Peel, Isle of Man - from Castle - NPO Dexter postcard c.1960s

• Postcard

   

• Picture / Image:  Peel, from the Castle [Isle of Man]
• Publisher:  NPO Dexter, Belfast
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Peel (Manx: Purt ny h-Inshey – Port of the Island) is a town on the Isle of Man, in the parish of German. It is the third largest town on the island after Douglasand Ramsey but the fourth largest settlement, as Onchan has the second largest population but is classified as a village. Peel is also a House of Keys constituency, electing one Member of the House of Keys (MHK), who, since September 2015, has been Ray Harmer.

Peel is situated on the west coast of the Isle of Man, on the east side of the mouth of the River Neb. To the north west is St Patrick's Isle, connected to the mainland by a causeway, and to the west across the river is Peel Hill. The A1 road connects Peel with Douglas. The A3 road connects it with Kirk Michael and Ramsey. To the south of Peel is Castletown which was the old Isle of Man capital, and to the SE is Douglas.

The Isle of Man census 2006 lists the population as 4,280, an increase of 13% from 3,785 in 2001.^[1]

The local authority is Peel Town Commissioners who are based at the town hall, Derby Road.^[2] There are currently nine commissioners. The day-to-day activities of the authority are run by the clerk.^[3]

Peel has never been the capital of the island. However, Peel is the island's main fishing port and Peel Cathedral is the seat of the Bishop of Sodor and Man.

Peel is sometimes referred to as the "rose red city", due to the red sandstone used to build the castle and other important buildings.^[4] As it is in the west, it is also called the "sunset city". Peel is a popular seaside destination for Manx residents and visitors in summer. It has narrow streets of fishermen's cottages and a Victorian promenade which was built on reclaimed land and a small construction line built for this purpose, as well as sandy beaches. Often at least one seal can be seen in or close to the harbour. For many years the main industries in the town were fishing, trading and shipbuilding.

There is evidence of local settlers in the Mesolithic Age on both St Patrick's Isle and the nearby Peel Hill, and Neolithic farmers are believed to have settled in the area. About 550, a Celtic monastery was founded on St Patrick's Isle.^[5]

Norsemen first came to Mann around the year 800, and ruled the Isle for four-and-a-half centuries before finally ceding it to the King of Scotland in 1266.^[6]Norsemen settled in Peel and used the harbour on the River Neb as a shelter for their longships. In 1228 Olaf the Black, King of Mann and the Isles, beached his fleet in the inlet. It was attacked and burned by his half-brother Ragnald. In 1266, as agreed by the Treaty of Perth, Norway's King Magnus VI ceded the Isle of Man to Scotland. The island came under English control in the 14th century.^[7]

The town of Peel developed on the east bank of the river and the settlement was known as Holmtown until the 17th century. Later development, apart from the late 19th century guest house building on the sea front, has been inland, away from the coast. Peel Castle would eventually become a joint seat of government with Castle Rushen until the mid-17th century^{[citation needed]}. The name Peel was given to the castle by the English rulers and the settlement then became Peeltown until about 1860. By the time the local councils were established in 1883, the name Peel referred to the town rather than the castle. In the 19th century, schooners built in Peel traded around northwest Europe and Peel fishing boats fished around the island and further afield to the southern coast of Ireland and near to Shetland. The harbour and breakwater were gradually improved, with much of the local income derived from the export of salted herring. By the 1880s, fishing was the main employer with about 3,000 men and boys employed, with ancillary businesses such as shipbuilding providing employment to hundreds more. However, with what is now seen as over-fishing, the number of boats leaving for Ireland dwindled from 300 in 1880 to a handful by 1915.^[7]

After the railway arrived in Peel in 1873, Peel started to develop as a tourist resort, with guest houses and hotels built along the shoreline and headlands, and then the promenade was added. Tourism gradually grew in the town. During World War I Knockaloe Farm, at Patrick to the south of the town, was made into an internment camp and housed up to 30,000 German, Austrian and Turkish civilians. In 1940, guest houses at one end of the promenade were requisitioned to become Peveril Internment Camp, housing those suspected of having sympathy for the Nazi regime under Defence Regulation 18B. By the late 1960s the Peel to Douglas railway line had closed and tourism saw a decline. Fishing from Peel has seen periods of upturn and decline. For a number of years the annual Viking Festival has attracted visitors to the resort.^[7] In 1979 Odin's Raven, the replica of a Viking longship, sailed from Norway to Peel to commemorate the Manx millennium of the 1000th annual sitting of the Isle of Man's Parliament, Tynwald.^[8] In 2005, a new floodgate was installed at Peel to retain the waters of the River Neb and thus enable the moored boats to float at low tide.

Peel is the birthplace of Peel microcars, made by the Peel Engineering Company in the 1960s, the only Manx cars ever built.