Tell the tale of the park

Tell the tale of the park

9 October 2013

CASTLEWELLAN has received a financial boost of almost £51,000 to help the local community explore the town’s rich heritage and its sprawling forest park.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has made the money available to Down Council and the Castlewellan Futures organisation.

The project will be led by volunteers from the Castlewellan Futures’ Heritage and Forest Group and will enable young people from six local primary schools to research a key element of the town’s heritage and forest park before sharing their stories together.

Schools which have been invited to take part in the new initiative include

St. Mary’s PS, Aughlisnafin; Annsborough Integrated, St. Malachy’s PS,

Bunscoil Bheanna Boirche, Castlewellan Primary and St. Patrick’s PS, Burrenreagh.

A local youth group will develop and perform a play about the hiring fairs traditionally held in Castlewellan in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Also as part of the new initiative, the community will be invited to share stories and add to the research which will culminate in a small exhibition and the production of a heritage trail and map. There will also be a series of 10 interpretative panels taking visitors on a journey from the town through to the forest park.

It’s also hoped the completed project will culminate in a community festival event with the hiring fair play performed to visitors in the summer.

Those involved in the new initiative say few visitors to Castlewellan and the adjacent Forest Park are aware of how their stories are intertwined over some 270 years. The links go back to 1741 when the Annesley family bought the land from the Magennis family and went on to develop the town, parkland and the arboretum.

Evidence of Castlewellan’s rebuilding— which commenced around the 1750s — remains today, including the old Market House dating from 1764 and the upper and lower squares.

The market town flourished with 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. The Annesley’s built the Castle in 1856 as their main residence and developed the walled garden and the now nationally important Arboretum.

Mr. Paul Mullan, head of Heritage Lottery Fund NI, said it’s delighted to be supporting a local heritage project which will see the Castlewellan community actively researching and sharing its heritage.

“Anyone who has ever visited Castlewellan can be in no doubt about the wealth of heritage within the area from the striking buildings, layout of the town through to the magnificent country park and arboretum. There will be no shortage of topics to explore during this project.”

Down Council chairwoman, Maria McCarthy, said the local authority is delighted the Heritage Lottery Fund has chosen to support the opportunity for the Castlewellan community to explore its heritage, particularly, the legacy left by the Annesley family and the Forest Park.

She added: “Understanding their linked heritage will provide wonderful authentic stories to attract and inform visitors for the economic development and sustainability of the area and for the greater enjoyment of the community and visitors alike.”