Grave Visitations

Over the past month I have accompanied my father to two church graveyards. On the first occasion he wanted to visit the grave of paternal great grandparents who had died in the middle of the nineteenth century. The headstone is made of Welsh slate and originally rested on four squat stone legs. The two at the front of the grave have been removed or disintegrated with the result that the stone now lies at a slight angle. The term for this style of headstone is I think, "table."

Neither great grandparent lived to a great age passing away when aged thirty seven years and forty two years respectively. Their daughter and only child Anne, (my father's grandmother) and who was born in 1842 was made a ward of court and was subsequently brought up by a distant relative who resided in the vicinity of Ballyshannon, Co Donegal. Family history would have it that her guardian somehow managed to get her funds mixed up with his funds but that any unpleasantness was resolved by a house being built for her and her husband.

Our second cemetery outing was to St Columb's Parish Church, Moville, (Moville Lower).This time my father wished to visit the grave of a youth by the name of Jack Bennett who had died on 1st August 1941 aged fifteen as the result of a swimming accident. His father William Bennett was the local chemist. My father had attended the funeral almost seventy six years ago. He and Jack were both pupils at Foyle, Jack a boarder and my father, two years his junior, a day boy.

A View the Foyle Commanding - Upper Moville Parish Church

I suppose the bean counters at Church House have to bow to financial pressures and demographics but it is still sad to see a church falling into decrepitude and being sold. Such is the fate of Upper Moville Parish Church at Tullynavin, Redcastle. The Church and grounds, but excluding the graveyard to the rear and the grave of Capt. The Hon Ernest Grey Lambton Cochrane which is situate to the front of the Church, was recently being advertised by a Donegal estate agent. The guide price was fifty thousand euro. This does seem quite cheap but I suppose there are several factors depressing the figure, the state of the Irish property market being the prime one. I wonder if a sale has been agreed as yet?

I knew that the church had not been used for some time but I hadn't realised that it is over twenty years since its doors closed. That does rather beg the question why the decision to sell was not taken during the boom days of the Irish economy.

The present church was consecrated in August 1853. It replaced a smaller building which had been constructed by the Cary family of Castle Cary in 1741 as a private chapel and which then became a chapel of ease before becoming the parish church with the division of the Moville Parish into, "Upper," and "Lower." The ruined walls of the original church are still to be seen in the graveyard and indeed there are several graves within the walls. Lewis in his, "Topographical Dictionary," of 1837 reports that the original church was too small and that there were plans for the construction of a new and larger building. Clearly these plans took a few years to come to fruition.

The present building is I think quite picturesque with its bellcote and well proportioned lancet windows and the septfoil window on the west wall. Hopefully the planners will ensure that any conversion is carried out in a sympathetic manner. It was suggested to me that it might be a good idea for the nearby Redcastle Hotel to buy the property and use it for civil ceremonies. This strikes me as an extremely good notion, but I suspect that the cost of renovation works would just not make it financially worthwhile.

New Park , Moville - The, "Monty," connection.



New Park 10th November 2012

I was in Moville today. It does have a pleasant location on the banks of Lough Foyle with views across the waters to Magilligan Point with its Martello Fort, sister to that at Greencastle. Clearly Samuel Montgomery must have approved of the location when in 1768 he purchased some eight hundred acres, (Cunningham measure) from Lord Donegall on a lease for three lives, renewable for ever and subsequently purchased a small estate of sixty acres where he built a residence for himself and his wife in or about 1776. This house was to be known as New Park and was to be home to the Montgomery family up until 1949 when the redoubtable Lady Maud Montgomery passed away. She became engaged to her husband Rev Henry Montgomery ( later Bishop Sir Henry Montgomery) when only fourteen years of age and married him before her seventeenth birthday. Her claim to fame does not of course emanate from any endeavours of her own. Instead her name appears in the footnote of history as the mother of her fourth child, Bernard Law Montgomery, aka , "Monty,"  - Viscount, Field Marshall Montgomery.

New Park 10th November 2012

New Park is still in existence, - just. It is derelict and sits amidst a partially developed housing estate. It would appear that it has become another casualty of the death of the Celtic tiger. I never thought it a particularly nice looking house but dereliction does not add to its allure. Hopefully it will ultimately be  renovated.

Although Monty's mother was the last Montgomery to reside in Moville the family continued to have an interest in the town through the collection of ground rents. Up until 1984 solicitors for the Montgomery family attended at the Foyle Hotel at Main Street, Moville once a year and received payment of these rentals. Even then this was a rather archaic process.

New Park - 10th November 2012