NEWRYABBEY

It is historical fact (according to Newry & Mourne ) that Nicholas Bagenal the first, submitted building plans to England.
(ThIs a so called unique map & the also supposedly unique Newry Castle floor plans, which were coincedently found in supposed archives by Newry & Mourne & which were proved not so unique by myself, when I discovered & showed them that these actually floor plans which by the way were not discovered at the same time that the supposed unique map was, & they were identical to those of the Abbey of Newry though & infact were monastic plans from 2 different Irish Abbeys, but what Newry & Mourne missed out on was the fact that the top floor plan of the two they picked, was too big for the bottom one, talk about shoot your self in the foot before you begin, this the start of a comedy of errors, faulty towers.? Hasnt a look in.) Newry & Mourne claimed the plan its self was just located in 1996, yet the Abbey school boys of 1945 mention the same fake plan in the first edition of the new Abbey Oriel news paper, which was infact at this date a paper which bore out part of a school questioner on the plan ?

This plan that Bagenal is supposed to have sent to England (no proof) or as the Bagenal booklet puts it, sent away "was" hand drawn, & as you can see, it had crossed out names & several scribbles and was not in scale according to the experts of 1820 in Dublin. The building you see on this drawing was indeed the Abbots house of Newryabbey, but here was this man supposedly saying he was going to build it from scratch and it allready there, we know it as St Colemans Hall, or the cole hole. Dont it look fimilar. This plan by the way, had nothing to do with Nicholas Bagenal, this the man Newry and Mourne lead us to believe built the place,& this at any one of the several guessed dates in time, that they give us at random, none of these dates by the way are recorded anywhere. Why would they be,because this supposed event never ever took place, the bagenals were renown forgers and bribers.

The map or plan call it what you will has an Arthur Bagenal name on it, This immediately below a scribbled out Creily name, this Creily was the former Abbot Creily who was hung for his services to the Bagenals, he was also drawn and quatrered, good wages if you ask me. He wasnt much of an artist though. However at or around these guessed dates and outlining the first one given by Newry Mourne 1560, Arthur Bagenal wasnt born yet, & so going on to the later date of Newry Mournes famous guesses,1640 where Arthur Bagenal fits the bill & was about 43 & the new Marshall of Ireland, Nicholas Bagenal himself was long dead 1590, shot in the brain at Yellow ford, & this as we all know was or had to be
down to the crossmaglen snippers ancestors.

Supposedly along with this so called plan application, which was a scam in reality made up by his son Arthur a hundred years later in 1640, but according to Newry Mourne was factual Nicholas also applied to wall the town at the same time, & he appealed for a loan naturally !! so that he could proceed with these task's. While it is seen that this Nicholas did apply for funding to wall the town 100 years before Arthur was of age as stated before, no specific mention of building a Castle comes to light during his life time, not a word is reorded. He was however refused the money to build anything in Newry, the dates again are up the shoot and Newry mournes plan of action to confuse us all with two Bagenals & what they done as individuals falls into place again.

We have in other words Nicholas apparently doing things only Arthur could have done and vise versa.

All the requests Nicholas made to the queen were blatantly refused. The simple reason beinbg, she did not wanbt someone building a Castle with thier own name on it in the most important town in here realm, this could lead to anarchy and Bagenal putting him self on a pedestal and confronting the queens forces. She never trusted Bagenal according to the state papers.

Needless to say planning offices in many Citys have many discarded unique floor plans. London Castle would have most of thes, & this apparently where Newry found the plan for the first time ever, and here dont forget the boys of the abbey in 1945 who had a copy of it in Newry.

Given the historical facts above & sucking the whole story in to the gills, Newrys Unique Plan if it was sent to London (no proof) could be seen as a typical rejected planning application of the period and is no different that any contemporary document offered in the same way today, the only difference with those of today especially around this neck of the woods is that most that are rejected now are put in the bin.

There is not one historical document that states Bagenal ever built one Castle In Newry ever. It is assumed he built many. My opinion is given the scanty information that is availiable (rumours in wee town guides etc) is that he restored a few, and lived in many.

This is not the first time this so called unique charter and documents have come to light In Newry although were are led to believe so. The Abbey Oriel Magazine, mentions them in Its first edition issue of 1945.There is no doubt 's that the buildings of the Cistercian Abbey of Newry were still surviving at the time of Sir Nicholas Bagenal's grant of Newry, the evidence of this is historical and well written about and it is shown below.

Documents survive for 1540-1, a survey of crown lands in Ireland, being an inquisition into the lands held by the College of Newry were taken after its surrender in 1549.

This particular1549 inquisition document, provides us with the valuable information on the settlement in existence at Newry at this time. At the time of the inquisition the buildings of the original Cistercian abbey were still standing with out any doubts, the common name of the grouping was " the College". This consisted of a 'Church, its steeple, a cemetery, a chapter- house, a dormitory and hall, two orchards and one garden, containing one acre,all within the precincts of the "college'. Adjoining the claustral buildings were seventy-two messuages and cottages."

Sir Nicholas' had a patent of 1552, this provides the extent of the lands acquired by himself in this same year. This patent not only granted him the lands of the Abbey of Newry and priory at Carlingford, but also granted him the royal manors of Carlingford and Greencastle along with the Lordship of Moume. These latter estates were were obviously taken into his hands just after he was granted the Abbey 1549-50. Also included were lands centred on the townland of Grange in north Armagh which had also belonged to the Abbey of Newry in the medieval period. All of the estates he recieved were to be held by knight's service, meaning that he was no more than a military tenant of the king, (he had his own plans however to change all this!!)

At this period the dwelling place of the Abbot was a tower-house, this being common place through out Ireland, these towers were built as a retreat or defence primiraly for the leading Abbot or Holy man. In many places in Ireland today the towers are known as Bishops Towers, for they became retreats for many a Bishop in the following centuries
( but this is another story!!). Approx 118 of the original Christian Towers of Ireland still exist in various states of repair. You can see here the Origin Of The Towers

Several years ago at the site of the Abbey or as its more commonly called today Mc Cann's Bakery, the substantial remains of a building similar to that depicted on the 1575 map of the town was unearthed.

This is not new news to the town, many small council guides and many local books have related this fact for over 100 years, and they all quite proudly anounce that the Abbey remains are in Mc Canns.

Many history books refer to the same ruins, however they are best refered to in the memorials! these I believe from a book written by Basset and also explained in the Harris Ancient and Present State Of Down 1734.

This Harris snipit of information that by the way is discounted by those that are currently carrying on the survey of this site, I was assured he was not a historian by a leading figure concerned yet many historians knew Harris to be a learned historian.

Yet the Basset book which was a commercial money maker for Bassets for years is seen to be almost a bible on the subject. not strange if you are English, of which nearly all residents in the place of Newry were devout at this period and time

It has been suggested that the remains of the tower (amongst other things) thick walls!! found at the bakery is that off perhaps!! a "new " tower, !!perhaps!! built by Bagenal. The fact alone that this is a question and not a statement, should lead everyone to wonder do they know anything about the building or building's as such.

The memorials refering to this tower' blowing up and the thick walls actually refer to the Abbey and not the Castle as Newry and Mourne put it in their wee Bagenal book !!!

On reading the memorials used to build up most of Newry and Mournes back up on this project, one will find that the word Abbey has been omitted many times and the word Castle put in its place.

Common sense prevailling with what is stated historically & that no one (historian) in Ireland or England has ever mentioned a Bagenal Castle situated In Newry Abbey grounds, these ruins that are there today are undisputedly part of the claustral buildings of the Newry medieval abbey.

I should be able to rest my case here.