Society Publications
The society has produced a number of journals.
Some issues of the journal are avaiable. Please contact the society for further information.
Isabel McQuitty
19 Thornhill Drive
Belfast
BT5 7AW
Tel 028 9065 3601
Email secretary@ebhs.org.uk
If you would like to contribute to our next journal please contact us.
All written contributions for the journal - preferably typed - from members or non-members will be seriously considered for publication.
journal@ebhs.org.uk
Extract from "Knockdene Park"
by Bill Morrison
“Knockdene Park looks just the same as it did when I was a child. The houses are the same and the trees and all that seclusion of privet hedge. My children have ridden their tricycles down its uneven, unflagged paths over the same bumps. It is true that the gas lamps have gone, that the milk now comes clinking in a lorry and the bread growls round in an electric van and I doubt if the butcher delivers anything at all, much less in a smart equipage with a high- stepping pony. Yet these are only minor changes
The above passage is taken from Honor Rudnitzky’s 1978 book”The Careys” in which she describes the life of one of Northern Ireland’s most famous water colourists,J.W. Carey, who lived opposite her in Knockdene Park from I 906 to 1937. In those few words, she captures what it is that makes Knockdene Park so special.
In 1978 you really could say Knockdene Park had changed very little over the years. Things have changed a bit since then. What a loss it was in I 992 when all the fine houses of Knockdene fronting the Knock Road were cleared to make way for a dual carriageway which, who knows, may never now be built. Laighar, built in 1896, will for many be fondly remem bered as Knock Ladies School. This fine house with its distinctive red tiled roof is now lost forever. So, too, is the stylish symmetrical ter race of three houses (named Dunavon, Lissadel and Glenart) which many will remember facing Knock Methodist Church.
The full article is available in Vol.3 No.4 of the East Belfast Historical Society Journal
Extract from "Childhood Memories of Strandtown in the 1920s"
by Ruby Purdy
When I learned recently that Belmont Primary School was to be rebuilt, it brought back many happy memories. The school began in a hall at Belmont Presbyterian Church and then, in 1890, a Mr. Ferguson had the present build ing erected in memory of his wife. It was a national school, known as Ferguson Memorial School.
My life began in Strandtown in 1914. I was the youngest of a family of five consisting of one sister and three brothers. We had a very happy childhood making our own fun and games, unlike the children of today who have so much in the line of toys, radio, television and videos and many other attrac tions. We did have a small crystal wireless set. When we heard that the Rev. ArthurW. Barton of St. Mark’s, Dundela was to broadcast a service, one of my brothers put the headphones into a tin basin which amplified the sound, so that if we all kept very quiet, we could hear it!
I started school in 1920 at the age of six, which was usual in those days. The girls’ school was on the upper floor, with Miss McKee as head teacher. Miss Ogle was in charge of the Junior and Senior Infants and also the first class, all in the one room. There was also Miss McCracken, Miss Ross, Miss McNeilly, Miss McNeill and Miss Warnock. We sometimes had senior girls acting as monitresses; I remember Hilda Smyth, Winnie Robinson and another girl named Thompson. When we started school, we used sand trays to learn to make letters and figures.
The full article is available in Vol.3 No.4 of the East Belfast Historical Society Journal
Hon Secretary
Isabel McQuitty
19 Thornhill Drive
Belfast
BT5 7AW
Tel 028 9065 3601
Email secretary@ebhs.org.uk
Webmaster ~ Lisa Carson
webmaster@ebhs.org.uk