Author: maghera

Harry Armstrong

Post author By maghera
Post date 15 July 2017

Biography:

Harry Armstrong (1950s)

My name is Harry Armstrong. I farm Parkhill Farm outside Maghera which has been in the family since 1867. My brothers and myself followed in the farming tradition – my two older brothers and myself all worked on the farm. I started working full-time when I left school at eighteen in the late ’50s. I never thought of doing anything else. Farming was in the blood. I took over running the farm in 1960.

I was never paid a wage for working on the farm with my father. What he did was to make me and my brother partners in the business when I was very young, so we had our own share of the farm. One of my brothers farmed on his own so I was equal partners with my other brother and my father until that brother started to farm on his own too.

Over the years I have been very interested in collecting artefacts connected with farming and have enjoyed restoring them to their former condition.

Description of Parkhill Farm:

Parkhill farm is half-way between Maghera and Kilrea, five miles from each. It is a farm of fifty-two acres with the Clady river running round part of it.

It was always a mixed farm. We grew hay, oats, potatoes and flax. In my father’s time that would have been ten acres of hay, twelve acres oats, five acres of potatoes and three acres of flax. We had lint dams in one field. When I took over the farm, I never grew any lint. The varieties of potatoes we planted were Arran victory, Arran Consul and Dunbar standard. In later years, I would have grown up to ten acres of potatoes. We didn’t grow barley back then in the ‘40s and ‘50s, just corn or oats.

In the ‘40s my father would have had about eight cows, twenty-five cattle, two horses, forty pigs and maybe eighty hens. The cows were Shorthorns and Aberdeen Angus and the pigs were large whites. Later on, I went into Landrace. The hens we kept were White Leghorns and Rhode Island Reds.

The biggest change in farming from my father’s time to mine was the use of the tractor. He always had horses on the farm and kept two Clydesdales to do the work.

The only thing I would have changed looking back on the farming is that I might have gone into producing milk rather than mixed farming.

Looking to the future, I think farms will become a lot bigger and mixed farming will die out. Farming is not an easy life. There are plenty of long hours and a lot of ups and downs but it is a very rewarding way of life.

Original Farmhouse and Outbuildings

Tags Harry Armstrong, Maghera Roots, Parkhill Farm

Charlie Convery

Post author By maghera
Post date 15 July 2017

Biography:

Charlie Convery with his Massey Ferguson 135

I was born in the early 1940s and grew up helping on the farm. I was always interested in farming, even from an early age, and was glad to spend my life working in it. There were six children in the family and my twin brother and myself were the youngest. Because there are so many Converys we all have nicknames – I’m known as Charlie the Hollow, even though I live on a hill. There is another family not far from here and they were known as Convery’s of the Hill though their ground was lower than ours.

Description of farm at 11 Fallalea Road:

The farm I was brought up on was about twenty acres. Now we farm about 100 acres. The farm is classed as LFA (Less FavouredArea). That means it is more hill than lowland. We are just sheep
and cattle now. We grow grass and make silage but very seldom have time to grow crops. There were lint dams in one of the fields but they have all been filled up. There was also a lime
kiln, and going back years they would have burnt lime there to spread on the fields.

The Farm as it looks today

My father and grandfather grew potatoes and oats, or corn as it was called, and grasseed. The grasseed would have been grown every year, it was a first hay crop that was threshed and the seed taken off it. We used to grow a little lint, not much, it was just dying out at the time and that would have been the middle ‘50s I think. We would keep the corn for feeding the cows and the chickens. The potatoes we didn’t use would be sold to merchants in Maghera, J C McKinney, Bob Armour &
Harry Canning. We had cows, calves, pigs and chickens. We had our own sows and a boar. They were kept, fed and fattened until they were ready for slaughter. When the pigs were killed they went to McKinney’s or Noone’s in Maghera. The cows were milked, and the milk used for feeding the calves and for churning to make the butter. The cows were mostly Shorthorn going back to that time in the early ‘50s and then later we had Aberdeen Angus. We kept them until they were about a year or older and then we sold them as ‘stores’ at the local market. I remember putting one or two on the train one time and they would have gone to the grader in Coleraine.

General pupose building built by Charlie’s father in the 1930s featuring an early use of home-made concrete blocks

The chickens were free range and then there was the deep litter, where they were kept in over the winter months. We sold the eggs to Hassans of the Glen who had a shop where they sold some of the eggs to customers and the rest would have gone to a processing factory in Derry. We cut turf every year over in Ballyknock Mountain just up the Glenshane pass. The middle of May we would have started to cut the turf. A few weeks afterwards, there was the spreading, turning and the futting. It was hard work and sore on the back getting them dry enough to bring home for the fire.

Field Names

Field layout and Farmyard in the 1940s/’50s

Tags Charlie Convery, Fallalea, Maghera Roots

Maghera Roots

Elizabeth Shiels

Post author By maghera
Post date 15 July 2017

Biography

I was born on the 25th March 1925. The first six years of my life I had with my father and mother but sadly my mother died at the young age of thirty-six. My Aunt Maggie and Uncle Bob McKeown volunteered to take myself and my sister Molly – we remained in McKeowns for five years, returning home when our father remarried.

I went to the Tech at thirteen years of age. When I came out of the Tech Davy Hyndman gave me a job. Three years later my father took me home to help as he had had commenced supplying milk to Maghera and district and I was needed to help.

I was involved in the formation of the Curragh Young farmers’ Club in 1943 and so was my husband Roy Shiels. This brought us together and I was very happy to marry Roy on the 20th November 1947 and move to the Crew. It is seventy years since Roy and I were married. Even today, twenty-five years after his death, I have a big gap in my life such was the beauty of his character. Our family consisted of eight boys and one girl, Amy. Many a soda scone I baked, especially when ‘half the town’ arrived in the yard to play football.

I was always interested in singing. My last venture was when I belonged to the Sperrin choir in Magherafelt and we were part of the ‘1000 Voices’ which included singers from all over the world singing at Landsdowne Road. The memory climbing up to the very top of those concrete seats was unforgettable.

Description of Crewe House Farm:

Crewe House in earlier years

When I came first to the Crew in the late 1940s this was a mixed farm of fifty-five acres. The soil was heavy clay and moss and a stream of about half a mile, the Crew Burn, ran through it which watered and drained the surrounding land. The crops we grew were oats, flax, potatoes and grassland – four to five acres of potatoes, the same of oats, three acres of flax and the remainder was for cutting and grazing. We kept 12 cows, (which we both milked by hand), about 20 pigs, maybe 10 sheep and up to 300 hens. The cows were shorthorns and in later years British Friesian. The pigs were Large White York at first then later Landrace. In later years Roy had pedigree cattle and pigs and he would have shown his stock at Balmoral Show, where he gained some placings. The cattle were registered as ‘CREWMA’ and the pigs as ‘MACREW’. An interesting feature on the farm was a set of grain-cleaning fans, horse-driven from a horse walk behind the barn loft. In the fifties we acquired a double-acting ram powered by the stream which pumped spring water to a 700 gallon tank on an elevated position on the farm.

Crewe House farm in the 1860s

Roy’s mother had a poultry supply farm known as a ‘Station’ concentrating on the Light Sussex breed of fowl. The station was accredited by the Department of Agriculture but that finished beforemy arrival. Roy and I kept various breeds such as, Rhode Island Reds, Wyandottes, White and Brown Leghorn and Crosses. We also had a few Light Sussex. In my first years the hens were kept in wooden houses (10’ X 6’) in the field, we had no deep litter. It was a long time later before we had the deep litter. Then, in the ‘60s, we went to battery cages and later again we reared pullets to sixteen weeks and then sold them on to people who were going to use them commercially to produce eggs. While the younger chicks were under brooders,

Crewe House Farm in the 1960s

I remember on alternate days carrying nineteen half-cwt. bags of meal and distributing it to the growers. The growers were those aged from approximately eight weeks. At sixteen weeks, the point of lay pullets were sold to customers for commercial egg production.

Tags Crewe House, Elizabeth Shiels, Maghera Roots, Roy W. Shiels

Maghera Roots

James Armour

Post author By maghera
Post date 15 July 2017

Biography

James Armour

Born in the late 40s into a family of five boys to my father Samuel and mother Margaret Armour (nee Clarke). Samuel and Margaret were married in in 1939. Clarke was the eldest, Uel next then myself followed by Maurice and Freddie.

During my earlier years when I attended the Beagh school when on coming home after having done my homework I would have been asked to do small tasks around the farm, maybe bringing in the cows for milking or collecting eggs from the deep litter house.

While walking home from school I would often stop and watch our neighbour Tommy Gordon school his horses over jumps. Later on on the same farm I would often visit Jakie Sufferin and watch him work on repairing machinery, sometimes I would be asked to help.

Traditional stone barn at the Beagh

In 1959 my father bought another farm in Murmeal near Tobermore and we all moved there to live, that also meant a change of school to Kilcronaghan Primary whose head teacher was Mrs Evans, her teaching techniques were much softer and kinder and a little different from that of the Beagh school. In the mid 60s I moved to live with my Uncle and Aunt in Garvagh and from there I attended secondary school in Coleraine after which I was commissioned by the Ministry of Defence to train in aeronautical engineering and later become a member of the Royal Air Force where I remained until my tour of duty ended and I settled in Scotland.

Description of the Beagh Farm:

The Beagh Farm, is situated two miles outside Maghera on the Maghera, Gulladuff Road. Our farm was approximately 25 acres in size with an additional 20 acres taken as con-acre each year to increase the cereal and potato crops. The land was of light soil with the exception of about five acres of meadow and boggy land. We were a mixed farm. Crops grown were corn, potatoes, turnips, carrots, cabbage (kale) and grasseed. Lint was grown in the 1940s and ‘50s, but discontinued in the late ‘50s because it was so labour- intensive. We would normally have had twelve acres of corn, ten acres of potatoes, two acres of turnips, two acres of cabbage with the rest of the farm in grazing. My father kept a variety of livestock. He always maintained that if you kept a little bit of everything and not too much of anything you would always have something to sell. He had milking cows, calves, cattle, pigs, breeding sows, hens, turkeys and sometimes he would breed partridge. He usually kept four milking cows and about ten sucklers for producing the cattle for market. The number of pigs varied, but normally there would be about two-hundred in total. We always had had about 200
to 300 laying hens which were my mother’s responsibility.

My life as a child growing up on the farm was a healthy and happy one. As I look back, I would love to be able re-visit those days I remember so well – when everyone was there to help each other and when a bond of friendship was developed for life.

View of the Back Field

Old Gates to the Beagh Farm

Tags Beagh Farm, James Armour, Maghera Roots

Maghera Roots

Raymond McNamee:

Post author By maghera
Post date 15 July 2017

Biography

Raymond with his Humber 12

I am Raymond McNamee and I was born on the 23rd of January 1946, the eldest of four children, two boys and two girls. My father’s name was Joe and my mother’s name was Mary Annie (Lagan). I grew up on the family farm outside Maghera. The farm has been in the McNamee name for five generations, I inherited it after my father’s death in 1980. My son who is in the homestead would be the sixth generation of the family living on the farm.

After finishing primary school I went to Magherafelt Technical College, (The Tech). Then after my education, the opportunity arose to join the Ministry of Agriculture. When I first joined the Ministry on 17th August 1964 I was sent to Riversdale a small village about six miles from Enniskillen but I continued to help out on the farm at weekends and during the holidays. I always loved working with my hands and even to the present day I get a lot of pleasure from restoring old machines that would have been used on the farm in the ‘50’s and ‘60s. My pride and joy is the first tractor that came to the farm, the T20. I married my wife, Bernadette in 1972 and we have three children and eight grandchildren

Description of Farm

Aerial view of the farm as it is today

Our farm is situated in Tamneymullan just outside Maghera, the back wall of the house is the boundary between Tamneymullan and Moneymore. It was a mixed farm as most farms were in those days. Originally, the farm was approximately 20 acres but there would have been a lot taken in con-acre. In the ‘50s and ‘60s there was about 30 acres taken in con-acre.

In the past there were two lint dams in one of the fields, and a mill. Where exactly the mill was I don’t know, but I was told that there had been a mill in what we called the Mill Field and it got burned. The only remaining thing we have left is a heavy rectangular stone that was used in the mill. There is a small stream running through the farm between two of the fields and that stream was always referred to as the mill race.

We were fortunate to have a very good type of land, mostly a light clay suitable for all types of crops. The only field there was a bit of moss in was actually the field that belongs to St Pat’s College and is now used as a playing field.

Our land was all arable. Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, our main crops were potatoes, corn, grasseed and lint (flax). My father also kept livestock – cattle and pigs – we never kept sheep. The cattle were all bred and reared on the farm. My father always kept pure bred dairy shorthorn. We took a bull to Balmoral show one time it was called ‘Tamneymullan Monarch’ and it got a second place in the Dairy Shorthorn Class.

Stone from old mill

My father picked the best heifers from the herd and kept them for milking cows, the rest went for beef. Most of our cattle were sold as ‘stores’ in Maghera by Roy Crawford who was an Auctioneer and had a place in beside where Gormley’s pub is now. The dairy shorthorns were good milkers, we sent the milk to the creamery in Moneymore.

There was always a cow tail pump in the yard and it’s still there today. In 1931 my uncle sent money home from America for the erection of the pump which was bought from Henry Hugh McErlean, Magherafelt.

Tags Maghera Roots, Raymond McNamee, Tamneymullan, Waterside House

Maghera Roots

Oral History Workshop

Post author By maghera
Post date 12 June 2017

On Saturday 29^th October, Dr Anna Bryson, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast (and the 2016 winner of the Vice-chancellor’s Research Impact Prize), held a day-long oral history workshop in the Heritage & Cultural Centre.

Dr Bryson, who is originally from Maghera, is acting as mentor for our Oral history project ‘Maghera Roots’. We are particularly fortunate to have her support and advice as she has considerable experience of conducting interviews for social and historical investigation and has advised both statutory and private organisations on the design and implementation of complex interview based projects.

Among a wide range of publications, Dr Bryson co-authored, with Professor Seán McConville, The Routledge Guide to Interviewing: Oral History, social enquiry and investigation – a clear and practical guide for interviewers. She is also one of two Regional Networkers for Northern Ireland on behalf of the Oral History Society.

The workshop in the Heritage & Cultural Centre gave a comprehensive and thorough overview of the methodology and approaches involved in the collection and management of oral history. Anna discussed the structuring of a project – from scoping out the initial concept, aims and objectives, to selecting interviewees, addressing relevant legal, ethical and copyright issues, conducting an interview (including the use of equipment) and finally, the transcription, storage and archiving of the material gathered. As well as practical considerations she introduced some of the more challenging issues concerning privacy, respect, boundaries, tact and discretion – and explored potential strategies to mitigate against disaster striking!

The workshop was well attended with ten people taking part. All were agreed that, in a relatively short space of time, the guidelines for working in the field of oral history were very clearly, simply and succinctly explained. Perhaps most importantly Anna really inspired the participants with her own enthusiasm. Drawing on her own research experience she illustrated the powerful way in which the voice of ordinary people can bring history to life and produce a more rounded and inclusive account of the past.

We came away with a renewed sense of both the immediate value of the work we are carrying out and also a belief that what we are creating is, as Dr Bryson suggested, ‘a gift to the future.’

Tags Dr. Anna Bryson, James Armour, Maghera farming project, Oral history, Pat and Annette Rafferty

Maghera Roots

Gatherin’ Spuds: Kenneth Murray

Post author By maghera
Post date 23 May 2017

My family moved to Maghera in August 1958, when we were allocated a bungalow in Crawfordsburn Drive. My grandparents were already resident in Crawfordsburn at the time and my association with the town of Maghera and Crawfordsburn began perhaps before I was a year old. By the time we moved ourselves, I was six years old, the youngest in the family.

In those days we were given time off school in October, known as ‘the potato gathering holiday,’ (Nowadays it is known as the mid-term break.). This provided an opportunity for us children to participate in the potato harvest – that is, those of us who were willing to take up the challenge and earn some extra pocket money in the process. It was not to the liking of everyone, and I cannot recall ever having gathered potatoes with my great friend John Kennedy, for instance.

On my first day in the field I was gathering for a fair-minded man called Willie Paul. The work was steady throughout the day, and with the approach of evening, Willie duly decided it was quitting time. I received from him the much-loved, and later greatly missed, little ten-bob-note. To put this into perspective, my pocket money at the time would have been one shilling, while a quality bar of chocolate would have cost sixpence. This was the first time in my life that I had earned any money and I arrived back in Maghera, after walking home with my friends, a proud boy. I decided to buy a present for my mother and purchased a small bottle of perfume for 1/6 in Bobby Martin’s Chemist shop, which left me with 8/6 – a small fortune to me.

Conditions varied greatly from farm to farm. I can recall gathering at a farm on the verge of the town on the station road with my good friend Mervyn Cochrane and other children. This was one of the hardest day’s work we ever did. I can remember gathering to meet Mervyn and the large amount of potatoes lying between us. We had to go to the house to be paid, with the two of us receiving ten shillings but with some of the younger children receiving considerably less than this, perhaps as little as five shillings. This caused a bit of a stir when some of the youngsters arrived home, with one or two of the mothers considering going to the house to protest but then, I think, they decided to grudgingly accept it.

I began to take a keen interest in angling while still a small boy, fishing in and around the town with the wee Mullagh River, between the Milltown Road and the Tobermore Road, being a favourite location. On one occasion, I can remember we were gathering in a large field immediately beside the Moyola River, in the townland of Ballinhone, where the work was steady and there was not much scope to take in our surroundings. Despite the heavy work, I took every chance I could to head over the bank where I could study the river, wondering what it would be like to try my luck there. I had to go carefully and keep a watch out so as not to be guldered at or to be seen as losing interest in what I was there to do.

I was keen to gather potatoes during these years, even doing so after school, walking down the Mullagh Road with my good friend William Anderson to work on Marshal’s farm. It would have been common at that time for the farmers to have cruised about Crawfordsburn on a Friday night booking gatherers for the next day. If we were heading out into the country to a farm, getting to and from the field was, on occasion, verging on the comical. I was often amazed at how many gatherers could be transported safely in the back of a mini-van.

We gathered the potatoes into a large wooden creel, which two of us could lift, moving it forward of the potatoes yet to be gathered. It was wise to take time to scrape the muck off it as we worked, keeping it as light as possible. If the potatoes were being transferred from the creel to the bag that would have been the wrong time to share a joke, as this could have meant the potatoes toppling down the side of the bag instead of into it!

The small grey Massey Ferguson tractor was popular amongst the farming community in Maghera at that time – even for taking the wife into town to do a bit of shopping. This tractor, with a digger attached, dug the potatoes for us to gather. Once a drill had been dug, if the farmer was in no great hurry, Fergusson he waited until we had gathered it all before digging the next one. This allowed us to have a short break before resuming work. Alternatively, if the farmer was in a more determined mood, he would have been digging the next drill while we were still gathering the previous one, what we would have referred to as ‘digging two ways’. This, of course, meant no break for us between one drill and the next.

I previously mentioned about the difference in conditions from farm to farm – a difference I still remember to this day. One pleasant day still stands out in my mind, I was gathering for Linton in the townland of Grillagh, and we were gathering ‘blues’. The pace was leisurely and the countryside was peaceful. As we gathered the potatoes they were placed in a heap forming a neat line. They were then protected from the weather by soil and straw. This process was known as pitting. The ‘blue’ potato was well liked and more common at that time than it is today – rather like a plain white unsliced loaf with a hard top and no wrapping paper! It was good to eat and, not being too small, easier to gather. In the middle of the day the woman of the house brought the food to the field in a large basket. I can remember so well the delicious egg and onion sandwiches we had that day along with the good strong mug of tea. It was almost like having a picnic. I received twelve shillings and sixpence for that day’s work. For a young gatherer like myself this was as good as it got.

The face of the countryside has, of course, changed greatly since my childhood, in particular in relation to the development of land for housing and the use of pesticides in farming. There were four fields that lay between the Drive and a small wood where we would go to build a tree hut or even light a campfire to cook an al fresco meal. We played football in the first field beside the drive. Then, going through the hedge into the second field, I could run downhill with the dogs towards the stream that divided it from the next field on. The excitement would build as we went on further and approached the wood that was like our own private playground.

Memories linger of walking along the side of a field, past the slowly ripening barley gently ripening in the summer breeze, of sticklebacks in the tiny stream that was little more than a trickle, of the surprise of finding frogspawn in what was little more than a puddle and, overall, the evocative call of the hidden cuckoo.

I look back on my time in the fields and townlands of Maghera helping to bring in the harvest with great affection. So here’s to the dear little town. I hope it will prosper and I wish the society every success.

Tags Kenneth Murray, Maghera Roots, potatoes

Past Events

Press & Sponsors Night Maghera Agri-Show & Country Fayre

Post author By maghera
Post date 10 May 2017

MAGHERA AGRI-SHOW & COUNTRY FAYRE

Press, Sponsors & Supporters Evening

The officers and members of Maghera Agri-Show and Country Fayre are pleased to announce a major sponsor for their 2^nd annual show this year on 5^th August to be held in the Show Field on the Mullagh Road Maghera , by kind permission of the Presbyterian Church and William Paul. The change of venue has been prompted by the expansion of the show this year to include an additional 80 classes for Horses, Ponies and Sheep and also the interest shown by the Agri-Businesses from throughout the Province. The Home Produce, Arts & Crafts and Photography sections have been revamped to suit everyone who is interested in displaying their produce at the show.

Cunningham Covers Maghera and Naas Co Kildare, have very kindly offered to sponsor the prize fund in support of the Equestrian Section of the show. We are delighted to have Cunningham Covers on board this year and it is comforting for the organisers to know that Gordon and his team have the vision and understanding that an Agriculture Show and Country Fayre is necessary and essential for the town, not only for the Agriculture community but for all of the community locally and further afield. With sponsors’ support and voluntary helpers the show will remain in the town and on the events calendar for many years to come.

A highlight of the show this year is the Open Championship & Novice Working Hunter Horse Classes carrying a prize fund of £1000 and a perpetual Trophy to the overall champion Working Hunter. The introduction of the Sheep section at the request of a number of the local sheep breeders was added to the schedule this year. This section is very kindly sponsored by The Northern Co-op, Swatragh Livestock Mart. A range of weight classes for Mares, Foals and Riding Horses together with a number of Pony classes for the young riders is scheduled to take place. The Clydesdale Horse section featuring a Riding class is always a spectacular sight for the visitors. All Equestrian sections have with them very inviting prize money for the class winners. The vintage section again this year will be much bigger with a prize fund of £100 for the most original exhibit. A variety of trade stalls have already booked their places all of whom are making a return visit having enjoyed their time with us last year. We invite all types of businesses from the area and further afield to come along and use our show as a marketing platform for their product.

We thank all the volunteers who helped make the show a success last year. Please come along this year and be part of our team. We appreciated all the financial support from the sponsors in 2016 and trust that you will return this year. The show will be a fun day out for all the family with lots of entertainment and interests for the children and parents alike, so please come along and support us on the day and help us build on the success of the 2016 show. Further details are available by contacting the Secretary Carol Collier on 028 79549835 or 075 68548752 or James Armour (snr) 028 79549835, Mob 00353876954944. Schedules will be available to download from our website www.maghera-heritage.org and available on facebook page, maghera agri show2017. Or drop into the Heritage Centre at 17 Coleraine Road.

Tags Agri-Show, Country Fayre, Gordon Cunningham, Show

Past Events

MHS Perpetual Trophy Quiz

Post author By maghera
Post date 10 May 2017

The Maghera Historical Society Perpetual Trophy Quiz took place last Thursday 27th April, in Walsh’s Hotel. Joint winners on the night were tables 6 and 7. Sinead Kelly, Eugene Kelly, Brian Kielt, Peter Convery on table 6 and Emma Stewart, George Stewart, Noel Stewart and Matthew Stewart on table 7. Congratulations to the winners!!! James Armour stood in on the night for regular Quizmaster Peter Etherson and presented the trophy to Sinead Kelly and Emma Stewart representing their team.

Tags MHS Trophy