Interest growing in ancient graveyard

Interest growing in ancient graveyard

8 March 2017

BALLYNAHINCH’S old Magheradroll church and graveyard featured on last weekend’s Sunday Sequence programme on Radio Ulster.

Lead presenter, Roisin McAuley, was joined at the Crabtree Road site on by retired teacher John Ard who is spearheading the drive for the restoration of the graveyard. Also at the historic site were William Roulston of the Ulster Historical Foundation and local historian Horace Reid.

A lot of overgrown vegetation was recently removed from the church and graveyard to help preserve it for future generations, with funding provided by The Historic Environment Division — which operates under the umbrella of the Department of Communities. A history of the site, old church and graves will also be compiled.

Tomorrow night, a public meeting is scheduled to be held at Magheradroll Parish Church at 7.30pm when Mr Reid will give an illustrated talk about the old church, while Dr Roulston will give an overview of the ongoing restoration project.

It is hoped researching the history of the site will provide information which can form part of proposed tourism information display boards for visitors and tourists to view.

Mr Ard described the Crabtree Road site as one of “historical importance” and said while many of the gravestones and wall plaques record the passing of important figures, the vast majority mark family graves and tell a story of continuity, stretching, in some cases, over 300 years. 

“Many of the people reading this article will have a family connection with Old Magheradroll,” he continued. “My enthusiasm for this restoration project was triggered by the discovery about 10 years ago of a primitive headstone which records the death of another John Ard in 1792. “Fortunately, I photographed the stone when I first saw it because when I went back to Magheradroll a few weeks later I found it smashed into a hundred pieces. I rescued these and have had the stone put back together and it will soon be returned to the graveyard.”

Mr Ard explained the information on the headstone allowed him to put in place another piece of the jigsaw of his family history.

“But how was this John Ard related to the John Ard who left Ballynahinch for New York about 1853 and who wrote to his brother Roger at Magheradroll telling of his decision to leave the ‘crime-riddled city’ for the south shore of Lake Erie where he cleared the land for farming,” he continued.

Mr Ard said the letter read: “I have four acres without a stump of tree; I can keep a cow summer and winter and grow all the wheat, corn and potatoes we need…I pay neither rent, cess nor tithe nor tax of any kind, only half a dollar a year for a dog.”

Mr Ard said he hopes recent publicity surrounding the restoration of the Ballynahinch graveyard will encourage people to visit the Crabtree Road site to see the work for themselves, suggesting they may well make discoveries that will set them off on a similar ancestral journey.

The Sunday Sequence interview recorded at the old Magheradroll church and graveyard can be heard again on the BBC iPlayer at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04vvsnj while anyone who would like to get involved in the restoration project is asked to contact Mr Ard, telephone (028) 4375 0902.