Monkstown Stream

[Micheál]

Further to my posting on Ballinclea Stream (better known as Mickey Briens Stream), heres my take on Monkstown Stream

The farthest source I can identify is Brookville Pk (though I'm open to correction) then
Rowanbryn
Newpark School (rere)
Rockville
Stradbrook Road (jct with Deansgrange Road (I recall in a child walking angside it here)
Left along Stradbrook Road (inland) to opposite Stradbrook Cottages
Right at Stradbrook cottages heading towards rere of Queenspark
Then behind the 'big' houses parrallel to Monkstown Road
Rere of St Patricks Church
Then across Carrickbrennan Road and behind Friends Meeting House
Behind houses on Pakenham Road
Joining Mickey Briens Stream to enter sea at back of the West Pier.




See also a DLRCoCo Minute from September 2010 http://www.dlrcoco.ie/Meetings/2010/DLECCWWH/SEPT10.htm
Reply:to Q on Proposed new Sewerage pipe

"Various options are currently being considered that will reduce the overflow volumes at Seapoint. These options include additional surface water sewers and overflow pipes. Currently DLR are constructing a surface water relief sewer on Pakenham Road that will discharge excess surface water from the Monkstown Stream, (that currently enters the combined system), straight to sea.

[Harjoe]

Micheal you have reminded me of time gone by there was a steam that ran from Newtoenpark along what was called the NARROW lane which came out at Stradbrook Road facing where Boley Road meet the Stradbrook Road .
My Uncle George lived in the cottage at the Newtownpark end of the lane and we often played in the lane not sure if the stream branched off into Rockville before the Newtownpark end but I remember its was a very small stream would have been back in the 1950s well before Marion Park, Castlebyrne Park and Rockville Park were built.

[Strum]

There you go.

[Micheál]

Many thanks for this Stum - an excellent summary.

I don't know whether to be offended or chuffed at 'my' stream being referred to as a "Rivulet" - sure weren't we always very posh in Monkstown

They built town houses down ** Alma lane behind St Patrick's Church - where the Schools and Johnny Lawlors farm used to be. They were badly hit in those 1980s floods when said rivulet bit back. I hope there was no repeat this week.

As a kid, we used to play in an abandoned house opposite the Friends meeting House. (Its since demolished and now has Carrick House Apartments). The stream was culverted through the gardens and then ran under the road & behind the Meeting House. In the summer it was mostly dry (remember Summers?) so we used to play dares scuttling to and fro under the road. I dont know who was more scared - me or the rats.

** lots of the streets/properties in Monkstown and surrounds were called after great Battles of the British Empire. Alma, Trafalgar, Tel-El-Kiber & so on.

[Micheál]

Harjoe,

We two must be the only people alive who know of the existence of the Boley Road (TEK to top of Windsor Drive/Ave). There was a house in abbey Road called Boley near where the current Texaco(?) filling Station is.
http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,722676,727657,7,9

Even by Dun Laoghaire standards, it was a kip. What causes me to remember it is that the Road Safety people ran a primary schools competition - to write a composition of the theme of Road Safety. I selected Boley Road and let rip about the dangers it posed (I omitted mentioning my excursions underneath nearby thoroughfares). Guess what? I won. (Cant remember what).

The upshot of my courageous literary endeavours, I like to think, is that the Corpo soon widened the Road and its adjacent Stradbrook Road and extended the name Stradbrook so that covered the entire run from TEK down past Rockford Manor to Deansgrange road - consigning the name Boley to history . On reflection, I really think they should have called it "Bother Micheál" or -since it was Monkstown - "Boulevard San Michel"

What you call the Narrow Lane, we, at least in our family, called Butchers Lane. My Father used to bring us for walks there (long before Sprinhill estate was built) and regale us with terrifying tales of a gruesome murder carried our by (or on?) the said Butcher. I've never been comfortable passing water since.

Regards all

M.

[grammer]

Great stories there M --
I remember boley alright --
not sure about butchers lane tho'--
sad that modernisation eats up everything in its way--
"aaahhahahh the old days and old ways are gone"

I've never been comfortable passing water since.

dont go to St. Michaels about it -go toSt. Vincents

[Enviro500]

Micheal,

Boley House ,I know as my flatmate in London, Ger Cooperman went to Kingstown Grammer before he joined me. His father for a time owned or llease that very house. Mr Gooperman Senior was a Russian diamond dealer and spent the early to mid 1960s in Boley...I spent a bit of time in the house, Rory O'Connor Park was also built around thaTt time 1963 period. Thanks for the rekindling of the memory again...

Enviro

[Strum]

I don't know whether to be offended or chuffed at 'my' stream being referred to as a "Rivulet" - sure weren't we always very posh in Monkstown

Says you with yer "culverted "

[Gulliver]

Just walked up via Pakenham Road tonight just before 10.00pm
Really spectacular noise of water rushing beneath, following a day of non-stop rain.
This is the combination of Mickey Briens Stream, coming down from the Sallynoggin area and the Monkstown Valley stream which joins it at the point where Pakenham Road meets The Hill. Both are in culverts at this point.
Could still heat the noise as I walked up Carrickbrennan Road.
Never heard it like this before

[Navanman]

That is some rain we have had over the past few days. My back footpath is flooded and the ground is absolutely saturated.

I have never seen the ground so wet for so long.

The stream must be at an all time high underground. Is there access from manhole covers?

Wonder could you see it come out into the sea if it is flowing that strong.

Do you remember some years ago the front gardens of houses in Kimmage collapsed.


NM

[Rocker]

Gulliver,

I have heard that rush of waterover the years too. Just opposite where the gates of Monkstown Hospital were there is a big shore in the road and the water runs madly there all the time. I think I saw where Jordo posted a photo of this shore somewhere on this site.

Of course I have been reading all the older posts and I remember the Boley Road and the narrow lane too. An old lady called Mrs Holmes from the Kill used to call to visit my aunt in Stradbrook and then go and sit with the Gowlie Connell who had a tiny house at the end of the Boley Road...that is demolished now to widen the turn from the Boley Rd to Stradbrook Rd or Rowan Pk ?Well we used to head off up the narrow lane and over to the Rockies and play for hours when we lived with my aunt on Stradbrook Road. Those were the carefree days when tiny kids could go and play outdoors all day and most of the night.

[Micheál]

The stream must be at an all time high underground. Is there access from manhole covers?

I'm told they use special 'sealed' Manholes that cant normally be pushed out by a surge of water. Though one came loose beside Top Hat a while back (when it wasnt replaced properly) and there was hell to play

I suspect it doesn't flow unhindered into the sea. I seem to recall there is/was big holding tanks at the Sewerage Plant so it probably gets released to the sea in some controlled fashion.

Or does it get integrated with the foul water and get pumped-on to Ringsend? Mickey Brien would be impressed)

M.

[Navanman]

Seem to remember huge floods outside the gates of Monkstown Hospital also in O'Rourkes Park in the Noggin. People had to walk along the railings during the floods.

NM

[Gulliver]

This is the combination of Mickey Briens Stream, coming down from the Sallynoggin area and the Monkstown Valley stream which joins it at the point where Pakenham Road meets The Hill. Both are in culverts at this point.

For some reason I woke up suddenly during the night with a thought that I used the wrong word here, and I strangely thought that the correct word for two rivers joining is a confluence. Went back to sleep and had to check it this morning. I think it's probably a word I have never used in my life.

Very strange what can happen at 3am!!!

[Rocker]

Gulliver,

You are so funny

But, I have to tell you all I am learning so much from this site. Now, when I go for a walk I regale my companion with "true life" stories of every place....she is impressed...so well she might...it is the combined knowledge of all.

[jaytee]

This is the combination of Mickey Briens Stream, coming down from the Sallynoggin area and the Monkstown Valley stream which joins it at the point where Pakenham Road meets The Hill. Both are in culverts at this point.

For some reason I woke up suddenly during the night with a thought that I used the wrong word here, and I strangely thought that the correct word for two rivers joining is a confluence. Went back to sleep and had to check it this morning. I think it's probably a word I have never used in my life.

Very strange what can happen at 3am!!!

Yes Gulliver, Ive often sat bolt upright in the bed in the middle of the night with a brainwave. Funny how our minds dont switch off. That shore stinks in summer. Water pressure is always bad in monkstown Is there a connection?

[Jemser]

Rocker, I am surprised at you, just back from Cambodia, whose capital Phnom Penh, lies on the confluence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers. There again maybe this should be in Useless Info. thread.

PS Rocker, where are those photos of your holiday.

[Gulliver]

Yes Gulliver, Ive often sat bolt upright in the bed in the middle of the night with a brainwave. Funny how our minds dont switch off. That shore stinks in summer. Water pressure is always bad in monkstown Is there a connection?

I pass along that road every day and never noticed any "stink" - and my water pressure is very good!!!

[jaytee]

Yes Gulliver, Ive often sat bolt upright in the bed in the middle of the night with a brainwave. Funny how our minds dont switch off. That shore stinks in summer. Water pressure is always bad in monkstown Is there a connection?

I pass along that road every day and never noticed any "stink" - and my water pressure is very good!!!

Thats interesting Gulliver I m there everyday & on hot days it smells pretty bad. They e recently done alot of work on the waterworks in the area as you'll know, that has improved the pressure. But the pressure has been low for years on Packinham Rd.&The hill. The fire brigade have mentioned it over the years

[Micheál]

I pass along that road every day and never noticed any "stink" - and my water pressure is very good!!!

There was always a sewage whiff from the "noisy" (nosey?) manhole at jct Packenham/Grovener Tce/ The Hill. As kids we'd break into a trot to pass it for fear of getting a reminder of someone else who had the trots (and who also "passed" it, probably, as we now know, in Ballinclea or Thomastown).

Which make me think, if this water was contaminated with effluent (at its confluence with Stradbrook Stream) , then it's more likely it was never let into the sea directly at all but was channelled through those storage tanks where the Treatment Works are now.

M

[farmboy]

Where the stream meets the sea at Booterstown.

[Micheál]

Where the stream meets the sea at Booterstown.

Whaaaaah?
Surely " a different stream"

[farmboy]

I,m confused now Michael, I thought it was St Helens but its nearly 2 years since I took those pics so maybe its a stream further up towards Blackrock. Having said that, heres a pic I took within a minute of the ones above and we were way north of Blackrock dart station.

[Micheál]

I,m confused now Michael, I thought it was St Helens . . .

It probably was St Helens Stream Farmboy. But you posted those fine images in "Monkstown Stream" and referred to it as the stream.

[grammer]

tsk.tsk tsk. farmboy.