Ballynahinch as a Market Town
The market was the 'raison d'etre' as far as the original town of Ballynahinch
was concerned. The town was founded as a business venture. The market was set up to
enable farmers to buy and sell, to encourage the tillage of the surrounding land,
to recornpence the farmer in cash for his efforts, to provide a meeting place where
men could seek employment and employers could hire labour, but above all the market
was created so that the landlord could maintain control of marketing rights and get
a return on his investment.
The original market was held (in the Market Square This appears to have been a
raised area since it is later recorded that the level was reduced by three feet. The
first square was paved and it was in Lord Moira's time that the square was graveled.
The patent granted to Rawdon authorised him 'to hold a Thursday market, and two
fairs.' one on February 1st. the other on June 29th.
The first date is a traditional date breaking through from the more ancient past.
because Feb. 1st was regarded as the beginning of Spring. The original fairs were
of three days duration.
By 1744 Harris speaks of "little fairs in most months of the year for selling linen
yarn."
From "The Survey of Lord Moira's Estate" 1782 we learn there was "a Cotton Hall and
Pound with a liberty around them to the Bridge." and it would appear that the Horse
Fair was held at the Lisburn End of the Main Street (now High Street). In 1795
Seward recorded fairs on the 1st Jan.. 12th Feb., 5th April. 10th July and 2nd Oct.
Lord Moira did a great deal to improve the market. encouraging linen buyers and
regularly entertaining them on Thursdays. The linen and yarn market at that time
was regarded as pretty good. sales grossing £300 per week. according to Johnston.
A New Market house was also built in 1795. As well as keeping an eye on the L s. d..
Johnston spared a glance for the young ladies of his time. "At fairs the young
women are decked out, equal to ladies of the first rank."
Curwen bore this out in his few remarks on Ballynahinch Though not at all
impressed by the condition of the town, he conceded that Market day brought a
great concourse of people together whose general appearance was highly creditable.
Fairs were a very important social occasion,
From Dubourdieu we have a general description of markets around 1800. The items
bought and sold included yarn, linen, butchers meat, butter. fowl, eggs. oatmeal.
potatoes. peddlers' wares. woolen yarn, stockings. ready-made shoes. wool hats and
wool. The peddlers set up tents and used 'the gift of the gab" to persuade people
their goods were, in modern parlance. "dirt-cheap."
Dubourdieu singled out Ballynahinch for the sale of linens, 8-18 hundreds (Johnston
quoted 12-18 hundreds chiefly) and horses and cattle. "Ballynahinch is frequented
by dealers in cattle as well as horses." The dealers came from Dublin and Scotland.
In Directories etc. there seems to be a bit of confusion as to what the Fair Days
were in the early 19th century. Pigot in 1820 said that fairs were held on the 1st
Thursday in January. Feb. 12. March 6. May 12, July 10. and the first Thursday. Aug.
and Nov. (old Style). In 1846 Slater's Directory repeats this. Lewis's "Topographical
Dictionary" 1837 shows a marked difference of opinion. He also quotes "lst Thursday
in Jan., Feb. 12 and July 10. but adds March 3, April 5, May 19, Aug. 18, Oct. 6
and Nov.17. He refers to the linenhall as being in ruins and the Court House as
dilapidated. The "Parliamentary Gazetteer 1844-45" reverts to Seward's dates.
From 1854 onwards all the Directories refer to Fairs on the 3rd Thursday of every
month. Bassett gave quite a comprehensive account of Ballynahinch markets and fairs
and in part explains why the various sources quoted different fair-days.
"Being situated in the centre of a first-rate agricultural country. a great portion
of which has a limestone basis (his geology wasn't too hot) the market for farm
produce held every Thursday, is stocked to repletion and buyers are numerous. There
is no town in the County where the market produces so complete a transformation
from the routine of daily life.
Every street has its scene of bustling activity,
and in the Market Square, at some time of the day. all energy is concentrated. A
Fair is held on the third Thursday of every month, and hiring fairs on the last
Thursday in Oct., 1st and 2nd Thursday of Nov., the last in Jan.. the 1st and 2nd
in Feb., the last in April, the 1st and 2nd in May, last in July, and the 1st and
2nd in Aug."
"Every street has its scene of bustling activity"
(Street names below are contemporary).
| Windmill Street |
Car Park - Pork, Fowl, Potatoes. (Pork Store survives).
stores survive. |
| Harmony Way |
Egg Market Stores (a few old egg-
stores survive).
Butter' market at Windmill Street
end.
Coffee Stand beside the Butter
Market (a Temperance venture). |
| Mourneview |
Green survives apart from Legion
Hall site
Cattle Market.
This green was once railed and a
match of the railings can be seen
at the rear entrance to Montalto
As late as 1860 the Fair Green was
in the area between Harmony Way and
Harmony Road. (In 1782 part of this
was described as common-land) |
| Lisburn Street |
Belongs to Dr. Hamilton - FlaxMarket.
(Buildings survive). |
| Robinson's Corner |
On Pavement - Sheep and Goats |
| Market Square |
Market House and Brown Linen Hall
(at times in past). |
| Dromore Street |
Now Fire Station (was old
linen-hall.then R.C. Church site, then Corn
and Seed Market. |
A seasonal activity was the Turkey markets on the two pre-Christmas Thursdays. They
lasted until 3 a.m. The turkeys were plucked "up the crack."
In comparatively recent times the markets have disappeared because of modern
innovations like the tractor, and because of Government decrees. What is left is
merely a picturesque survival of a great and glorious past. Rather than describe
the contemporary scene I photographed it and you’ll find the result on the centre
pages. For interests sake I tucked in a few oldies dated 1895-1900 No prizes for
picking them out!
Centre Pages as published in the original book
A few people intimately connected with the old markets are still around like Miss F.
Ellis who was "weigh master" in the seed market, a lease granted to her on the early
death of her father.
How did the landlord "get his cut?" In the early days it seems to have been the
custom to set up bailiffs on the roads out (a kind of old-fashioned Customs Officer).
This was certainly the case with animals. And since the truth was not always told
farmers had to swear to their statements.
In October, 1802, Johnston wrote to the Editor of the "Hibernian Magazine"
"All honest men must contemplate with horror the illegal mode practised at fairs in
this country of bailiffs and the most profligate men swearing people, whether they
have bought the cattle they drive from fairs, in order to obtain toll or Custom by
our laws none should administer oaths, but a Justice of Peace. a Seneschal or a
Commissioner for taking affidavits in some of our courts."
He recommended a new procedure
"I would most humbly and with great deference beg leave to recommend that all
cattle. etc. brought into fairs, should pay one half of the present toll, or custom,
on their entrance into each town or fair ground ( which I understand is the present
mode in Belfast). By this honest mode I am persuaded that the proprietors of towns,
would receive a larger sum annually than they do by the present illegal mode."
David Ker adopted Johnston's advice and the following appeared in the Belfast paper
"With the approbation of David Ker and Matthew Forde Esqrs, the public are
hereby informed, that the fair to he held at Ballynahinch, on Thursday, 6th
January next 1803, and at all future fair’s, one half the former custom for
cattle sold, will be taken for Horses, Black cattle, Sheep and Swine, (In their
entrance into the town, in order to preclude all illegal oaths for the future."
J M. Johnston, Senescha1
Dated this 18th day of December, 1802.
Graduallv however the system of renting out the market rights became established.
Innovations were watched with a jealous eye. I understand the present market
stalls originated as a "private enterprise" but the situation was soon brought
under control.
I conclude by setting down the law as decreed on the sole surviving market-board
(to my knowledge)
PORK MARKET
BALLYNAHINCH
14 & 15 Victoria Cap. 92
Buyers and Sellers are hereby
informed that the Rule in this
market is that
No Sale Shall take place untill the Bell is Rang
Any person Buying or Selling
Pork in the Streets or on the Road
entering this Town or in any Public
Place other than the appointed
Market Places is liable to a penalty of Ten Shillings
Any person infringing these rules will be prosecuted
according to law
BY ORDER
M. GAGE. Agent.
What's in a Name?
Ballynahinch is the old townland name and has survived from the mists of antiquity.
The popular interpretation is "the town of the island" or "island-town". Many
theories have been formulated to justify this description. Some have held that
there was a crannog in Ballynahinch Lough similar to the historically provable one
in Lough Henny. The Lough has since been filled with sewage and is now being laid
out as Playing fields. Others have pointed out the town site was almost an island,
lying between Ballynahinch River, Ballynahinch Lough, and a stream which drained
the Lough into the river at Robinson's Corner end of the town. This stream has been
sewered.
The compilers of "The Survey of Earl Moira's Estate" were firmly of this opinion.
(1782).
"N.B. that the Town has its name from said Lough or the Island and Ballynahinch in
English is... Islandtown".
Looking at the town site over a more extensive area it can be shown, (as in fig. 4)
that before drainage Ballynahinch was a pocket of dry land surrounded by hills
(which means forest), river and bogland.
But there is another less known possible translation. "Bally" is often an
anglicised corruption of booley which refers to "a dairy farm or milking parlour". "Inch" often means, 'a river meadow." Ballynahinch, therefore, becomes "the dairy farm of the river-meadow", and this explanation needs nothing more than a glance at the geography to prove its feasibility.
Or what about "The Town in the river-meadow".
At the end of this section you will find a list of interpretations of "old" names.
The writer is no Irish scholar and those which are guesses are starred *; the
remainder are the interpretations of Joyce.
Many of the names refer to townlands. The townland is still a visible land unit,
and the carefully delineated boundaries point to a well-organised and settled
population in the past.
Townlands were probably based on a village nucleus. Most remains of these old-type
villages suggest they were very small, but ancient travellers did record villages
of 50-60 houses. The houses, or cabins as the English called them, were in
clusters or clachans and were in some sheltered place. There was no plan or order. The
tradition persists in "closes", "quarters" and "towns". A probable survival of the
tradition (in name only) is Dobbinstown (near the Spa). Those who want to see what
a clachan looked like can visit Tievendarragh Town opposite the County Council
Quarry on the road to Newcastle.
The earliest description of the Ballynahinch area (Petty about 1658-59) runs as
follows:-
"There are no buildings in this parish to be seen besides the walls of
the church at Magheradroll, a thatched house at Ballymaglave and some cabins."
Baronies were a later addition, based on the older kingdoms, to the pattern of
ownership and organisation. Each barony was very distinctive in nature even to
having its own colour for clothing.
Magheradroll is translated by Joyce as "the plain between two forks." Harris on
the other hand, in 1744, writing nearer to the native period of occupation and
before the demise of the Irish language in the area, had the following to say:-
"From this terrible condition of the roads it has obtained the name of Magheradroll,
which it truly deserves."
Knox in his history of County Down, 1875, backs this interpretation up.
"The name of Magheradroll is properly deduced from Machaire-drochaib, signifying
gravelly plain."
As for the Barony appellation of Kinelarty, Knox derives it as follows:-
"The
Barony of Kinelarty, anciently Kinelfagarty, derives its name from Cenel
Fagartaig, Fagartach having been an ancient chief, whose tribe peopled the
district, or from Cenel Artane, an ancient proprietor of the district of the tribe
of Ires, and the common ancestor of the Magennises and Macartanes, in the district
of Dufferin, formerly included in Kinelarty, with a part of Lower Iveagh for, as
we are told by an old writer in 1598. "Kinalewrtie is woodland and boggy, and
lieth between Kilwaren and Lecahull."
Townland Names
|
*Annacott
|
The Ford by the Oak, or of the little boat.
|
|
Annaghmore
|
Big Marsh
|
|
Ardtanagh
|
High mound or rampart
|
|
Ballykine
|
O'Kine or Mackine's Town (or Town of the head)
|
|
*Ballylone
|
Owen's Town or Dairy in the Meadow (or town of the lamb)
|
|
*Ballymacarn
|
Macam's Town (Macartan?), or Town of the cairn)
|
|
*Ballymacaramery
|
O'Ramery's Town
|
|
Ballymaglave
|
Maglave's Town
|
|
Ballymurphy
|
Murphy's Town
|
|
Burren
|
Rocky Place
|
|
Cahard
|
The High Bog
|
|
Cargycreevy
|
The rock of the branchy place
|
|
Carragnacreevy
|
The rock of the branchy place
|
|
Cargycroy (gray)
|
Grey rocks
|
|
Clintagh
|
Meadowland
|
|
*Clintnagoo1and
|
Meadowland of the river fork
|
|
*Creevytennant
(tannel)
|
Bonfire Rock (or of Lime Kilns)
|
|
Crossgar
|
The Short Cross
|
|
Cumber
|
The confluence of two waters
|
|
Derry
|
Wood
|
|
*Drumaghlis
|
Church hill or fort-hill
|
|
Drumaness
|
The hill of the weasel
|
|
Drummarragh
|
Boat-shaped hill
|
|
Drumroad
|
Ridge of the road
|
|
Dumboy
|
Yellow Hill
|
|
Drumgavelin
|
Hill of the little river fork
|
|
Dunbeg
|
Small fort
|
|
Dunmore
|
Large fort
|
|
Dunturk
|
The fort of the boar
|
|
Edendarrif
|
High brow of the bulls
|
|
Ednavaddy
|
High brow of the dog
|
|
Glassdrummond
|
Green ridge
|
|
*Killygoney
|
Wood of the Conies or Church of the Conies
|
|
Kilmore
|
The great church
|
|
Legacurry
|
The Cauldron Hollow
|
|
*Lisowen
|
Owen's Fort (Fort in the grassland)
|
|
Listooder
|
Fort of the tanner
|
|
Magherahamlet
|
Plain of the plague-cernetry
|
|
*Maghernaknock
|
Plain of the hill
|
|
*Magheralone
|
Owen's plain/the grass plain/pjain of the lamb
|
|
Magheratimpany
|
Plain of the standing stone or peak hill
|
|
Montalto
|
High Hill
|
|
Mullaghdrin
|
Battle of the summit
|
|
*Pollramer (lake)
|
Fat or thick hole
|
|
Rademon
|
Rath of the demons
|
|
Raleagh
|
Rath of the grey people
|
|
Skerries
|
Rocky place
|
|
Slieve Croob
|
Claw, Foot, Hoof Mountain
|
|
*Slievenamoney
|
Mountain of Shrubs
|
|
Teconet
|
Home of a Connaught settler
|
|
*Tievenadarragh
|
Hillside of the bulls
|
|
Tonnaghmore
|
The big field
|
|
Tullybeg
|
Little hill
|
|
Tullywasnecunagh
(Tullywest)
|
Hill of rabbit holes
|
Ballynahinch as an Occupational Centre or Industry (Historical)
I wish to say in introduction that it is not the purpose of this section to deal
in depth with particular industries but merely to draw the reader’s attention to
their local presence giving only such background material as is thought essential
for understanding.
Milling
When Rawdon established Ballynahinch he built two mills. These were for grain.
One was presumably at Mill Bridge, the farm around it being known as "Corn Mill
Farm" in 1782. It was water-powered. The other was a windmill and was, I have been
told, at Ballymaglave.
In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries tenants were obliged to grind at
their Lord’s mills, though later it became the practice to rent them to a miller.
Corn was a very important crop in Down. In 1732 Down and Armagh were described as
increasingly turning to corn to feed the growing numbers in the linen trade. Corn
bounties were paid in 1759, and later in 1784 Foster’s Corn Laws, which subsidised
the export of corn and penalised the import of wheat, created a corn-growing boom.
In excellent anticipation The Windmill was erected in 1772. It was surrounded by
a "ring" (parking space etc.) and a lane led to it from the "Saintfield Road". The
windmill figured in the 1798 battle and probably sustained damage or was purposely
razed, but I do not know if it worked subsequently to the battle.
D. Ker, when he took over from Moira, built two new water mills. One at Mill
Bridge, dated 1816, and now owned by Mr.Harris, is still in full working order and
is being used to grind barley. The iron breast-wheel, measuring 17’ by 5’, can be
seen turning from time to time. The premises consist of a three-storey corn mill
and kiln. The other was built at Magheraknock (1820) and also had an iron
breast-wheel, but the wheel and machinery were removed in 1959.
A little further away from Ballynahinch Town a windmill was built at Tonaghmore in
1736, and in Rademon Townland a Ballynahinch family, which still has connections
with the town, "the McRoberts", who emigrated to Listooder in the early 18th
century, took over the Crookshank’s mill in 1811, and repaired it in 1816.
On the site was a flour mill and a threshing mill. Another mill-site is in
Drumconagher, Silcock’s Mills.
Although there was a general change to pasture after the famine, the change was
slower in Down than elsewhere and this probably explains why one mill still works.
Linen
The linen industry flourished after the Williamite Wars, especially when an Act to
encourage it was passed in 1697, and the expertise of the French Hugenots was
imported. Previously it was mostly "women’s work", including the growing and
preparation of the flax.
Harris recorded that "the staple commodity of the Ballynahinch District was linen
yarn which was sold at little fairs". It would appear therefore that at that time
there was relatively little home-weaving. The banks of the Ballynahinch River in
the early days were dotted with little bleach greens, but as bleaching became more
centralised in the Lagan-Bann region, the small greens went out of existence.
The first water-powered scutch mills were introduced about 1750, the second in Down
being at Rademon. There, also, was set up the first spinning-mill, Samuel
Crookshank’s (1805).
Weaving was largely a cottage industry and some local farm buildings are reputed
to have once been weaving premises, such as one at Drumhill. Later when weaving
was gathered into factories none were situated in the immediate vicinity of
Ballynahinch.
The following sites are of interest.
|
THE YEW TREES:
|
Drumconagher.
|
This may have been Marybrook which from advertisements is known to
have belonged to Rev. John Cleland. It was a bleach mill.
|
|
MCROBERT’S:
|
Rademon.
|
Reference has already been made to this site. The first flax-spinning
mill was built here in 1801 when the Crookshanks owned it. S.
Crookshank and T. Kennedy were bankrupted in 1810, and the McRoberts
purchased it in 1811 for £1,400.
|
|
NEW GROVE:
|
Ballymacarn.
|
Bleach mills and a later beetling mill were here. Today can be seen
the ruins of a two-storey stone building measuring 48’ by 27’.
|
|
ROUND HILL:
|
Ballymacarn.
|
A bleachworks with a stack built about 1844. The last two above are
commented on in "Medley" 1803.
"Mr. Robert McCalla, has lately made a bleach-green, bleach mills etc.
Mr. James Brown, has also erected a bleach green, houses, mills etc.
adjoining Mr. McCalla’s; these mills are supplied with water by
Ballymacarn lake; and a small river. This is a beautiful lake of
circular form, in extent about thirty plantation acres, and between
twenty and thirty feet in the middle."
|
|
"HURST’S LTD." SITE:
|
Drumaness
|
A bleach green here belonged to a William Dickson. The Davidson’s owned
the site for a long period. John Davidson,1729-95, William Davidson
1763-1825, and John Davidson 1798- . In 1836 a beetling mill was built
having a 20’ wheel, together with a boiling house, engine-house,
lapping room, and a yarn drying room.
This site is also referred to in "Medley".
"Mr. William Davison of Cumber, and Mr. John McCoubrey senr. and junr.
of Drumines, linen-drapers, have each good bleach-greens."
About 1850 William Davidson built a spinning mill at his bleachgreen
in partnership with a Belfast Flax Spinner called Chermside. This
later became Hurst’s Ltd. (see separate article).
|
|
WHITEPARK:
|
Edendarrif.
|
Here there are very large premises said to be the largest in Down, set
out in the shape of an "L". The concern was a bleaching factory built
about 1850 by a Hugh Milligan of Belfast.
|
The countryside was also dotted with numerous scutch-mills. As previously mentioned
these were introduced from Scotland about 1750, and indeed the second in Down was
installed by a Mr. Johnston at Rademon in 1757. Scutching which in the nineteenth
century became steam-powered was at its peak about 1864, since when it declined
until it ceased altogether about the end of the Second World War.
The range of cloths woven in the area appears to have been very wide. The linens
were one yard wide, and distinguished by the number of hundreds of threads in that
breadth. The Ballynahinch market, Dubourdieu records, sold cloths from 8-18
hundreds and at that time (1802) only Hillsborough offered a greater range.
Before leaving the subject it is perhaps worth recording the skill of two local
inhabitants.
"In 1814, Mary McCance of Dunmore, near Ballynahinch, spun a hank weighing 12
grains, equivalent to six hundred and forty hanks to the pound, and Catherine
Woods in the same neighbourhood, when 15 years of age, wrought a hank of only 10
grains weight equal to the enormous number of 700 hanks from a single pound."
Knox.
Extractive
The only other industry which finds early mention, apart from agriculture, is
quarrying, not for road metal but for slates.
Dubourdieu wrote (1802) "Slates are raised at Ballynahinch" and Johnston roused
himself into a ‘Back Ballynahinch’ effort as follows:
"There are many good slate quarries in various parts of this parish,
superior in quality to either English or Scotch. Could the people in general be
persuaded to slate their houses, they would not only have a much better appearance,
but be safer from Fire, and save their Straw for their Cattle, and make much more
Dung or Manure, to improve their Land."
He did not say what to do with the poor thatcher.
Ballynahinch Town
In Ballynahinch Town itself, factory employment has been tardy in arriving. A
remark of Johnston’s has a curiously contemporary ring about it.
"Was some manufacturory established here that would employ the people (suppose the
cotton, which gives employment, to men, women, and children, wherever it has been
established), this town would soon flourish, being in the centre of the County, and
well situated for water and firing." (Medley).
By 1846 it seems the situation was little better.
"The trade of the place is unimportant and undistinguished by any particular
branch." (Slater).
As late as 1886 Bassett recorded some improvement but still nothing dramatic.
"The manufacturing industries within the town limits are of exceedingly modest
proportions. A hemstitching factory employs about 200 people, irregularly, and
about 400 receive employment through sewed muslin agencies . . . at Drumaness
. . . there are spinning mills giving employment to about 450 people."
From the body of the Directory I learn that the hemstitching concern traded under
the name of the "Belfast Hemstitching Company". I have been told this was managed
by a Mr. Hamilton and the premises were "at Hugh Murray’s". The sewed muslin agents
were Mrs. Douglas, R. McDowell, and Mrs. Walker. The sewed muslin trade was
established by Scottish Manufacturers about 1850-1860. By 1897 the number of local
agents had increased and the list was as follows:
|
R. McDowell
|
High Street
|
|
Agnes Pollen
|
Market Square
|
|
Jane Priestley
|
Mourneview
|
|
Agnes Walker
|
High Street
|
|
Mrs. Whiteside
|
Dromore Street.
|
By 1904 the number of agencies was on the decrease. They were:
|
Sewing Agent
|
Miss Mcllwaine
|
High Street
|
|
Sewed Muslin Agent
|
Mrs. J. Moffett
|
Railway Street
|
|
Sewing and Embroidery Agent
|
Mrs. H. McDowell
|
Railway Street
|
I am told that the Misses Ker introduced the embroidery skill to the town giving
instruction in a hotel room.
In the upstairs floors of the building (now Shaw’s Grocery Shop) which at one time
housed on the ground floor the Ker Estate Offices and a reading library, Mrs.
Lemon, who lived at Woodside, the present Church of Ireland Rectory, carried on a
hemstitching factory for some time. It gave employment to some 60 people.
Other manufacturers are listed from time to time in Directories, including two
linen manufacturers in High Street, a linenboiler in Windmill Street, and a
steam-saw and flax mill also in the same street.
The foregoing pages on industry have not attempted to deal individual skills and
trades of the old craft category, and in like fashion the articles which follow
deal only with the largest employers of labour. It would be impossible within the
confines of 100 pages or so to deal adequately with the smaller though exceedingly
important concerns which have been bread and butter to generations, nor would I
wish to offend by selecting some and excluding others.
