A 19TH-CENTURY church drawing was one of a number of historical documents damaged in a fire at a specialist workshop in Limerick yesterday.
The blaze occurred at the premises owned by Hodkinson’s ecclesiastical decorators, which has been on Henry Street in Limerick city since 1870.
Randal Hodkinson is the fourth generation of his family to run the business. Yesterday’s fire was the first at the workshop, which he described as a “time capsule”.
The workshop houses a treasure of archives, including historic drawings and sketches of ecclesiastical buildings in Limerick and elsewhere going back 150 years.
While the overall damage was not as bad as initially feared, a drawing of Waterford cathedral dating back to 1870 was among the items destroyed.
While “there was a lot of damage caused to the workshop”, Mr Hodkinson said he hoped to restore it to its former glory and it would be business as usual.