A new exhibition celebrating Wexford’s industrial giant, Pierce & Co., showcases a range of agricultural machinery at Johnstown Castle Estate Museum and Gardens in Co. Wexford.

The display chronicles Pierce’s Foundry, a company that, through innovation and perseverance, rose to international acclaim.

In 1846, James Pierce of county Wexford designed a horse-powered thresher and followed this with designs for root cutters; pulpers; chaff cutters and churns.

The Pierce Foundry on Mill Road, Wexford, was for many years, the biggest manufacturer of engineering and agricultural machinery in this country, according to the museum.

The exhibition

The Pierce exhibition features some of the machinery from Pierce & Co. family stories, pictures, and artefacts from the company’s history.

Also new at the museum is an exhibition of miniature motors by Matchbox, Corgi and Dinky, with over 600 miniature vehicles featured.

Museum

The collection is complemented by vintage motoring memorabilia, garage pumps and equipment from the museum’s collection of transport-related artefacts that have long disappeared from forecourts, along with other objects from a time when a car journey was a big adventure.

The collection was a labour of love amassed over the course of a lifetime from all over the world by the late Maurice Bryan of Rathfarnham, later Swords, Co. Dublin.

Maurice’s family wanted to see the collection remain intact and made available for other people to enjoy so they donated it in its entirety to the Irish Agricultural Museum.

Maurice put the collection together from toy and collector fairs all over the world, purchasing some in new condition in their original boxes while restoring others.

The Johnstown Castle Estate near Wexford town was gifted to the Irish nation in 1945 and housed in the restored farm courtyard buildings which were built in 1810.

The Irish Agricultural Museum

The museum, which has been open for over 40 years now, consists of 19 different exhibitions, everything from tractors to country kitchens. A dozen themed rooms tell the story of agriculture and rural life over the centuries.

Collections include large numbers of restored tractors; carts; ploughs; threshing machines; portable engines; stationary engines; and dairy equipment. Workshops of coopers, wheelwrights and blacksmiths have been reconstructed.

Another section shows how sugar beet was farmed and processed in this country.

There are also displays on the impact of the Great Famine of the 1840s alongside the history of the Johnstown Castle Estate from the 12th century to present.

Photo: johnstowncastle.ie

The museum café is open daily, with terraced seating outdoors and picnic benches dotted throughout the gardens, lake walks, and woodland playground. Visitors can enjoy views of the lakes or meander through the Daniel Robertson-designed gardens.

Guided tours of the Gothic revival Johnstown Castle with its 200m long servants’ tunnel will re-open to visitors as soon as government restrictions allow. The estate and its attractions are open seven days a week year-round and tickets can be pre-booked or purchased on arrival.