THE PREHISTORY OF THE GIANT'S RING 
AND BALLYNAHATTY TOWNLAND

by BARRIE HARTWELL

The prehistoric Giants Ring in the townland of Ballynahatty lies only five miles from Lisburn and four miles from the centre of Belfast Today it dominates the Lagan Valley Regional Park from its isolated sandy plateau caught in a loop of the River Lagan. It is still immensely impressive consisting of a sub-circular enclosure, 200m (220 yds) across defined by a 4m (13 ft) high grass-covered bank with a top flattened by generations of Sunday strollers. It was probably built at the end of the Neolithic or the beginning of the Bronze Age around an earlier Neolithic passage grave. Most of the grave's massive stones are still in position, though one of the roofing slabs has slipped and the original covering mound has been removed. The only other visible site on the plateau is a large stone set on its side at the western edge of the natural ridge. This has been incorporated into the field bank to the north-west of the Ring. (see fig. l).

It would have taken about 70 000 man hours to construct the Giant's Ring (Mallory and McNeill, 1991,79) but what could have prompted this great input of labour? The first person to attempt an answer was the antiquarian, Henry Lawlor (Lawlor, 1918) in 1917. With a consortium of local landowners who raised the finance, and presumably with their estate labourers to do the digging, he trenched 500m (550 yds) of the inside of the Ring, dug a section three quarters through the bank and put a circular trench around the passage grave. He finally dug four feet down under the capstone but was only able to find a porter and a lemonade bottle (from a previously unrecorded "excavation") and fragments of burnt bone, probably from the original cremation. All this was achieved in one week. Though extensive, Lawlor's hurried excavation revealed little about the function of the Ring and, even for the time, his standard of recording was very poor. His excavations showed that the depth of topsoil increased from 0.45m (1.5 ft) near the centre to I.8m (6 ft) at the inner edge of the bank. (Lawlor, 1918 16). He failed to see that the bank material had been dug out of a broad, shallow internal trough which gives the enclosure its present appearance of an upturned saucer. He preferred to think that this shape was natural and that the stones comprising the bank were '...carried by the hands of a large number of workers from the country round.: (Lawlor, 1917-18,21).

It  was to be nearly forty years before a modem scientific excavation was undertaken at the Ring. In 1954 AEP Collins of the Archaeological Survey demonstrated conclusively the existence of the inner quarry ditch (Collins, 1955 44-50) and found that not only was there originally a small outer marker or retaining bank, but that the inner face may have been consolidated by a facade of stones (see fig.2).

We can speculate that whatever activity went on inside the enclosure, it had to be contained by the massive bank. If the Ring was a defensive structure we would expect the wall to be on the outside and a ditch beyond whereas the reverse is the case. It is possible that the bank was actually constructed with a flat top (instead of having been eroded to the present shape) in which case it may have provided a platform for spectators to observe ceremonies. The size of the interior space may relate directly to the number of people to be contained therein or simply to the nature of the activity taking place. Of course the larger the enclosure, the greater the bank circumference and the more room in the 'stands. Therefore, the activities may have been contained and separated from the outside world with perhaps only a section of the population being able to participate within the enclosure. Alternatively, they may have been witnessed by a much larger section of the population on the grandstand provided. A flattened top may imply the latter. Either way, the focus of activity must surely have been the passage grave around which the Ring is laid out (Hartwell, 1991,14).

This arrangement of an internal, flat-bottomed; trough' providing the quarry material for an outer bank is similar to a number of other enclosures in Ireland, such as Dowth Hall, in the Boyne Valley, Co. Meath (Hicks, 1975,70) and 'Rath Maeve 1 km south of the Hill of Tara (Stout, 1991,257). These enclosures can be described as 'hengiform and are similar to the henges of southern Britain where the trough is replaced by a more substantial ditch and there are one, two or four entrances. They vary enormously in size but the general absence of primary domestic remains points to the original function being ceremonial. Perhaps they were the churches of their day with the Giant's Ring representing a regional, higher status site similar to a cathedral.

The conjectural reconstruction of the Giant's Ring brings together a number of the ideas outlined above (fig.3). Here the  Ring stands on the southern edge of the plateau overlooking the fertile land of the Lagan Valley. The internal slope of the bank is lined with stones and the bank has a flat top on which people crowd to view the spectacle unfolding within. The passage grave, embedded in an earthen mound provides the focus of activity. The quarry ditch can be seen between the two. In the right foreground is a circular bank (BNH3) first seen as a crop mark in an aerial photograph (see fig. l). This was excavated in 1991, when the remains of a stoney bank were found on the eastern side. The central area had been removed by quarrying to a depth of 3m (10 fl) and backfilled within the last two hundred years. It is tempting to relate this site to an eighteenth century reference:

Did the 'Neighbours remove the mound then, finding that the site stands on a bed of fine quality sand, decide to quarry out the subsoil? A central burial mound has been reconstructed. This may have been a smaller version of the Giant's Ring with its central passage grave or the remains of a large Bronze Age round barrow. In 1989, air photography revealed a line of three small round barrows only 75m (82 yds) to the south west.


During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when the area to the immediate north and west of the Ring was being cleared for agricultural use, large quantities of human bones were being turned up by the plough. One of the tenant farmers, MR. David Bodel, who farmed the land to the north-west of the Ring, found a circular stone chamber and some skulls while he was digging potatoes. This was reported in the Belfast Newsletter on November 21, 1855:

By the end of that week, Robert McAdam, owner of the Soho Foundry, Gaelic scholar and editor of the Ulster Journal of Archaeology had visited the site with his friend, MR. Getty, and other members of the Belfast Natural History and philosophical Society. Their exceptionally well documented report appeared in the Ulster Journal of Archeology (McAdam and Getty, 1855,358). Both accounts describe a radially segmented, stone lined chamber, with a corbelled roof, sunk into the ground (see fig.4). McAdam says that the top of the structure was 45 cm (18 inches) below ground level and may have been covered with small stones to form a caim. Although the small boys entered through the roof of the chamber, the original entrance was clearly seen on the east end of the structure, blocked by a removable stone, at the floor depth of 1.4m (4.5 fl). Unless there was a ramp running down to it, access to the entrance was clearly going to be a problem. Four pottery urns contained burnt bone and elsewhere packages of burnt bone were separated by long thin stones clearly indicating at least five, probably many more, cremated individuals. The unburnt bone indicates at least five more, but there are no complete skeletons. This suggests that although some of the bodies were cremated, others were defleshed outside the tomb, simply by being buried for a period of time and then dug up again or, more likely, being exposed to the elements in a mortuary enclosure -a process called excarnation. This would prevent the larger bones from being removed though the smaller ones could be taken by scavenging birds and rodents which would pick at the bones. Only some of the bones of the individual would therefore be placed in the tomb. Some cow and sheep bones  suggest that joints of meat may have been placed in the tomb as well, presumably as food offerings for the dead in the afterlife. The mixture of burial customs (cremation in pots, cremation in packages, excarnation) all strongly suggest that the tomb was used over a long period of time. At least one of the pots was of Carrowkeel Ware, a type of pottery associated with passage graves and the late Neolithic, though there may be evidence for the use of the tomb into the succeeding early Bronze Age. If this is the case then the location of the subterranean entrance must have been clearly defined on the surface, possibly by a ramp.

In 1856, some of the pottery was presented to the Royal Irish Academy by Lord Dungannon (the enlightened landlord from Belvoir House and the man who built the protective wall around the Giant's Ring). The bone material and the rest of the pottery went into the collection of the Belfast Natural History and philosophical Society which forms the basis of the present Ulster Museum collection. Two of the skulls were sent to the Anatomy Department at Queens College (now the Queens University of Belfast) and one remains in their museum. More prehistoric material survives from this one site than has been found in all the other excavations in Ballynahatty until the start of the 1992 season. McAdam and Getty also reported David Bodel's reminiscences of the various archaeological features which he or his forebears had removed over the previous fifty years. They included a standing stone, two flat cemeteries, a cemetery mound containing several stone cists, several scattered cist burials, a ritual pit containing burnt material, a mound containing a megalithic grave and various carved stone artifacts. Similar sites were being found in the adjoining fields of his neighbours, MR. Thompson, MR. McKeown and MR. Russell - effectively the whole area of the plateau. The sacred ground around the Giant's Ring therefore acted as a magnet for possibly hundreds of burials through the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages, most were probably in simple unmarked graves. We can therefore stretch our analogy with the churches a little further by including the associated graveyard. Though we know that these sites existed, we do not know the full extent of the cemeteries or the actual location and date of the burials. To attempt to find this out we must now move forward to the twentieth century and examine a technique which has revolutionised the location of sites.

Fig 5.: Air photograph of the Giant's Ring taken in July 1989. The house at the mid-night of photograph is on the site of Bodel's farmhouse and the 1855 tomb is off to the right. Above the house is the line of three Bronze Age round barrows. Below the house is a boggy area an old glacial kettle hole Pollen cores taken from here and analysed indicated that the area had probably not been used for cereal growing in prehistory, emphasizing this as an area set apart for ritual activity. The enclosure Ballynahatty 5 can be seen in the field in front of the ring bank [QAD/17-7-89/V25]

In a period of exceptionally dry weather, certain crops (especially cereals) standing over damper, buried pits and ditches stay greener for longer as the surrounding crop ripens to a lighter colour. This happened in 1989 when the rings of the Bronze Age barrows could be seen, but even more exciting was the appearance of a large oval double-pallisaded enclosure 70m x 90m in extent and with a similar but smaller enclosure at its eastern end (see fig.5).

Assisted by generous grants from the Conservation Service - Historic Monuments Branch and from the School of Geosciences at Queen's University, this site (Ballynahatty 5) has been excavated for three seasons and a further season was undertaken in 1994. Over 500m square of excavations have uncovered a more complex set of remains than the air photographs suggest (fig.6a).

The outer enclosure consists of post holes, 2m (6.5 ft) deep and radially paired that may have held free-standing posts the height of telegraph poles. The earth-fast lower section had rotted in situ but scatters of charcoal suggest that the superstructure had probably bumf down. The charcoal found in the post pits of the large outer enclosure have been dated in the Radiocarbon laboratory at Queens University to between 3018 and 2788 BC. This is over two hundred years earlier than the great pyramids in Egypt, contemporary with the earlier phases of Stonehenge and two hundred years later than the Newgrange passage tomb. At least 250 mature trees, probably oak, were felled and hauled to the site and each post pit would have taken over 24 hours of digging with antler picks to reach the required depth. The whole enterprise could have taken over 15,000 work hours to complete. If the posts were carved in any way it would have taken considerably longer. There appears to be no formal evidence although not all of the enclosure can be seen in the air photograph.


At present, the greatest hindrance to interpretation is the lack of radiocarbon dates over the rest of the site. It is therefore not possible to say which, if any, of the other features seen in Fig.6a are contemporary with the main enclosure. But, based on the limited information available, the reconstruction of Ballynahatty 5 has been shown in two phases (Figs 6b and 6c).

In the initial phase of monument building (Fig 6b) the inner enclosure, like the much bigger outer one, consisted of two concentric lines of post pits about 2m deep. However, the character of these is different. They are not radially paired but have the same regular interval along both the inner and outer ring. Thus there was an inner ring of about 19 posts and an outer ring of about 30 posts. Each pit had an associated ramp down which to slide the post and in some of the sandier pits gouge marks could be seen where the heavy post had rammed into the opposite side of the pit. There is a clear entrance towards the south west. When an excavated timber circle was reconstructed in Wales recently (Gibson, 1992,84) there did not appear to be enough visual distinction between the rows of timber posts as seen from the outside, so lintels were added (as can be seen at Stonehenge). The Ballynahatty enclosure was probably not roofed but may also have had lintels. This structure clearly provided an inner focus to the activities and may be regarded as a temple. Completion of the excavation will be necessary to throw more light on this important problem. As with the Giant's Ring and its passage grave, the focus here involves death and burial. The only human burial found during excavation was a cremation, between the two rings of the inner enclosure, laid in a small pit lined with split stones.

The second phase takes place after the temple superstructures have been razed or removed but before the memory of this area as a focus of ritual has been lost (fig 6c).

Immediately within the line of outer enclosures was found a small rectangular setting of eight portholes open towards the SSW. These portholes were 0.8m (3 ft) deep supporting posts about 2.5m (8 ft) high. There may have been a gate enclosing the fourth side. This may have been a small mortuary house just large enough to hold an extended body during the process of excarnation. Shallow pits full of black, charcoal rich soil and containing end scrapers and fragments of burnt animal (especially pig) bone suggest that feasting or animal offerings were also taking place after the inner  enclosure had been dismantled. Quantities of waste flint flakes showed these food or hide processing scrapers were being manufactured on site. All the burnt remnants of the feast including the 'cutlery' were carefully buried, perhaps as an offering to an earth god, while the corpse lay m the mortuary chamber exposed to the skies. The final act of he burial rite would be the eventual collection of the cleaned and bleached bones and their deposition in a stone chamber - a house of eternity and a suitable resting place for the ancestors.

Ballynahatty should therefore be seen as a focus of community ceremony and death rituals in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Lagan Valley. A place close to but set apart from, the rich lowlands which probably supported a substantial prehistoric population. It was obviously a society which was capable of being well organised. There had to be some sort of social cohesion, with some imposed or inherited authority, that was able to motivate or coerce the population to produce constructions of the size of Ballynahatty 5 or the Giant's Ring. The apparent ritual function which underpins these monuments does strongly suggest some form of spiritual leadership. However, we must not forget that the implication of excarnation is the preservation of bones and their deposition in what may be regarded as family tombs. It is a desire to maintain tangible links with the people of the past who had lived and toiled on the same land. This is especially important in a society where life expectancy may have been as little as 30 years. In effect they were reinforcing ancestral rights to a particular territory and to the Neolithic farmers, land must have been their most important possession.

The excavations at Ballynahatty would not have been possible without the kind permission of the owner, Mr James Thompson. I must also thank my assistant Ms Lucia McConway and the students of the Department of Archaeology at Queen's University, Belfast, members of the Ulster Archaeological Society and many volunteers who have given willingly of their services.

References:

CHARLEY FAMILY HOUSES IN DUNMURRY 

  by ROBBY CHARLEY

1. FINAGHY HOUSE

For over 200 hundred years members of the Charley Family lived in the Dunmurry area, their first recorded house being Finaghy House when Ballyfinaghy was purchased from a Richard Woods in 1727 by Ralph Charley (1674 - 1756), a successful merchant of Belfast. The name means Fin = fair, aghy = field and in the days when the family lived there the house was surrounded by fields. Five generations of the family dwelt at Finaghy until shortly after John Stouppe Charley (1825 - 1878) died when, in 1885, his widow Mrs. Mary Stewart Charley (nee Foster) sold the house and its contents.

In 1727 it is recorded that Finaghy House was an imposing mansion in a large park with extensive outhouses and stables. It had six reception rooms and 12 bedrooms with appropriate ancillaries, a remarkable feature being a revolving fireplace between the drawing room and the dining room. The Charley family armorial bearings were built into the outside gables and on a landing, half way up the wide oak bannistered stairs, the Coat of Arms are still engraved on the landing window. At the time of the house sale in 1885 one of the conditions of sale was that if the house was demolished the Coat of Arms was m be restored to the Charley family.

The Charleys were pioneers in the linen industry and it is said that looms were set up in this house in the 18th century and the new process of bleaching linen cloth with chlorine was perhaps discovered and first used here. Every 12th July for about 150 years until 1972, the Belfast Orangemen used to walk to the field at Finaghy. This field was owned by the Charleys of Finaghy House who granted it in perpetuity for this day to the Orange Order, the "rent" being that the lesson should always be read from the "Charley Bible" during the religious part of the ceremony.

Finaghy House is now known as Faith House, a comfortable home for senior citizens in the middle of a large housing estate.

2. WOODBOURNE

Woodbourne came into the Charley family when it was given to Mrs Mary Anne Charley (1797 - 1866) on her marriage in 1819 to Matthew Charley (1788 - 1846) by her father Walter Roberts of Collin House. He had rebuilt the old farmhouse at the spot known as Crooke's Ford. At this time Finaghy House, the senior family house, was occupied by Matthew's elder brother John (1784 - 1844) and his sister Elizabeth (1800 - 1854). Matthew and Mary brought up their six children at Woodbourne before taking over Finaghy House when John Died John and Matthew Charley were both original shareholders of the Northern Bank, John being Chairman of the Bank Committee from 1842 - 1845.

When Matthew and Mary moved to Finaghy House in 1844 Woodbourne was taken over by their son John Stouppe Charley (1825 - 1878). In 1851 he married Mary Stewart Foster (1832 - 1915) a daughter of Francis Foster JP of Roshin Lodge Co. Donegal. John Stouppe succeeded his uncle John on the committee of the Northern Bank in 1845 and he was also a JP and DL for counties Antrim & Donegal and High Sheriff of Co. Donegal in 1875. John Stouppe Charley took over Finaghy House on his mothers death in 1866.

Woodbourne was a happy home. It was so named because of the wood, or glen, on one side and a bum, the Lady's River, on the other. A lawn filled with shrubs and trees surrounded the house. There was also a sunny walled garden, an orchard full of apple trees, large yards, stables, byres for cows, barns for grain, a pigeon loft, a greenhouse, a pheasantry and a carpenters shop. The house had a large sunlit entrance hall with folding doors across it to screen off the stairs and back passages.

On the folding screen was the Charley Coat of Arms with the motto "Justus Esto et non Metue" above it. The stairs wound in a spiral curve to the top. The first flight led to a lobby the same size as the hall and was lit by a large window looking into a square walled-in gravelled yard with strips of flower beds on either side and a beautiful beech tree in the middle with a seat all round it. There were two recesses in the wall ascending to the lobby, in one of them stood an old mahogany clock, in the other a life sized bronze Grecian lady holding a lamp. Bedrooms led off the lobby and on the top floor was a long low play room, running over a third of the house.

Matthew Charley of Woodboume had three sons and three daughters. The sons were:

1) John Stouppe (1825 - 1878) - see above and below,

2) Walter Matthew (1827 - 1870) of Newtownstewart who married twice and had two daughters,

3) Colonel Sir William Charley DCL, QC, DL, MP (1833 - 1904). He was MP for Salford 1868 - 1880, and Judge and Common Sergeant of London 1878 1892, a strong supporter of Disraeli, Honorary Colonel of the 3rd Battalion The London Volunteers and President of the Pickwick Bicycle Club. With his brother-in-law he founded the well known charity Royal United Kingdom Benevolent Association. He had two daughters.

John Stouppe Charley of Woodbourne had four sons and three daughters. Two sons died as infants, his second son Major John Francis William born 1857 was mortally wounded on 15th December 1899 commanding the 1st Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers at the Battle of Colenso in the South African War. His third son, Walter Roberts Matthew Charley JP (1859 - 1930) settled with his wife Mary, daughter of John Simpson MPP, at Pine Lake, Alberta, Canada. John Stouppe had no grandchildren.

Many years later Matthew Charley 's great-grand daughter Mrs Esmee Hamilton, who was married to a Provincial Commissioner in Kenya, named their large retirement home near Nairobi, Woodbourne.

The Parish of Upper Falls was constituted in 1859 and the Church of St John the Baptist was built on land belonging to and adjacent to Woodbourne, given by John Stouppe Charley. The new Church was consecrated in 1861. From 1878 on (John Stouppes death) various family connections lived in Woodbourne until soon after World War 2 when it became a popular hotel. There was a local story that John Stouppe s ghost used to walk down the staircase a midnight on Saturdays. In the mid 1970s, after suffering bomb damage, it was converted into a fortified RUC station.

 

3) SEYMOUR HILL

The Charley family occupied Seymour Hill for 124 years until 1946. Three generations of the family lived there - firstly William (1790 - 1838) who bought and rebuilt the house. When he died his son, also William (1826 - 1890), succeeded him. When this William died in 1890 his son Edward (1859 - 1932) took over the house and the linen business and on his death Edward's brother Captain Arthur Charley (1870 - 1944) was the next owner.

In 1820 William Charley (1790 - 1838), the third son of John Charley (1744 - 1812) of Finaghy House, purchased and remodelled the bleach green at Dunmurry and also the nearby Mossvale works. Two years later he bought Seymour Hill House from Mr Robert Allen Johnston. William's father John had served his time in the linen trade under Richard Wolfenden (1723 - 1775) of Harmony Hill, Lambeg who was head of one of the earliest linen trade families in Ulster. In 1783 John Charley married Richard Wolfenden's daughter Anne Jane (1758 - 1818) and it seems that the Wolfenden linen business passed to John Charley whose sons John and William eventually transferred it to Seymour Hill. In 1824 William entered into partnership with his eldest brother John (1784 - 1844) to found the linen firm of I & W Charley & Co. By 1837 it was one of the finest bleach greens in the country turning out between 20,000 and 25,000 pieces every year.

Seymour Hill stands on a hill with a wide view of the Lagan Valley. The Charley estate on both sides of the River Lagan in counties Antrim and Down amounted m over 400 acres. They were tenants of the Marquess of Hereford who owned all the land from Dunmurry to the southern shore of Lough Neagh. Seymour Hill was named after the Marquess of Hereford's surname which was Seymour. In the 1880's Irish Land Acts, the Charley family gained full possession of the land.

The large square Georgian house had 4 floors. The basement below ground level had extensive kitchens, scullery, larder, pantries, dairy rooms, wine cellars and a large servants' hall. On the ground floor the entrance hall had suits of armour standing in front of painted mural walls and there was a grandfather clock with the name William Charley in place of the numerals. To the left of the front door was the dinning room which contained the large family portraits. Behind the dinning room was the cloakroom, gun room and butler's pantry. To the right was the drawing room and, behind it, a comfortable morning room and library.

On the first floor were the main bedrooms, dressing rooms and bathroom. The bedrooms contained four poster beds and double doors from the rooms to the landing which cut out most of the noise from the landing passages. On the top floor were the day and night nurseries for the younger members of the family and also the staff sleeping quarters.

Water was pumped up to the house from a well in the centre of a large paddock in front of the house. The intermittent chuff chuff of the automatic ram could often be heard. There was a large wheel at the back door which had to be turned from time to time to pump water up to the roof tank. There was stabling for 12 horses in the yard.

In a small field behind the house in the 1930s there lived a pony called Ginger. Ginger, clad in large soft shoes, used to draw the grass cutting mower across the extensive lawns and tennis courts. He also used to pull a smart pony trap. In the summer tennis parties were held on the four grass courts and the one hard court.

A large walled garden and grounds were maintained by a head gardener and five or six under gardeners. Old box edgings and stones from the Giants Causeway gave it an unusual character. This walled garden has now been renovated and is managed as the Seymour Hill Garden project by a unit under the Eastern Board (Down and Lisburn Department). Outside the walled garden was the Yew Tree Walk which led from the house down to the front drive entrance. Between the house and walled garden were lawns with landscaped trees and shrubs. Near the rock garden was the dogs' cemetery, all with their individual headstones. There were front and back avenues, the front drive entering via gates with a gate lodge. In spring this avenue had daffodils all along the border from gate to the main house.


Every day the head of the family would walk across the paddock field to the factory of J & W Charley & Co. which was hidden from the house by a line of trees. Here he supervised the finishing and production of the forest Ulster Linen. It was of a particularly high quality and for many years the normal present from Northern Ireland to any member of the Royal Family when they married were linen sheets from J & W Charley, specially embroidered with the relevant royal cypher.

Within the grounds of Seymour Hill was a lake and a waterfall leading into a fish pond. The Derriaghy River flowed under the main Belfast - Lisburn road into the lake and then was divided into two mill races to work the factory water wheels. The top stream was known locally as "Little Harry" because baby Harold Charley's (1875 1956) pram once ran away down the drive and ended up upside down in the river. He was none the worst for the experience.

The main Derriaghy River continued down through the glen until it reached the river Lagan a short distance away near Mossvale. The glen had well maintained paths winding through luxuriant trees, creepers and bamboo jungle areas. In the glen there was a bridge held up by chains from the first cable layer ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. There was also a shell grotto in the glen and for the sporting members of the family plenty of fishing for trout and shots to be taken at woodcock, pigeons and rabbit.

During World War 2 the laundry premises in the upper yard were occupied by up to 100 women and children evacuated from the centre of Belfast during the air mid blitzes of 1941 and 1942.

Just after World War 2 the the Northern Ireland Housing Trust was formed and, by the first vesting order issued in Northern Ireland, the family was compelled to sell Seymour Hill House and all the grounds on the county Antrim side of the river Lagan. This was the first enterprise undertaken by the Trust, now the NI Housing Executive. In no time the house was surrounded by a well laid out but vast housing estate. The  upper and lower yards were made into comfortable well designed mews flats which won a Civic Trust Award in 1960.

In 1986 the house was vandalised and badly damaged by firebombs and it was feared it might have to be pulled down but the Housing Executive transferred the listed building and part of the grounds to Belfast Improved Housing Association Ltd which has now successfully restored it into six one person flats with a warden's flat on the top floor and shared launderette facilities in the old basement.

4) PHOENIX LODGE

In 1837 the Ulster Railway Company opened its first line from Belfast to Lisburn. To encourage use of the railway, free passes were offered to people if they built new homes near the stations and halts. It is thought that this may have influenced William Charley (1790 - 1838) to build Phoenix Lodge for his daughter Anne Jane, in 1837 shortly before he died. In 1842 Anne Jane Charley married William Stevenson of Belfast and they lived at Phoenix Lodge until his death in 1855. Mrs. Stevenson then moved to live with her widowed mother at Huntley. In 1882 the name of the house was changed to The Lodge after the Phoenix Park murders in Dublin when Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke, Chief Secretary & Under Secretary of Ireland, were assassinated. Captain Arthur Charley, JP (1870 - 1944), lived there with his wife Clare after the Great War until his brother Edward Charley, JP, DL (1859 1932) died and he moved into Seymour Hill.

In the 1930s and at the beginning of World War Two, The Lodge was rented by Lord and Lady Amptill. In 1940 Major General Sir James and Lady Cooke-Collis lived there. He was the first Ulster Agent in London but died in 1941 from the results of a German air raid on his club in London. Next it was occupied by Major General Majendie, the GOC Northern Ireland District and finally in 1947 it was bought by Mrs. Harland, the sister of Sir Milne Barber of Conway. In spite of being listed this lovely house was vested in the early 1960s after Mrs. Harland died and the grounds taken over for the expansion of a nearby factory. The large weeping ash tree that dominated the front lawn is all that now remains of The Lodge.

5) CONWAY

In 1852 William Charley, who had succeeded to the Seymour Hill estate, gave some land to his younger brother Edward (1827 - 1868), to build a house for his first wife Mary (nee Caldecott) (1834 - 1854) from Essex. Edward named it Conway after the local landowner the Marquess of Hertford, one of whose titles was Lord Conway. His first wife Mary died in 1854 and two yeas later he married Jane (nee Richardson) (1829 - 1906) from Lambeg. When Edward died in 1868 she lived in Conway with her four children and one stepdaughter until 1877. The house was then occupied until his death by Bishop Reeves and then, in 1892, it was sold by the executors of Edwards' brother William Charley to John D. Barbour of Hilden, the father of Sir Mime Barbour, later Deputy Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. Sir Milne lived in Conway for many years until he died in 1951. It is now a four star hotel. At one time there was the Charley crest over the front door but a bomb destroyed it some years ago.


6) HUNTLEY

Huntley, originally known as Huntley Lodge, was built about 1830 by William Hunter (1777 - 1856) of Dunmurry House on land leased by the Stewarts of Ballydrain from the Donegal Estates. His son William (1806 - 1890) lived in Huntley for a time and brought up his family them until, in the mid 1850's he moved his family to the Isle of Man because of the increase of Income Tax to about 2d in the f. The house was then left by his father William (1777 - 1856) to his widowed sister Mrs Isabella Charley (1800 -1882).

Isabella's husband, William Charley of Seymour Hill, had died in 1838 and she had lived in Seymour Hill until her eldest son William was married in 1856. Isabella then moved to Huntley where she was joined by her late husband's sisters Mary (1820 86), Anne Jane Stevenson (1822 - 1904) (whose husband had died in 1855) and Emily (1837 - 1917). Every Sunday for many years the Charleys of Seymour Hill would get into the family coach and go to visit their grandmother and great aunts for afternoon tea.

The ladies at Huntley were talented artists, did embroidery and kept beautiful scrapbooks. They supported many charities and gave generously to local churches, schools and church halls. They founded the Charley Memorial School at Drumbeg in 1892 in memory of their brother William Charley (1826 - 90) of Seymour Hill and also the Stevenson Memorial School in Dunmurry. They built the church hall in Dunmurry with the condition that a service must be held there every Sunday afternoon. However it used to upset them to see the curate from Drumbeg riding down Dunmurry Lane past Huntley on a bicycle. They did not approve of cycling on Sundays.

Huntley remained in possession of the Charley family until 1932 when Edward Charley JP, DL (1859 - 1932) of Seymour Hill died and it was sold to Mr George Bryson who had been a tenant there since just after the World War 1. The Bryson family still live there.

7) MOSSVALE HOUSE

Mossvale House was a nice old house down by the Lagan Canal which originally belonged to the owners of the local mill. It came into the possession of the Charley family in 1820 when the mill and bleach works were purchased by William Charley (1790 - 1838) from Robert Johnstone. It was encircled by trees and had stabling for 10 horses and in spring time was surrounded by daffodils. Captain Arthur Charley (1870 - 1944) lived here with his wife for several years after the Great War before moving into The Lodge in Dunmurry.

In 1936 it was rented to a flamboyant individual. He heavily insured the house and the horses and then, a few days later, bought boxes of matches and a can of paraffin He soaked piles of rags around the house and stables, set them on fire and succeeded in burning the house to the ground. Luckily some passers-by saw the fire and managed to rescue the frightened horses. The land and ruins remained in the family for another 50 years until it was sold in the 1980s. A new house has been built on the site by the purchaser.

8) WARREN HOUSE

Warren House, originally known as Warren View, was a small house on the Charley Estate and, until 1922, was occupied by different members of the Johnston family. In 1923 Edward Charley of Seymour Hill gave it to his brother Colonel Harold Charley CBE, DL (1875 - 1956) on his marriage to Phyllis Hunter MBE (1893 - 1988). They added to the house and enlarged it over several years.

Warren House looked across the Derriaghy River to an ancient mound and rabbit warren. The rabbits were of all possible colours - black, white, piebald, orange - the results of tame rabbits escaping and joining their wild relatives. The house had a lovely garden and across the river on the rabbit hill were a number of bee hives Harold Charley being President of the Ulster Beekeepers Association. His son and daughter with their friends used to raft down the river under the railway bridge into the lake at Seymour Hill. There were two grass tennis courts opposite the house on Thornhill Road and a field which, in the 1930s, contained Peter, the donkey, and Daisy, the pony. Also bordering Thornhill Road was the Show Field so named because William Charley and Dr Duffield, two of the founders of the Royal Agricultural Show in that field over 100 years previously.

In 1951 the house was sold by the Charleys and bought by the winner of a large football pool prize. It was then sold again and it is understood that one later owner converted the large drawing room into a Plymouth Brethren Chapel. In 1970, when the DeLorean factory was built in the nearby fields, Warren House was fitted out for John Delorean to live in. A special roadway was made direct from the factory to the house and it was rumoured, untruely, that gold taps were put in the bathrooms. There were several break-ins because of this. It is now occupied by new owners.

9) WILLOWDALE

Willowdale House lies beyond the hamlet of Ballybog, the main driveway running parallel to the River Lagan, just before the Ballybog Road reaches the Lagan Canal Towpath.

The House has been part of the Charley Estate since the early 1820's. From 1939 to 1950 it was lived in by Mr. & Mrs. George Graham. It is a good example of a Georgian house, with thick walls and windows recessed by about 18". There is a very thick mahogany front door with a fan light above. In front of the door there is a wide sweep of gravel - room to turn carriages or cars. Large flowering shrubs were opposite the house.

On entering the house there is a wide hall with a passage to the rear with the drawing room and dinning room to left and right. The drawing room had an original Adam fireplace with a large grate suitable for burning large sized logs. The front windows have inside shutters. Behind the two large front rooms are a breakfast room, a mistress's pantry, cloakroom and a large kitchen with scullery and pantry off it.

Outside the side doors is a covered spring well from which water is pumped into the house. The wide staircase leads to a large landing with four bedrooms, a dressing room and a bathroom.

The house was at one time surrounded by lawns and flowerbeds and an orchard with apple, pear and plum trees. The garden and lawns are encircled on three sides by the River Lagan.

Family Tree

B) THE CHILDREN OF WILLIAM CHARLEY (1826 -1890) OF SEYMOUR HILL.

C) THE CHARLEY FAMILY COAT OF ARMS

CHARLEY FAMILY

In the Middle Ages individuals displayed devices on their shields or surcoats to identify each other. The early duties of heralds as tournament officials was to recognise individuals; later they were appointed by the king to grant or confirm Arms. About the year 1350, in the time of King Edward 111, it is known that the Chorley family of Chorley in Lancashire was entitled to Arms and some time later these were recorded as Argent a chevron gules between three blue bottles slipped proper.

These same arms are held by the Charley family today over 600 years later. In 1860 the Collage of Arms confirmed that this Coat of Arms was granted on usage to the descendants of John Charley (1744 - 1812) of Finaghy and on 16 July 1964 they issued an official exemplification of the Arms to Major WRH Charley of the Royal Ulster Rifles as explained below:

ARMS

"Argent, on a chevron gales, between three corn blue bottles, slipped proper, a mullet or."

(a silver shield on which is a red chevron stripe containing a five pointed golden star. In the three spaces on the shield in their natural colours are three blue cornflowers with stalks.)

A chevron was often added to an original Coat of Arms by a younger son. The golden star represents a military spur. "Slipped proper" means a small branch or stalk in its natural colours. A blue bottle is the heraldic name for a blue cornflower.


CREST

"On a chapeau gates turned up ermine, a falcon's head erased argent, charged with a cinquefoil of the first, in the beak a corn blue bottle as in the Arms. "

(A silver torn off falcon's head holding in its beak a cornflower and on its chest a red five petalled rose, on top of a red cap with a folded up black spotted fur edging.)

Caps of maintainence, sometimes called caps of dignity, are of crimson velvet, turned up with ermine fur and have two swallow tails. They used to be worn by princes and great nobles and later became a support for crests.

A falcon's head erased argent means the head is in silver torn off with a rough edge showing. Charged with a cinquefoil of the first means that the five petalled rose is borne on the centre of the crest and that the rose is gules or red (the first refers to the first mentioned colour of the chapeau gules). Perhaps the red rose represents the family's connection with the county of Lancashire.
 

MOTTO

"Justus esto et non metue" - "Be just and fear not"

At first mottos were regarded as cries or passwords and then later as punning references to the bearer's name or Coat of Arms. Later they became part of a person's complete Coat of Arms.

The Coat of Anus certainly originates back to the Chorley family in the 14th century, but it is thought that the Motto was only first assumed and granted in Victorian times, perhaps as an allusion to the then bearer's high rank in the Masonic order.


D) REFERENCES