I am grateful for a copy of Portadown Foundry Ltd: a history of the foundry 1844–1983, by Cardwell McClure and Wilson Steen, published by the authors in October 2012. It is available from five shops in the Edenderry (Portadown) area; the Edenderry Cultural and Historical Society may be able to assist.
The book’s breadth of coverage is very impressive. It may be thought of as having three main sections. The first provides five chapters covering the five main eras of control of the foundry. The second has four chapters covering employees, surviving artefacts, sporting history and Foundry Street, where many employees lived. The final section has six chapters providing the essential contest that is often omitted in local history books. These six chapters cover:
- Portadown and the economy of Ulster
- Foundry-built barges and lighters (of particular interest on this site)
- The evolution of flax and linen processing in Ulster
- The evolution of engineering in Ulster
- The evolution of power plant in Ulster
- The evolution of transport in Ulster.
It is richly illustrated throughout and is well worth a fiver (sterling) of anyone’s money.
Irish waterways history 