Aghadrumglasny in the 1830s

(extracted from the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of Antrim VII 1832-8).

Aghadrumglasny is a townland crossing the parishes of Aghagallon and Aghalee, in the barony of Upper Massereene, county of Antrim and province of Ulster. In Aghagallon it is 404 acres 1 rood 39 perches in area and contains 34 families, 93 males, 86 females, a total population of 179. In Aghalee it is 37 acres 2 roods and 37 perches with 8 families containing 12 males and 16 females, a total population of 28.

The lord of the manor is the Marquis of Hereford who resides permanently in England.

There are no villages in the townland. Small shops are located throughout the area selling tea, tobacco, sugar, candles, bread, flour, oatmeal, etc.

The nearest Established church is at Soldierstown, in the parish of Aghalee. Presbyterians and Methodists attend meeting houses in Moira and there is a Roman Catholic chapel in Aghagallon.

There is a permanent school, which has hitherto received a grant from the Kildare Street Society, the rate of tuition for which is from 2 to 3 shillings per quarter. There are 35 Protestants and 25 Catholics, 48 males and 12 females, a total of 60 pupils (1835). It falls under the National Board of Education.

About one-third of the families are employed in trade and manufacture which they combine with agriculture. Most trade is in the produce of the land which can be readily exported to Belfast by means of a canal connecting Lough Neagh in the east to the urban area. There are 209 weavers in the parish of Aghagallon and almost all of the women spin, the chief product being cambric. There are no mills because of an insufficient fall. There are osier beds which are used to make firkin hoops and baskets. Fishing is not practised as a trade; they merely satisfy their own wants.

Most of the land is bogland, interspersed with numerous small oval-shaped hills of gravel and sand. The houses are built on the hills which are cultivated while the bogs are used for fuel. Most of the holdings are from 10 to 13 acres.

Aghalee Church in the 1830s

Aghalee church, more commonly called Soldierstown church, is situated about 7 miles west of Lisburn, on a leading road from Lisburn town to Aghalee and Lough Neagh. It is an oblong edifice, one storey high and slated, with a handsome tower attached to the west end. It is locally said that the church was built about 1686.

The neighbourhood in which the church is situated, and from which it takes its local name of Soldierstown church, derived from a troop of horse and two companies of foot soldiers having been stationed for some time in a hamlet near the site of the church during the 1641 wars.

The graveyard is relatively large and enclosed by a stone and lime wall, and partly by a quickset fence, with an iron gate at the entrance from the road. It is sheltered by lofty forest trees.

Johnston is one of the surnames on the tombstones in the graveyard.