Lowbands was one of the Chartist Settlements,built by Fergus O,Connor. His dream was that the cottages in the settlement each with a well, a walnut tree and two or more acres would be occupied by poor people who now being landowners would have the right to vote.
Lowbands epitomised the dream of democracy, and suffrage at least for the males who became property owners, But becoming a self sustaining rural producer without the backup of easy to reach markets an adequate road system and a knowledge of how to be a farmer proved too much . .The rural idyll failed.Fergus whose strong point was not accounts accumulated debts and his Land Company was wound up. |
