Area: Courtown
Started: July 1949
Finished: March 1950
Poles used: 640
Line used (km): 52
Premises connected: 156
The figures above were sourced from our REO News magazine, to learn more about what these figures mean, visit our interactive map page. The map above shows the area boundary and is from a digitised version of the original map used during the scheme.
The REO News from February 1950 mentions Courtown in an article about measuring a house.
This digital scan from the REO News displays the following text:
“How to Measure a House on your Own: ‘I am an A.O. When I joined the Board back in the early days of “Rural” I was posted to a more experienced A.O. (he was with the Board six weeks). He was canvassing a potential area and, as every A.O. knows, this entails, among other things, a good deal of measuring. For this we used a 100 ft. tape. Ah, that tape! What the pick and shovel are to the navvy – what his rifle is to the soldier, that tape was to us. Armed with it, we faced fearlessly the largest mansion, the dourest farmer. Without it we were as helpless as a scare-crow in a potato garden. I remember the day we cycled five miles over bad roads in the rain only to find we had forgotten our tape. Then there was the day that our usually docile tape went all temperamental and got itself tied up in an irresolvable knot. Now, on this first assignment, during the measuring of farmhouses and out-houses my job was to hold the end of the tape. Shortly afterwards I was sent to another area, where I had the assistance of a man; he held the end of the tape. Soon again I was sent to another area, but this time I was on my own. Who was to hold the end of the tape? That was the problem. Sometimes there were children, sometimes the owner obliged, sometimes the ground was dry enough to allow the tape to slip along it. But sometimes, there was no one to hold the tape, the ground was wet and muddy, and how muddy some farmyards can be! It was a problem I never fully solved. Reader, what would you do? Stop reading, look at the ceiling and see if you can find a way out of the difficulty. You can’t!
Well, I was down in Courtown recently and the versatile and popular A.O. there, Mr. Christie Wallace (who, by the way, sold over £300 worth at the Demonstration) gave me the perfect solution. The solution is a ring. A ring, we are told, symbolises eternity, infinity, married bliss, etc. There are engagement rings, marriage rings, bishop’s rings, etc. No! It was none of those rings, nor was it the ring already on the tape. It was the humblest ring in the whole hierarchy of rings. It was a PIG RING. Yes, the humble ring that adorns the porcine snout is the answer. With a pig ring attached to the end of your tape you can, alone and unaided, measure any house, cottage or mansion, mud walls or marble, and keep your tape clear of farmyard mud. It holds itself to all types and classes of walls as long as you keep a slight tension on the tape.
Try it, A.Os! Try it!’”