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Showing posts with the label Bessbrook

Joe's Hill, Cloughreagh - what's in a name?

Though it bears the name "McKnights Hill" today, Joe's Hill is the only name I've ever known for the B road linking Derrymore Road (beside the modern St Peter's Primary School) with Millvale Road in Cloughreagh townland outside Bessbrook in County Armagh (Northern Ireland). I've never, however, seen it named Joe's Hill on any map, including the excellent  historical maps available through the PRONI website  - it's just how I knew it growing up. Is this how others knew it? What can the maps tell us about its name, local or official? The earliest of these maps online is the OSNI historical first edition dated 1832-1846 and the road I know as 'Joe's Hill' is there, opposite the site of Derrymore House (now managed by the National Trust). On this map, and the 1846-62, version it appears to run awkwardly to an entrance by a gate lodge on the Derrymore House estate. I don't think a trace of this exists today. Beside its junction with Derr

A bit of industrial history lost from Millvale Road

Catching up on my old home area: I see the old Atkinson's corn mill on the Millvale Road near the crossroads with Joe's Hill and the Doctor's Hill was demolished in 2014 and work is underway on a new housing development. The mill was in a terrible state so it's no surprise to see it demolished. However this little slice of local history can still be viewed in its dilapidated state on historical Street View imagery. The image below is from Google maps imagery dated 2009: Here is the same stretch from 2016: One of the houses on the opposite side of the road has been renovated but the other is even more overgrown. Here is the 2009 imagery from the other direction, showing the spot where the old Bessbrook-Newry tram crossed the Millvale Road and Bessbrook river: Many thanks to Google for making such imagery available for embedding.