Location: Dublin

Dublin Coal Holes by John Mahon

• "40 & 41 Bishop-St"
• "Windmill Lane, Sir John's Quay, Dublin", "Off Sir John Rogerson's Quay"
• "Ironfounders & Engineers, East Wall Road, Dublin 3"
• "...made by the firm of Tonge and Taggart who were established in Bishop's Street in 1869, and are responsible for a great deal of ironwork about the city. In 1907 [sic, should be 1906] this firm moved to Windmill Lane, and in 1938 to East Wall Road where it still operates." —Dublin Historical Record, Vol. 38, No. 3, June 1985

Products:

• 1906: "Cast Iron Work for Builders, Plumbers, Engineers, etc. Heavy Road Manhole Covers. Road Gully Traps. Channel Gratings, Tanks. Columns, Stanchions, Barley Steeps, &c."
• 1917: "General Ironfounders. Makers of Cast-Iron Work for Builders, Engineers, Plumbers, Road and Sewer Contractors, etc. etc. Specialties—Tanks, Manhole Covers, and Columns"
• 1929: "General Ironfounders. Specialties: Manhole Covers, Water Tanks, Village pumps"
• 1935: "Iron Castings for Housing Schemes. Specialties: Manhole Covers, Road Gulley Traps, Armstrong Covers, Sectional Tanks, Circular Type Road Manhole Covers"

1906 ad		1917 ad		1929 ad		You're Living in 1935
Irish Builder and Engineer	University College Dublin · Special Collections			Mount Merrion Historical Society

Pavement Lights:

PAVEMENT LIGHTS.—We are glad to announce that Messrs. Tonge and Taggart, of the South City Foundry, Bishop-street, have completed arrangements for the manufacture of pavement sashes, fitted with semi-prism lenses of the highest quality. —Irish Builder and Engineer, May 1, 1890

PAVEMENT LIGHTS.—The pavement lights (3) at Messrs. Battersby and Company's new offices, 6 Westmoreland-street, have been supplied by Messrs. Tonge and Taggart, of the South City Foundry, Bishop-street. They have large orders in hands for other city establishments for their pavement lights. —Irish Builder and Engineer, July 1, 1890

TONGE & TAGGART, SOUTH CITY FOUNDRY 40 & 41 BISHOP-ST MAKERS OF 4" × 3" SEMI-PRISM PAVEMENT LIGHTS, TO ORDER, AND ALL CLASSES OF CAST IRON WORK. Irish Builder and Engineer, February 15, 1899

Kanaldeckeln, Kappen und Regeneinläufen

Iron Castings PAVEMENT LIGHTS AND CAST IRON TANKS USED IN DOMESTIC SCIENCE COLLEGE WERE MADE IN OUR FOUNDRY PHONE: 43973 TONGE & TAGGART, LTD. WATERMAIN PIPE SPECIALS. Foundry: EAST WALL, DUBLIN Office and General Foundry: Windmill Lane, Sir John's Quay, Dublin St. Mary's College of Domestic Science, Dublin · Illustrated Souvenir, 1941

Coalhole/Manhole Covers:

Coal Plates				Manhole covers
Cast of Thousands · Arran Q Henderson		Dublin Coal Holes John Mahon	Geograph Ireland Rossographer

Pumps and Fountains:

A DUBLIN MADE FOUNTAIN. The fountain is to be erected at Eadestown, Co. Kildare, to the memory of Captain Tickell, by his tenantry, from the design of J. J. O'Callaghan, Esq., Architect, F.R.I.A.I. The base and plinth are of limestone from the celebrated Ballyknocken quarry of Mr. W. Osborne; the fountain and basin are of cast iron; the ornamental finials, brackets, etc., of wrought iron. The granite plinth and base is 7 feet wide on the octagonal and 2 feet 6 inches high; the cast iron basin 8 feet in diameter and 1 foot 6 inches deep, which, with the fountain and finials, the whole structure stands 16 feet high, and when placed in position will make a handsome and imposing memorial. There are four ornamental lions' heads, with stop cocks for supplying water to basin, intended for the use of cattle, and by an ingenious arrangement the overflow from the basin will supply four small troughs underneath for dogs. There are also four highly ornamental brackets with cups and chains suspended, for the use of the thirsty wayfarer. We believe this is the first fountain of its size and description that has ever been made in Dublin, and it proves that there is no necessity for going to Scotland or elsewhere for stock patterns, when architects can have their original designs carried out as well at home. The castings are sharp, fine, and clear, and the mouldings perfect in every detail. The contractors for the work are Messrs. J. Fagan and Son, 18 Great Brunswick-street, Dublin, who entrusted the castings to Messrs. Tonge and Taggart, South City Foundry. The whole work is a credit to the Irish artisan, and we hope that architects who may require similar works will remember that work of this kind can be executed in Dublin. Irish Builder and Engineer, March 27, 1901 National Inventory of Architectural Heritage @acloudonastring Alan L. (mapio) Irish Antiquities · Brian T McElherron

Water Pumps
Collinstown	Stackallen School	Kilbeggan	Drogheda Road	Naul
Irish Antiquities · Brian T McElherron		Stuart · Flickr	National Inventory of Architectural Heritage

Miscellaneous:

Postboxes			Gully Grating	Valve Cover
St Luke's Cross	Dunshaughlin	Raheen Park, Bray	Tully
Irish Postboxes · Joel	Geograph Ireland C O'Flanagan	Geograph Ireland Rossographer	Kanaldeckeln, Kappen und Regeneinläufen

• "READING FOR SICK POOR IN SOUTH UNION. A RECEIVING-BOX of cast iron of an ornamental design and finish has been placed at the junction of D'Olier and Westmoreland-streets (Lundy Foot's Corner, as it used to be familiarly called). It is intended as a depository for periodicals and newspapers for the use of the patients in the South Dublin Union Infirmary. The receiver (which stands about 5 ft. high) has been manufactured by Messrs. Tonge and Taggart, of Bishop-street, in this city." —Irish Builder and Engineer, May 15, 1891

Surname "Tonge" (pronounced like "orange"):

• Tong/Tonge/Tongue genealogy site
• "The Tonge Family may have been Huguenots, who arrived in Dublin, by way of Yorkshire, in the early 1800s. They set up a coach-building business in Great Britain Street. Taggart was the brother-in-law of a later Tonge and together they started the South City Foundry in Windmill Lane. Their main business in the 19th century was the manufacture of cast-iron coalhole and manhole covers. However by the end of the century steel had replaced cast-iron for these goods. The firm switched to making castings for pumps and ornamental purposes. They also made wrought-iron goods such as railings." —Irish Antiquities
• "I am formally June Tonge. My father Arthur worked in Tonge & Taggart (Iron founders) as a patternmaker from when he was 17 till 63 in 1984. The firm started in 1869 in Bishop Street in Dublin. Then in 1884 approx. it moved to Windmill Lane (now music studios). His cousin Claude was managing director until he died 1969. My dad's father, William, was a patternmaker then he was manager. Other members of the family worked there also. My father says he never knew of any Taggarts while he was there. I think they parted early in the business but the name stuck." —June Comiskey on genealogy.com
• "My great, great, great (I think I have that right) grandfather founded Tonge & Taggart. The Taggart side died off and my uncle Claude, Thomas (Max) my father's brother was the last managing director before it and the group Tonge McLaughlin Holdings was sold to the Smurfit Group. The original Tonge (father of the above) started in the coachbuilding business in Little or Great Brittan Street in Dublin. We believe that we had come over from Yorkshire around the 1800's. A Thomas Tonge had married an Ellan Maxfield (my father's name). It is thought that they had arrived in Yorkshire from France with the Huguenots (possibly coachbuilders) some two hundred years before." —Kieron Tonge on genealogy.com
• "English: variant spelling of Tong, also established in Ireland since the 17th century. German: from a reduced short form of the personal name Anton (see Anthony)." —ancestry.com
• "The history of the Tonge family name begins after the Norman Conquest of 1066. They lived in Yorkshire, at Tongue (Tonge). However, as a habitational name, in can also be found in Lancashire, Shropshire, and West Yorkshire as many believe the name to be a topographic name for someone who lived on a tongue of land." —House of Names
• "Tonge (Tong, Tongue) The family of the name in Ireland is most often found in connection with Co. Wexford and the city of Dublin in our records. The family is generally given to be of English origins when found in Ireland. (The above extracted from the 'Book of Irish Families, great & small')." —The Families of County Dublin, Ireland

Aerial Photos:

Britain from Above Tonge & Taggart Ltd, Iron Foundry · 30 Sep 1949 WL = Windmill Lane, Sir Johns Quay, Dublin; EWL = East Wall Lane, Dublin XAW027017 WL: Facing W XAW027018 WL: Facing N/W XAW027019 WL: Facing E XAW027020 WL: Facing N XAW027021 WL: Facing N XAW027022 WL: Facing N/W XAW027023 WL: Facing N/W XAW027024 EWL: Facing S XAW027025 EWL: Facing N/E XAW027026 EWL: Facing N/E (damaged negative) XAW027027 EWL: Facing N XAW027028 EWL: Facing N XAW027029 EWL: Facing N/E XAW027030 EWL: Facing S/W XAW027031 EWL: Facing S/W Note: Images marked by Aerofilms Ltd for photo editing

Notes:

• See THE REPAIR OF WROUGHT AND CAST IRONWORK by the Government of Ireland 2009; ISBN 978-1-4064-2189-7
• "Tonge and Taggart of Windmill Lane, the South City Foundry at 41 Bishop St. and, latterly, East Wall. 1869 Company established. Famed today for its manhole covers, inscribed with the company name and/or the logo 'Cast in the South City Foundry'." —Grace's Guide, (citing The Leading Manufacturing Firms in 1920s Dublin by Frank Barry, Trinity College Dublin, September 2017)
• "Registered under identification number 6016, Tonge & Taggart Limited was an Irish company ("private" type) that had been on the market since 04 October 1907 until it was dissolved. The company was situated at East Wall Road, Dublin 8. The last time company statutory accounts data was received was on 28 November 1984." —whai.ie [defunct]
• Tonge & Taggart and the World Beneath Our Feet