Belfast Post November 3 1931

Glenburn-Lambeg Road-----Industry in the Eighteenth Century.

IN the article below is continued Mr. Alex. Milligan s survey of local topography and industry in the eighteenth century, as shown by a series of interesting ancient maps. The first portion of the article appeared in the " Northern Whig" of October 22nd and the " Weekly Northern Whig" of October 24th.

By ALEX. MILLIGAN.

As I intend now to turn off to the right and proceed by what is known as Dunmurry Lane. I need not here refer to the Stewarts of Ballydrain and Willmount, places which lie immediately beyond. Indeed, to deal with these fully would require a separate essay.

About a quarter of a mile along Dunmurry Lane we pass (L.H.) the entrance to " Old. forge," which in my youth was occupied by that eminent Churchman and scientist, the late Joseph John Murphy, F.R.S. Next to it (R.H.) is "Huntley," so long associated with the Charley family. Following it '(L.H.) we have " Oakhill,'' which has changed hands several times in my memory. On the same side we next pass the entrance to Glenburn House, now vacant, which has also within the same period changed hands more than once. It was for many years occupied by Mr. George Richardson. I am not as familiar with this neighbourhood as in days gone by, and am, therefore, chary of naming recent or present occupiers.

The "Glenbeg" Road.

Having come now as far as " Glenburn " I invite special attention to the old road which here turns L. H. to the south-west, and a careful reference to the accompanying sketch map will greatly help in following what I have to say.

It is it very interesting old road and about 1780 appears to have been the only road through this neighbourhood affording communication with Derriaghy, and thence by Castlerobin to Stoneyford. Moreover, it provided an alternative road to Lambeg, and this I now propose to follow. Here I must give a name and from its two termini (Glenburn and Lambeg) I have compounded a designation that may serve. I will call it the "Glenbeg " road. In the years between 1780 all 1830 there appear to have been some alterations in the line of this " Glenbeg " road but on the whole they were of minor importance, and I believe myself justified in treating it in its present shape as substantially identical with the original. About a quarter of a mile south-west of the Glenburn corner- i.e., where it diverges from Dunmurry Lane- we cross the Colin Glen River by an old bridge which bears a seventeenth century date, if appearances and local belief be correct, and R. H. may be noticed, on an elevation, a  quaint old cottage, now occupied by a Mr. Hall, which I take to be the eighteenth century residence of Joseph Kelso, the then proprietor of Glenburn bleachworks.

Mill Row.

Continuing directly forward from this bridge for another quarter of a mile we are brought to a halt, so far as the direct road is concerned, but we can, if we wish, turn down a lane-it is called Mill Row, I think-which leads over the modern Lisburn road and then across the railway to connect with the road past the Unitarian Church to the Falls. This connecting road, although it may not be as old as the roads which it now joins,
was there in 1780, as may be seen from the sketch map. But supposing ourselves to have ' merely looked down this road, let us now, from where our further progress is barred, look forward. We can see fronting us distinct traces of the continuation of the road we have traversed from Glenburn corner, and my view is that the old road, of which these traces are a survival, led south-west to a point about 150 yards on the Dunmurry side of the present entrance to Seymour Hill, on the modern Lisburn road, which here afterwards joined up with it. From here to M' Master's Bridge, or to a point some distance beyond it, the old road and the new are "one and the same, and not different."

About 100 yards on the hither, or Dunmurry, side of M'Master's Bridge what is known as the River Road branches off L.H. and after making two rectangular bends, some half-mile apart, continues its course for some distance alongside the river. and joins the Malone-Lambeg road opposite Lambg Church. The final reach of this I considered at one time as identical with the final section of our " Glenbeg " road as shown on the map, the preceding section being represented by the private path through the grounds of Conway House, which begins close to M`Master's Bridge. That is to say, I regarded the new Lisburn road as parting company with the 'Glenbeg' road where the private path begins. But whilst still feeling that this view would accord with several other topographical features, and in fact while still certain that there was a public road coinciding roughly with the private path referred to (and in alignment with the final reach of the River Road), I am now inclined to think that the final parting of the ways did not take place here, but rather, approximately, at the corner of the road leading into Lambeg past Abberdelgie House. The latter road would, in that case, represent the final reach of the " Glenbeg " road, as shown on the map. Absolute identity need not, however, be looked for, so various were the changes hereabouts in the early part of the nineteenth century.

Lambeg to Derriaghy.

Off the old River Road (R.H.) about 300 yards before it emerges on the Lambeg Road, there may still be noticed the vestige of a lane, which, after describing a curve to the south-west, emerges on the modern Lisburn road by the side of a public-house. This was really the beginning of a road connecting Lambeg to Derriaghy. It crossed the line of the modern Lisburn Road, but before the latter was made. The continuation of this is still in use and known as the Moss-Side Road. We will now turn to Dunmurry Lane whether it is the older or the newer I do not know-this road from its beginning at Dunmurry Lane has entirely disappeared. For all ordinary purposes Dunmurry Lane may now be regarded as continuing across the new Lisburn road, swerving south-west-ward after passing under the railway line, up the steep incline to join the road past the Unitarian Church, and so continuing by "The Fort," " Moat Park," and " Fortfield " to the Falls-and here I leave it.

I have one more road to notice, omitted at its proper place to avoid too frequent digression. If one had reversed the route latterly pursued and reascended Dunmurry Lane towards " Glenburn " about 1832, then about midway between the present Lisburn road and the "Glenbeg" road
he would have seen on his right hand a road leading diagonally past Mr. Hall's cottage and joining the ancient " Glenbeg " road close by the bridge. An old oak tree is still pointed out which stood by the side of this road about mid-way on its course.

Yeomen-Soldiers.

In my first article I referred to historic happenings which had influenced the present-day aspect of life in this neighbourhood. The most important was by no means a " point event," but a practically continuous replacement of the native population by English yeomen-soldiers, under such leaders as the Earl of Essex. Sir Arthur Chichester, Sir Moses Hill. and Sir Fulke Conway. These yeomen may not exactly have "come to scoff," nor did they, strictly speaking, "remain to pray." Rather, they came to fight and remained to farm. The ploughshare, however, had soon to be abandoned and the sword resumed for a lengthened period-some dozen years, in fact, beginning with 1641.

Forty years later came the Revolution of 1688-90, in which the outstanding feature, for its in the North, was the Siege of Derry, but this district suffered acutely in the general alarm and dislocation which prevailed. One of the horrid aspects of war was brought home to us during the winter of 1689-90 through the quartering around Belfast of Schomberg's disease-stricken army, but, we were in a measure compensated for this soon after by the reassuring pageant of William's army as it passed (via Lambeg, be it noted) to the final consummation. But, this progress via Lambeg, and just because it was so, had results which determined to a considerable extent the later aspect of this countryside.

The Linen Trade.

William whilst in Belfast had been approached by some of the Huguenots, then recently settled there, with a view to the improvement of the linen trade, which even then was carried on about Lambeg-but on old-fashioned lines, and otherwise heavily handicapped. Clearly the first stage of the march from Belfast afforded the King the necessary opportunity of directly informing himself, and there is ample evidence that he did so. Let me here say that William on this occasion did not ride at the head of his army on the white steed which, according to the common tradition, he usually bestrode. I believe, in fact, he was driven in a carriage. And so we find him in the course of the day calling at "Cranmore," and later at the residence now known as "Chrome Hill" (Lambeg). Followed, the lengthy interview with Rene Bulmer; later on, both at Lisburn and Hillsborough, he had further opportunities of adding to his information.

In all this my object is to show that when, some years later, the King persuaded his friend Louis Crommellin to settle in Ireland it was doubtless as the result of the knowledge secured on this occasion that the neighbourhood of Lambeg; was agreed upon as suitable for carrying out the scheme of reorganising the linen trade. The success of this scheme, supplemented by the creation of the Linen Board in 1710, fully justified the wisdom of its author.

As a consequence of the renascence that followed this success there sprang into existence a host of bleaching concerns, with their attendant beetling works, which effected a wonderful change not merely in the appearance of the country, but in the distribution of the population.

Conditions of Success.

In 1780, if the neighbourhood could have been viewed from an aeroplane, it must almost inevitably have suggested the idea of a chess hoard, so frequently did bleach greens meet one's view, and with. their necessarily rectangular arrangement of material. lt would have been, however, a chessboard with many natural enrichments. and in an unusually artistic setting. Let us now examine this setting and see how the linen trade came to be associated with it. In those days, apart from the weaving, which was largely a cottage industry, there were three prime conditions essential to the successful carrying on of this trade. These were (1) land, (2) water and water power, and (3), somewhat strange to say, dairy cattle. The last-named were necessary for the production of the then essential element of buttermilk, the place of which in later times was taken by sulphuric land was, of course, needful as spreading ground and water power for driving the beetling engines.

The great matter was to combine all three in the one situation, and so we find that the early centres of the linen trade were not commonly urban but suburban, and usually on the the banks of running streams.

Consider now the almost continuous ridge of hills from Carrickfergus to south of Castlerobin. With this ridge (which runs North and south) as a catchment area, it is inevitable, having regard to the configuration of the country, that the resulting streams must flow eastward, i.e., to the Lagan. Now, it is just on these streams and practically nowhere else that the bleach mills were established in the eighteenth century. Their situation was not due either to caprice or accident. Thus it comes about, for instance, that we find them in the neighbourhood of such streams as the following 9I take them north to south):-- ;
(1) The Milewater, which rises in marshy ground above Carr's Glen and flows though the latter.
(2) The Farset River, whose catchment area lies much further south.
(3) The Forth River, which rises is Crow Glen, but is joined by Smith's River from the Divis plateau.
(4) A small stream from various sources ' which flows through Glenalina and the Falls Park.

Thomas Lyons's concern was on (1) Thomas Sinclair's and John Campbell's on (2) Whilst on (3) were Arthur Buntine's (afterwards Ferguson's?) and Stevenson's of Springfield (then Hamilton & Stevenson's). On (4) was Robert Scott's, afterwards Sinclair's now
the City Cemetery; also that of Messrs. Burden.

Colin Glen River.

This brings us practically to the area which I have been treating of around Dunmurry. On the Colin Glen River, about 1780, there were the following, beginning with the higher ground near Hannahstown:-
(1) That of John Ogle:
(2) Two belonging to members d the M'Cance family. Then, much lower down the stream, near the Lagan, there were those of Joseph Kelso, of Glenburn; James Hogg, of Oldforge; and William Stewart, of Peoplestown (Willmount). South of the Colin Glen River is that which flows through Seymour Hill, and is sometimes called the Kilmakee River. This has several feeding streams, two of which join near Derriaghy Church. On one of the latter was situate the bleach mill of Matthew Rosbottom, a name still to be found in the neighbourhood, and another belonging to a "Mr." Gayer. This was, I believe, Mr. Edward Gayer, one of the Clerks of the Irish House of Lords, along with his brother William Watts Gayer, LL.D They were sons of the Rev. Philip Gayer, Rector of Derriaghy, who in turn was the son of the Rev. John Gayer, the preceding rector. The Gayers belonged to an old Anglo-Norman family, hailing from Liskeard, in Cornwall.

The Teeling Family.

The works of the well-know Luke Teeling were close by Derriaghy Church on the north side. Luke Teeling. whose family belonged to County Louth, was born in Lisburn. He took an active part, mainly on constitutional lines, in the Reform Movement preceding '98. His elder son,  Bartholomew, went to France, and, after serving with Hoche on the Continent, was attached to the army of General Humbert, under whom he served with some distinction during that General's brief Irish campaign. He was ultimately made prisoner, and met a fate similar to that of his friend Wolfe Tone, although, in modern jargon, he "got a loner run for his money."

Bartholomew's younger brother, Charles Hamilton Teeling, was a journalist of considerable repute and owner of several journals, including the " Newry Examiner." His eldest daughter married Thomas, afterwards Lord O'Hagan, the first Catholic Lord Chancellor of Ireland in modern times and a native of Belfast. Charles, by the way. is also mentioned by Mrs. M'Tier in the Drennan correspondence already alluded to.

The bleachworks lower down the same stream (Killmakee) were formerly owned by Robert Johnston, whom I surmise to have been one of the well-known family of Ballymacash.

Between Lambeg and Lisburn, on the Lagan itself, were the greens of a " Mr." Handcock, "Mr." Delacherois, and Mr. Edward Hogg, but most of these in the course of years passed into the hands of the well-known Richardson family, and are now represented by the famous concern of Richardson, Sons & Owden, Limited.

NOTE.-The source of the Milewater River, which gives rise to the marsh alluded to, is traditionally said to be a holy well situate in a field on the north side of the old Ballyaghagan Road, Carr's Glen itself being to the south-east.
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