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Unlike
other parts of the Ards Peninsula there is
little or no evidence of early man in the
area now known as Ballywalter. In fact it
is not until the late Iron Age that we
find any evidence at all. There are cattle
enclosures also known as raths and forths
occupying prominent hilltops at Blackabbey
and Tullycavey.
THE ANGLO-NORMANS
In 1162 Pope Adrian was concerned about
the quality of Christianity in Ireland he
encouraged the Normans to extend their
influence in that direction. The Normans
were looking for fresh fields to conquer
and as Ireland was rich in cattle and
wheat they did not need much
encouragement. For five years they
did not come further north than Dundalk
but in 1167 John De Courcy marched through
the Newry Gap with 22 knights and 200
men-at-arms. He defeated the native
Irish at Downpatrick. Indeed with 13 days
he had conquered Antrim and Down. To
his knights were given large tracts of
land and Lucian De Arquilla received land
at Dunover about one mile from
Ballywalter. Here can still be seen
the remains of the mote which he built.
It is thought that on top of the mote
stood a wooden tower known as a bretesche.
These were usually square 20-30 feet each
way and 20 feet in height. They were
often brought in sections from England and
could be erected quickly.
NORMAN CHURCHES
The oldest building in the Ballywalter
area was probably built by De Arquilla or
one of his descendents. Under the
name of Templefyn—the English equivalent
being ‘Whitechurch’ — the ancient church,
in what is now the local graveyard, is
mentioned on the Roll of Taxation of Pope
Nicholas in the year 1306. Little is
known of it beyond the fact that it was
cruciform in shape, it was the largest
church of its period in the county and,
the rector lived at the priory at
Blackabbey. The incoming Scots in
the early 17 century found it to be in the
hands of the reformed Church of Ireland.
When the Normans came to England in 1066
they brought their spiritual advisers with
them. A group of monks from ‘The
Priory of St. Mary’ at Lonlay in Normandy
first built at Folkstone and later at
Stogursey in Somerset. They then
came to Ireland and under the patronage of
John De Courcy, built ‘The Priory of St.
Andrew of the Ards’ in 1180 A.D. at
Blackabbey which is just over a mile from
Ballywalter. We must presume that
this priory carried out the functions
usually associated with monasteries
including the collection of tithes.
It is known that it had 600 acres
attached. The priory was closed in
1536 by Henry 8th but local people believe
the site was not cleared until around 1840
when two or three still- existent farm
barns were built with the stones. It
is said that an underground tunnel joined
this Benedictine abbey with the Cistercian
one at Greyabbey!
THE COMING OF THE
SCOTS
In the 14 century Norman power was in
decline and control reverted to the Irish
— in this area to the O’Neills. Both
Henry 8th and Elizabeth 1st tried to
regain complete control over the whole
country and success in North Down came in
the early years of the 17 century.
Con O’Neill, the Irish noble, who lived at
Castlereagh on the outskirts of Belfast,
had rebelled against the British crown and
found himself locked up in Carrickfergus
Castle. The new king of England,
James 1st, was earlier the king of
Scotland and was known to the nobility of
the northern kingdom. One of these,
Hugh Montgomery, the laird of Braidstane
in Ayrshire, saw his opportunity to
acquire some land across the Irish Sea.
Together with James Hamilton, from Dunlop
in the same area, he reached agreement
with O’Neill that they would use their
influence with the king to attain his
liberty. Each of these gentlemen
would in return receive one third of
O’Neill’s lands. King James readily
agreed as it was felt that at least this
eastern part of Ulster could now become
‘peaceful, profitable and Protestant’.
And so the Scots came to the Ards.
Montgomery now owned and developed
Newtownards, Greyabbey, Comber and
Donaghadee and Hamilton who was later to
become Viscount Claneboye (later
Clandeboye) was the landlord around
Bangor, Killyleagh, Killinchy and
Ballywalter. They brought with them
fellow Scots to people their areas—
farmers, blacksmiths, carpenters, honest
men and criminals. All had their reasons for
coming: farmland in Scotland was scarce:
tenure of land there was insecure:
harvests were poor: grass was greener over
the hill.
A BARREN LAND
To what sort
of place did they come? It is said that
the Ards of that time was barren and
desolate. The reason was that
O’Neill had earlier met and defeated an
English invasion force led by Sir Thomas
Smith. He then laid waste the whole
area by burning in order that the Ards
would be ‘uninviting’ to possible future
invaders.
Most of the settlers were given farms and
they built houses on top of hills.
The reason for sitting the houses here was
partly because the land was not well
drained but also because it is easier to
get a successful well on the side of a
drumlin near the top. The
hard-working Scots came determined to
succeed. They ploughed the land and grew
wheat and oats. A few cottages were
built by 1610, by Hamilton, in the place
now known as Ballywalter and by 1620 it
was established as ‘a port for loading and
unloading of all, and all manner of goods,
wares and merchandise whatsoever’.
It is thought that a wooden pier or wharf
was built close to the area known locally
as the Green Isle opposite the present
Presbyterian church.
WHY THE NAME
‘BALLYWALTER’?
Quite frankly, we do not really know.
‘Bally’ means town or townland. But
why ‘walter’? It has been suggested that
it refers to Walter De Arquilla, son of
Lucian.
WHY DID A SETTLEMENT OCCUR
HERE?
This question is more easily answered.
The settlers had to find a convenient site
from which to transport their produce to
Scotland and England. They also
wished to travel regularly back ‘home’.
The Ballywalter location suited their
needs. It is likely that the simple
homes in the embryonic village had roofs
of slate brought from the nearby quarries
at Tullycavey. This was a thick,
coarse slate which was usually held on the
roof by mortar. Newtownards suffered
less than many other towns during the
rebellion of 1641 as the houses had slated
roofs rather than the usual thatch.
WILLIAMITE WARS
After the 1641 Rebellion people became
more polarised on sectarian
lines-Protestant and Roman Catholic.
William 3rd decided that the only way to
get control of Ireland was by force of
arms. He sent over Marshall
Schomberg with 10,000 men. While
this army was camped at Dundalk disease
was rife — over half the men died.
It was decided, in an attempt to contain
the outbreak, to divide the remainder into
smaller units. Colonel Villiers
brought a regiment to camp for the winter
at Ballywalter and Ballyhalbert.
EVENTS LEADING TO
THE 1798 REBELLION
By 1700 Ireland had come directly under
English rule. Dissenting Protestants
had fought well for William but the
English Parliament continued to regard
Ireland as a danger spot. Laws
against Roman Catholics and dissenting
Protestants were made even more stringent.
In 1704 it was decided that everyone
should conform to the laws of the
Episcopal church. As part of the
drive to improve the efficiency of that
church the old Norman church at
Whitechurch was closed and a new one built
at Balligan to serve a wider area.
Like others of their denominaton
throughout the province, the Presbyterians in Ballywalter continued to find
the law severe. They could not hold
public office, marriage in a Presbyterian
church was not recognised in law and they
had to pay 10% of their income to the
Episcopal church.
During that period many Presbyterians
emigrated to America. Those who
stayed behind where excited by the result
of the American War of Independence.
They envisaged an Ireland independent from
Britain. These thoughts led to a
rebellion in which the residents of
Ballywalter and the Ards Peninsula played
a prominent part.
THE 1798 REBELLION
During the morning of Pike Sunday, 10
June, 1798 a body of United Irishmen,
chiefly from Bangor, Donaghadee, Greyabbey
and Ballywalter made an attempt to occupy
the town of Newtownards. They met a
brisk fire of musketry from the market
house and among the dead was James Cain,
aged 18, from Ballyferris outside
Ballywalter. He was buried in Whitechurch
graveyard. The extent to which the
people of Ballywalter were involved in the
1798 Rebellion is illustrated by an
announcement in ‘The Freeman’s Journal’ on
11 August, 1798. With evident
satisfaction it stated that ‘the magnitude
of the punishment of many districts of
County Down may be conceived from this
single fact-of the inhabitants of the
little village of Ballywalter nine men
were actually killed and thirteen returned
wounded, victims of their folly. If a
trifling village suffered so much what
must have been the aggregate loss in those
parts of the country which were in a state
of rebellion.’ A number of
Presbyterian ministers in the Ards were
deemed to have taken part in the
rebellion. As punishment Rev. James Porter
of Greyabbey and Rev. Archibald Warick
from Kircubbin were tried, found guilty
and executed. A minister from near
Ballywalter, Rev. Robert Goudy of Dunover,
suffered the same fate. After the
insurrection bands of soldiers and yeomen
scoured the country looking for United Irishmen. It is said locally that
some Ballywalter men escaped capture by
spending days at sea in hiding behind the
Long Rock.
CHURCHES-CHURCH OF
IRELAND
Information on the history of an area is
often found to be centred around and
literally within its churches and
Ballywalter is no exception.
Reference has already been made to the
Norman church in Whitechurch which served
the area for over four hundred years.
Its replacement in 1704, St. Andrew’s
Parish Church, Balligan is, by far, the
oldest church building still in use around
Ballywalter. There is evidence that
its oak roof timbers may be older than the
church itself. Possibly they were
transferred from the much older church at
Ballyhalbert. Early records show
that the church not only catered for the
spiritual needs of its people. It
also organised homes for orphans, looked
after the local beggars and even collected
for the repair of the roads. By the
middle of last century the three centres
of population which Balligan served, had
grown and the people of each wished to
have their own church.
Kircubbin was built first in 1843,
Trinity Parish Church, Ballywalter in 1849
and Ballyhalbert (Ballyeasborough) in
1850.
CHURCHES-PRESBYTERIAN
The vast majority of settlers who arrived
in Ballywalter in the early years of the
17 century were Presbyterians from
Ayrshire. They needed a building in
which to worship so they joined their
episcopal brethren at Whitechurch in the
church which was repaired by James
Hamilton, the Scottish Presbyterian, who
now owned the Ballywalter area. This
is sometimes called the ‘Prescopalian
period.’ Hamilton installed his nephew,
also called James Hamilton, as minister
and he remained there for 10 years.
Like other Presbyterian ministers during
that period Hamilton was under the
authority of the established Church of
Ireland and this led to serious
difficulties. With the restoration
of the monarchy in the middle of the
century, for example, the government
decided that Presbyterian dissent could
not be tolerated and ministers, including
the Ballywalter minister, Robert Reid,
were driven from their parishes.
They preached in fields and barns—anywhere
not under the attention of the
authorities. At this time
Presbyterians from North Down would
sometimes cross to Portpatrick for a
communion service or to have children
baptized. They walked to Donaghadee
on a Sunday morning, made the three hour
journey to Scotland and returned home in
the evening. The first Presbyterian
meeting-house was built in Ballywalter,
probably around 1770, on a site near the
present harbour. It is thought that
it was a low thatched building with sod
walls, small windows, if any, and an
earthen floor. Forty-five years
later its successor was built on a site at
the corner of Well Road and Main Street
which is at present occupied by the
Sandpiper Inn. In 1820 a split
occurred in the congregation and a
minority built a second Presbyterian
church at Greyabbey Road. That
building ceased to be used as a church in
1925. It later housed the local
clothing factory for some years. In
1889 the church at Well Road was in such
poor condition that it needed replacement.
Medievalism was at that time fashionable
in architecture and the present Victorian
Gothic church was built.
THE SEA
Ballywalter owes its existence to the fact
that it is on the coast and it faces Scotland. However between
the two lies a very dangerous sea. The South and North Rocks
at Cloughey have always been regarded as the two most deadly hazards
off the coast of the Ards Peninsula. But every rock along this
coast has had its victims. In the 25 years between 1875 and
1900,75 vessels were totally lost together with 29 men. There
are a number of stories of shipwrecks at Ballyferris Point, the Long
Rock and Skulmartin off Ballywalter. One concerns 13-17 Dutch
and Frenchmen who lost their lives when a sailing ship floundered on
Skulmartin Rock. Sycamore trees were planted to mark each grave.
Another describes ‘The Caesar’ which struck the same rock in 1813.
Ballywalter seamen went to the rescue. The crew from ‘The
Caesar’ all got safely ashore but tragically all five local men were
drowned. The ship’s bell was brought ashore and is on display
in the local Presbyterian church.
Local
anxiety and pressure concerning loss of
life at sea brought success in 1866.
A lifeboat, ‘The Admiral Henry Meynell”
was presented to the village by the Misses
Ingram of Lisburn. It was a sailing
ship with oars. On occasion the
lifeboat was taken part of the way to a
distress call by road in order to shorten
the journey through rough seas. In
1893 a new boat ‘The William Wallace’ was
brought to Ballywalter. Towards the
end of the century steamships were taking
over from sailing vessels as they were
more reliable and safer. By 1906 the
coastguards had been withdrawn from the
village and there was some difficulty in
finding a crew to man the lifeboat so it
too was withdrawn. It is recorded
that Ballywalter lifeboat saved 154 lives.
Many will remember the lightship on
Skulmartin Rock. The first ship was
brought in 1886 and the last was taken
away in June, 1967. From 1760 an
assortment of barrels, cones and bells had
been tried on the rock but they were
usually carried away by rough seas so
ships continued to be wrecked.
WIND AND WATER MILLS
There is evidence that back as far as
Norman times this was a corn growing area.
Records show that Bristol and Chester were
supplied with corn and it is thought that
there was a Norman water mill on the
Dunover Road, Ballywalter. Through
the Middle Ages we exported wheat and
oats. One of the principal reasons
why so many Scots came to Ireland at the
beginning of the 17 century was bad
harvests in Scotland and the expectation
that land was available for grain
harvesting here. A problem which had
to be faced in the Ards Peninsula was the
lack of water power to drive the mill.
The Ards does not have rivers of any
significance. Hugh Montgomery and
his wife soon faced this problem when they
first came here and they introduced the
Danish horizontal waterwheel.
However milling received a considerable
fillip from the introduction of windmills.
At the end of the 18 century 75% of the
windmills in Ireland were in the Ards
Peninsula. The remains of the
Ballywalter windmill is at the
approximately named Stump Road. It
was built in the late 1700s and seems to
have become defunct in the 1860s. It
is thought that an earlier form of
windmill, a post mill, had stood on the
site. The windmill and the watermill
on Dunover Road were used in tandem-when
there was wind the windmill was used and
when there was water use was made of the
watermill. The miller in Ballywalter
paid the overlord £50 per year for the use
of both mills, 14 acres of land and the
right to burn kelp for manure. He
was paid by receiving a percentage of the
grain which he milled. This was
called mouter. He claimed to make no
more than two tons of mouter a year worth
£10 a ton. Had he been suspected of
taking more than his share of mouter?
Windmills were probably at their greatest
working pitch between 1800 and 1840.
Steam mills then came in. After 1870
the grain industry declined and land was
used as pasture.
FLAX MILLS
The scutching of flax by water power was
introduced from Scotland about the middle
of the 18 century. The earliest
scutch mills were simple adaptations of a
corn mill on which four wooden scutching
blades were substituted for millstones.
The blades were boxed like millstones and
the flax was pushed in through openings to
be scutched. By 1830 scutch mills
were as common as corn mills. At that
time all the wind-powered scutch mills in
County Down were in the Ards Peninsula.
A number of these were around Ballywalter
at Ballyferris, Whitechurch, Ballybohillbo
and Tullykevin.
LIME KILNS
A good example of a lime kiln stands at
the south end of the village near the
harbour which was built around the same
time in 1851. Lime was brought,
possibly from the Dundalk area, by small
sailing ships. It had a number of
uses; as a fertilizer, as a purifier of
water and as a component of mortar for the
building trade. It is thought the
Ballywalter kiln was built to produce lime
for mortar to build the wall around
Ballywalter Park.
SCHOOLS
The first known school in the village was
established in May, 1834. We find
that in 1837 it had 96 pupils, all
Presbyterians. In 1847 Rev. Gibson,
the Presbyterian minister in the village,
made application to the National Board of
Education in Dublin for a grant to pay
salaries and books. It is thought
that the school had earlier been withdrawn
from that Board as a means of removing a
teacher who was not regarded as
satisfactory. The application stated
that a site had recently been given for a
new school by Andrew Mullholland of
Ballywalter Park. This became known
as Ballywalter Park or Springvale School.
In 1872 Mrs. Mullholland made application
for a school for females but after
consultation this was changed to an infant
school. Both continued in use until 1932
when the present school was opened.
The ‘big’ school became the Parochial Hall
and the ‘wee’ school is now the Orange
Hall.
BALLYWALTER PARK
Ballywalter Park was originally known as
Ballymagowan. Around 1671 Hugh
Montgomery came to the area and according
to ‘The Montgomery Manuscripts’ he built
and planted. Hugh Montgomery’s
father, James, had come from Scotland as
chaplain to the first Viscount Montgomery.
By the time Hugh died in 1707 the name of
the area had changed to Springvale.
His son, Rev. Hans. Montgomery, who became
Vicar of Ballywalter, succeeded his father
to the property and it was eventually sold
to George Matthews around 1729. As a
captain in the Royal Navy George Matthews
travelled to many countries and brought
back to Springvale a hoard of interesting
and unusual curios. His son, John,
married Catherine Montgomery of Greyabbey
and his grandson, George, married Jane
Echlin of Enchlinville. In April,
1846 the house, the park and all the
Ballywalter interests of the estate were
sold to Andrew Mulholland of Belfast for
£23,500. Thomas Mulholland purchased
a mill and entered the flourishing cotton
industry about 1830. The business expanded
and a huge cotton spinning mill was built
near York Street. However in 1828 disaster
struck when the premises were destroyed by
fire. The mill was replaced but with
a flax spinning mill rather than one which
spun cotton. Until that time flax could
only be spun by hand but the Mulhollands
heard that a powered spinning process was
being developed in England and they
decided to investigate. The result
was that the new York Street linen mill
was opened in 1830 and by 1856 was
probably the biggest of its kind in
Europe. It was said to cover four
acres of land. Andrew Mulholland was
elected Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1845 and
bought Ballywalter Park the following
year. Andrew’s son, John, had
interests which took him beyond the linen
industry. He became Member of
Parliament for Downpatrick in 1874 and in
1892 he was created Baron Dunleath of
Ballywalter. Ballywalter and its people
have benefited over the years from the
support and patronage of Andrew Mulholland
and his descendants.
ALEXANDER
McKENZIE — THE BARD OF DUNOVER
It may be unusual to include an account of
an individual in the history of a place
but this may be excused when that person
was esteemed province-wide by those
sharing his field of interest. Of
the poets in Ulster at the beginning of
the last century, few are more worthy of
mention than Andy McKenzie. He was
born at Dunover outside Ballywalter, the
son of a farmer. When he was 14 he
was apprenticed as a handloom weaver.
The hours were long and the work was hard.
McKenzie’s first poem appeared in the
‘Belfast Newsletter’ in 1800 and for the
next 10 years he wrote continually.
In 1810 he decided to publish a volume of
his works called ‘Poems and Songs on
Different Subjects.’ It was
customary in those days for poets to
produce their works by subscription.
McKenzie collected a list of 1600
subscribers and the book made the author
£200. With part of the money McKenzie
built a cottage at Dunover. To
support his family, he spent the remainder
of his money on a fishing boat.
During a storm the boat sank and the poet
himself was lucky to escape with his life.
Disaster followed disaster because
McKenzie had neglected to secure a land
lease for his cottage and he and his
family were evicted. He left Dunover to
live in Belfast and after a variety of
jobs he became Chief Scavenger to Belfast
Corporation. Before his death he
sank into utter poverty.
A poem he wrote
describes his situation.
‘My mansion is a clay-built cot,
My whole domain a garden plot — For these,
each annual first of May
Full thirty shillings I must pay:
Ye who in stately homes reside,
Th’abodes of luxury and pride,
May deem it false when I assert,
My house would scarcely load a cart;
So little straw defends the roof,
Against the rain it is not proof—’
McKenzie’s best poem is considered to be
GANNA WAY BURN’, the subject being a small
stream which runs into the sea at Ganaway
near Ballywalter.
‘Thy banks silver Lagan, rich beauties
discover,
An’commerce expands her braid wings on thy
tide— Tall ships frae thy port roam the
universe over;
Between thy twa headlands a navy might
ride.
Tho’ blithe I hae stray’d on thy banks,
noble river,
Yet visions o’ boyhood would aften return,
An’ tell me in whispers that here I might
never
Be blest, as when wand’ring on Gannaway
Burn.
Yes, dear native streamlet, wherever I
wander,
Tho’ a’ nature’s beauties afore me were
spread,
Thou com’st o’er my soul wi’ a feeling sae
tender,
That back to thy margin my fancy is led:
There early ken’d objects, by memory
hallow’d
Awake recollection wherever I turn;
For nature’s rude dictates I carelessly
follow’d,
Amang the rich vales o’ the Gannaway
Burn.’
McKenzie was only
saved from a pauper’s grave by the kindly
action of another poet who had him buried
in Shankill graveyard.
THE FUTURE?
Historical reasons for the existence of
Ballywalter are no longer relevant. People
no longer travel regularly to Scotland in
small boats. Roads have improved,
transport of goods has become
sophisticated and small harbours have been
dispensed with.
In almost four centuries the village has
grown slowly. It is a permanent home for
those who live there and a temporary one
for caravaners and other summer visitors.
There is unlikely to be an explosion in
its growth unless the economic climate
changes and, as has happened to similar
villages in England, it becomes a
dormitory village within travelling
distance of a major area of employment. It
is unlikely that the present residents
would welcome that development. |
