Historic Annesley family is subject of fascinating new exhibition

Historic Annesley family is subject of fascinating new exhibition

18 June 2014

A NEW exhibition which explores Castlewellan’s heritage has opened at the town’s library.

The exhibition was formally launched last week by Down Council in partnership with the Castlewellan Futures’ Heritage Group.

Entitled The Annesley Family Legacy and Lives of Ordinary Folk, the exhibition will be on display during the library’s opening hours and can also be viewed during Castlewellan’s Soma Festival between July 18 and 22.

Researched and written by volunteers from the Castlewellan Futures’ Heritage Group, the exhibition explores the rich heritage of the town and the Forest Park and how their stories are intertwined over some 270 years.

The exhibition is developed over ten panels and focuses on where the Annesleys came from, their arrival in Castlewellan and how they planned and laid out the town.

Other panels illustrate the development of spinning, weaving and bleaching in the local linen factories which took advantage of a water supply from a small stream fed by a lake on the Annesley Demesne.

There is a section focusing on the Market House built in 1764 which has also been used as an assizes, a place for worship and a jail, while the Cottage and the Castle display charts the development of the Annesley homes from a cottage built at the end of the 18th century to the Baronial Castle.

The Forest Park is an integral part of the new exhibition, tracing its development from a kitchen garden in 1740 to a Victorian pleasure garden in 1850 to a horticultural garden and national arboretum between 1870 and 1908.

The Tenants and Landlords panels tell of the tensions during the land reforms, while the Life in the Town section looks at buildings that tell some of the history of Castlewellan, such as the Fountain Bar which was the dispensary during the Typhus outbreak.

The Sporting Life section illustrates the range of sporting activities at the start of the 1900s, looking at athletics, cricket, football, the introduction of GAA and the 1903 Hill Climb race.

The panel entitled Photographer and Artists demonstrates the talents of Hugh Annesley as a very early photographer and, thanks to permission by the Ogilvie family, the exhibition uses many of his images to tell the story. The final part of this panel shows the artwork of Mabel Annesley, Hugh’s eldest daughter, an extremely accomplished artist and a friend and contemporary of William Connor.

This exhibition is the latest part of a wider Castlewellan Heritage Project, with Down District Council and Castlewellan Heritage Group. The project was awarded £50,700 in October from the Heritage Lottery Fund.