Edgeworthstown

Edgeworthstown
Mostrim
Meathas Troim
Town
Edgeworthstown

Location in Ireland

Coordinates: 53°46′03″N 7°26′53″W / 53.7675°N 7.4480°W / 53.7675; -7.4480Coordinates: 53°46′03″N 7°26′53″W / 53.7675°N 7.4480°W / 53.7675; -7.4480
Country Ireland
Province Leinster
County County Longford
Elevation 82 m (269 ft)
Population (2011)
  Town 2,008
  Urban 1,744
Irish Grid Reference N256719

Edgeworthstown or Mostrim (Irish: Meathas Troim, meaning "frontier of the elder tree"[1]) is a small town in County Longford, Ireland. The town is in the east of the county, near the border with County Westmeath. Nearby towns are Longford 12 km to the west, Mullingar 26 km to the east, Athlone 40 km to the south and Cavan 42 km to the north.

Name

Edgeworthstown House, Ireland

The area was named Edgeworthstown in the 19th century after the Anglo-Irish Edgeworth family. An estate was built there by Richard Lovell Edgeworth. His family—which includes Honora Sneyd, his second wife, novelist Maria Edgeworth, botanist Michael Pakenham Edgeworth, economist Francis Ysidro Edgeworth, and priest Henry Essex Edgeworth—lived at the estate.

The area's original name was the Irish Meathas Troim or Meathas Truim. This was anglicized as Mastrim, Mostrim, and so forth. These names continued to be used by the locals. In 1935, at the behest of the local Town Tenants' Association, Longford County Council officially changed the town's name to Mostrim.[2] However, in 1974, a local government order reverted the name to Edgeworthstown.[3] Today, both names are in use.

Infrastructure

The town is built where the N4 Dublin-Sligo/ N5 Dublin-Castlebar road crosses the N55 Cavan-Athlone road. The town also has a railway station on the DublinSligo railway line. Edgeworthstown railway station opened on 8 November 1855.[4] Edgeworthstown has expanded significantly the early 2000s (decade) with many new housing developments and updated transport infrastructure including a bypass. The N4 National primary route formerly ran along the Main Street, but the town centre was by-passed in July 2006. The N55 route from Athlone to Cavan still passes through the town centre.

Industry

Industries include animal feed processing and pet food manufacturing. Both Paul&Vincent Ltd. and C&D Foods Ltd. employ hundreds of people from the surrounding locality. In 2006, the town's biggest employer, C&D Foods Ltd., was damaged by fire and over half of the factory was destroyed. Production was planned to increase again in 2009.

Sport

See also

References

  1. A. D. Mills, 2003, A Dictionary of British Place-Names, Oxford University Press
  2. "Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford renamed Mostrim", The Belfast Weekly News, 29 August 1935
  3. S.I. No. 166/1974 — Local Government (Change of Name of Non-Municipal Town) Order, 1974. Irish Statute Book.
  4. "Edgeworthstown station" (PDF). Railscot - Irish Railways. Retrieved 2007-09-05.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edgeworthstown.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 23, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.