Page 11 - Leaflet-A4_FINALv3

Other features contemporary with over sixty thousand acres in Wicklow. He
the church site include a bullaun has been described as clever scheming The Stone Masons
stone and two small stone crosses. and manipulative to such an extent that
The term ‘bullaun’ (from the Irish he was known as Black Tom. During the
word ‘bullán’, which means a eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

round hollow in a stone, or a bowl) Preban became a popular burial ground
is applied to boulders of stone or with at least fifteen different stone masons There is a treasure trove of 18th century headstones here in Preban which
bedrock with hollows or basin-like erecting headstones in the graveyard. is an open-air art gallery of 18th century sculpture. Chris Corlett’s book
depressions. Their exact function ‘Here Lyeth The 18th-century headstones of Wicklow’ has been our bible
is unknown but they may have in relation to identifying the stone masons at Preban. We have tried to
functioned as mortars for grinding, identify all the stonemasons working here between the period 1759 and

or used for religious purposes and 1819 and to date that is eight stonemasons who carved thirty headstones
are often found at early medieval in Preban.
church sites like Preban.
These were professional stone There are nine more headstones

The Dissolution of the Monasteries cutters whose work and skill were whose carving and style are of

between 1536 and 1541 by Henry highly sought after as can be seen stonemasons which are as yet
VIII ordered the closure of Catholic in the quantity and quality of the unknown. It is highly likely that their
monasteries, priories, convents and headstones in Preban. Below is a list work is also on display in other local
friaries and transferred their lands of all the stone cutters whose work graveyards in County Wicklow and
to those loyal to the king. Henry we were able to identify between possible that one of their headstones
introduced the Protestant faith as 1738 and 1819. As all the headstones is signed and awaiting discovery. It is
the established church. He declared are numbered you will be able to hoped that future surveys will enable

himself head of this new church and Bullán stone. Note the bowl which may have been locate them on the accompanying us to identify and record the works
seized all the income and assets used for grinding or religious purposes. map in this booklet. They are of these highly skilled stone masons
of the Catholic Church. This policy discussed below by date range from which are vulnerable to the elements.
of dissolution was envisaged to earliest to latest (1738-1819).
increase the crown’s income and to

fund military campaigns. We do not
know when exactly Preban fell out of
use as there are no historic records.
However monastic sites such as
Preban would have been dissolved
under the reign of Henry VIII.

In the 17th century Preban parish
is listed as being in the possession
of Thomas Wentworth the 1st Earl
of Stratford and Lord Deputy of

Ireland. Wentworth had property
in England but wanted to establish
himself in Ireland and acquired Stone crosses from Preban Graveyard.

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