Trust a tower of strength for restoration

Waterford was the richest town in Ireland after Dublin, a Spanish officer, Don Diego Ortiz, reported to King Philip II in 1574.

"It is guarded by a stone wall something less than a mile in circumference with 23 towers and a cannon set on them to keep off savages," he observed.

Today, the lack of savages notwithstanding, seven of those towers still stand, as do long stretches of the 13th century walls, of which Waterford has more than any other Irish city.

Now a major project is to begin to restore one of the towers to its former glory. Having completed the restoration of the Beach Tower, in the Jenkins Lane area, Waterford Civic Trust has turned its attention to the 15th century French Tower at the top of Castle Street.

Nearly 60 ft high, the tower dominates the south-western approach to the city and its restoration, which is to begin in the summer, is expected to cost £120,000.

The tower, kidney-shaped from some viewpoints, is perhaps the most imposing of the period, says the trust's Mr Des Griffin. "When you stand in Castle Street [which features three of the seven towers], you can get the feeling of what the place looked like 400 years ago."

Mr Griffin says the Spanish officer's remark about "savages" was probably a reference to the constant battles between the merchants of the city and the hibernicised Norman families, such as the Powers of Co Waterford. The city at that time had a huge trade with Catholic Spain.

The merchants of today, thankfully, have a different set of priorities, opting to spend their money supporting projects like the French Tower restoration.

To raise the necessary funds, the trust will be returning to the same sources which contributed the £250,000 spent in restoring the Beach Tower from 1994 to 1996.

The local business community, Waterford Corporation and the public all gave generously to the project, which also qualified for EU funding. Major assistance, financial and otherwise, was also given by the Department of the Environment.

Mr Griffin says Waterford has a "huge archaeological, historical and cultural heritage, with buildings from many periods of the past millennium gracing its streets".

The trust, set up in 1990 using similar bodies in Limerick and elsewhere as a model, hopes its work will focus attention on the need to continue the conservation of the city's historic core.