).
- 878 24 Sept. 1814Renewal of a Lease made between Richard, Lord Viscount Bantry, Bantry, and Thomas Godson (Writing Clerk), City of Cork, subject to a surrender of a former lease, for the lands of Breenybeg containing 4 gneeves, in the Barony of Bantry. It is for three lives renewable, from the [24th] September last, at a878 contd.
From Bantry House Rental Records, Boole Library, UCC.
https://libguides.ucc.ie/ld.php?content_id=31762597
Evidence of Maskelyne Alcock, Esq., Magistrate, Substantial farmer, on Cultivation of Furze for Horses in Bandon 1844.
Alcock Estate:
http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie:8080/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=3001
http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/11941/page/282512
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The Brooks/Brookes of Dromreagh (Drom Riabhach, stripe, grey ridge), Durrus, West Cork coming early 19th century as Weavers from Ryelands, Raphoe, on the Abercorn Estate in East Donegal, some go to New Zealand early 20th century, and 1926 sale of family holding Dromreagh on move to Courtmacsherry, subject to ‘a trifling annuity’ with an acre and a half of furze meadow.
Pounding the furze for the mare in foal.
Pre the mid 1960s the workhorse on Irish farms was literally the horse. The diet was supplemented by furze (whin or gorse in some areas), chopped up with a furze machine. These sturdy machines of cast iron are still around and grinded the plant and then chopped it. Mares in foal have a delicate digestive system and the furze was further pounded to make it palatable.
Farmers would often travel a mile of so to get a cart load of furze. Brakes or waste land of up to a half an acre would often be planted with a harvest within two years
Donal Hickey Irish Examiner:
https://www.irishexaminer.com/property/homeandoutdoors/arid-30839915.html
In his book, Farming In Ireland, John Feehan mentioned many registered accounts in legal documents from the 15th and 16th centuries listing gorse being used as animal fodder: “It was especially valued in feeding horses, though cattle throve on it also, either fed on its own or as part of a mixed diet.”
Feeding gorse continued until the 19th century, with many admitting to getting more gorse per acre than they would if they made hay. Feehan also recalls how farmers, in Cork especially, grew a few acres of what was called “furze meadow”. Given current fodder shortages, maybe there’s a lesson there.
This furze machine was sold in 1889 auction as new:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OaTv0viw8AKxaoUtJEym5y0Dp0xAqTqZj5nE7nyitDg/edit
Aiteann gaelach, Tufts of furze
Garbhóg, forked hazel stick used in divining, a furze stick was used by an English artist who bought Sea Lodge in the 1940s to divine for water. The house had no water which was obtained from the nearby priest’s well. The English lady found a small stream near the house
In 1891 Sir John Gorst, Reforming MP, 1891 visited Aughadown and the detailed account in the Southern Star carries description of furze sticks used as fuel:
Comments on use of furze sticks for heating.
Generally on Furze from Blog:
welshboy
Gorse/Furze Fuel and feed
Just been reading about the capability of gorse as a fuel or feed for cattle/horses.
Apparently it has half the protein of oats and can be harvested at a two year rotation yielding ” 2000 20lb faggots from an acre” so about 9 tons per acre per year. Cattle and horses love it once processed for them.
Furze can be used as fodder for animals. It was said that an acre of furze could provide enough winter feed for six horses. As a fuel it has a high concentration of oil in its leaves and branches, and so catches fire easily and burns well, giving off a heat almost equal to that of charcoal.
The question is how do you harvest it using modern machines ?
It grows well with us -difficulty keeping it down
http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/FRA_GAE/FURZE_GORSE.html
‘In France,’ to quote Syme and Sowerby, British Botany, 1864, ‘it is used for burning, being cut down every few years, in places where it grows naturally. In Surrey and other counties, it is used largely as fuel, especially by bakers in their ovens and is cultivated for that purpose and cut down every three years. When burned, it yields a quantity of ashes rich in alkali, which are sometimes used for washing, either in the form of a solution or lye, or mixed with clay and made into balls, as a substitute for soap. The ashes form an excellent manure and it is not uncommon where the ground is covered with Furze bushes to burn them down to improve the land and to secure a crop of young shoots, which are readily eaten by cattle. In some parts of England, it is usual to put the Furze bushes into a mill to crush the thorns and then to feed horses and cows with the branches. When finely cut or crushed, sheep will readily eat it.’
welshboy
Just what somebody does
” I tie the branches of gorse in bundles and hang them up for horses. This is an excellent addition to their winter feed and our Welsh Cobs would always leave their hay until they had finished the gorse. It also takes some time for them to eat as they are careful due to the spines; this again is a real advantage in winter and provides them with something to do. They will peel and eat every strip of bark that they can reach
The bundle of peeled sticks (a faggot) which is what you are left with when the horses have finished with it is great firewood.”
The Duchas Account
The Duchas Irish National Folklore Collection of 1937 provides some fascinating anecdotal information about Billy written by local schoolchildren. This confirms that he lived in the house subsequently owned by the Donovans, but that before this he was the school master in Ardgehane school. This is confirmed by the Commission of Public Instruction in 1835 which states that the school was “kept by William Perrott under the supervision of the Protestant clergyman” and that he lived rent-free in the schoolhouse. The Duchas account indicates that he started from relatively humble beginnings: “When Billy Perrott was teaching in Ardgehane, all he has was one brake of furze … and one cow. He used [to] have a furze spade for bruising the furze for the cow.” However, it seems that once he moved to Abbeymahon and opened his bank then he quickly prospered: “’Twas in the Bank Perrott made all his money. Jer Manoney used to say that one morning after breakfast he took £9 in Interest”. At first he conducted his business from the house, but then “he built a small house (down from his own house) which used to be called the Bank. It had a chimney, and had 3 steps leading to the door, and had shelves on the inside round the walls”.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pD0f_EX_72o_tKK8J0H8UJtHa9YJoK-s7cjISYoZ-BY/edit?tab=t.0
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Memoirs of James Stanley Vickery, Post 1837, written c 1889 Australia.
There were minor forms of industry which kept the good housewife and her assistants well employed. After killing the fattened cow the rough fat was melted and used in the making of candles, usually by the slow process of dipping. A good washing potash lye was made from the ashes of furze or gorse.
West Cork History 