The Great Northern

Northern Ireland's railway network may not have had the dubious benefits of Richard Beeching's recommendations, but in common with Britain, Northern Ireland's network, (a rather grand term in the circumstances), has been severely pruned.

In the heyday of railways Londonderry had four lines running into the City. Of these all but what was the LMS line (London Midland & Scottish), have disappeared. Services on that line commenced as long ago as 1852.

I am not old enough to have seen all four lines in operation, but I do have quite vivid memories of the Great Northern Railway line at the City end of the Craigavon Bridge with its bustling Station. The Great Northern Railway Company Ireland was formed in 1876 with the merger of the Irish North Western Railway ; the Northern Railway of Ireland and the Ulster Railway. The Foyle Road station closed its doors in 1965. It did not therefore have to suffer the ignominy of welcoming diesel and electric trains.

In common with most if not all the myriad of railways which were established during the nineteenth century the, "GNR," raised funds by the issue of shares or stock. The photograph at the head of this post is of a certificate issued in 1899 in respect of a holding of its four percent preference stock.

Orchard and Nuttery

I have decided to establish a small orchard and nuttery. The ground which I have determined upon for this venture is adjacent to the vegetable patch and forms portion of what was once a ménage, so unfortunately there isn't much depth of soil.

For the last seventeen years or so it has been little more than a piece of waste ground. Bonfires have been assembled and burnt on it and piles of stones and heaps of sand and gravel have been dumped there. Of more relevance to the task ahead is that some birch, ash and willow trees have established themselves as have several patches of brambles. A veritable little covert.

The task that now awaits is to tame this wilderness area. I think that I will probably have enough room for about sixteen or eighteen trees.

Being realistic about the amount of work involved and taking account of the other gardening tasks that will need my attention, I think that it might be sensible to aim for getting a third or at best half of the ground under cultivation this year with the balance then pencilled in for the following year. Anyhows as the notion was upon me I made a start on the clearance yesterday. I managed to dig out four rogue saplings, a birch and three ash. No signs of ash die back yet.

To be continued.

Starbucks Proposal for Montmartre

It is reported that Starbucks are intending to extend their French operation by opening an outlet at Place du Tertre. I wonder if they are hoping that this will earn some of the money they are now going to pay the British Exchequer on a voluntary basis?

It does seem sad that this American giant should be opening in a Parisian quarter which caters so well for the tourist as well as its locals. Will the Starbuck's experience benefit the ambiance of the area? I do not think so. It will be extremely incongruous to see the Starbucks signage behind the street artists in this cobbled square. I cannot imagine that the local shopkeepers will favour this proposed infiltration of their territory.

I do not like clone towns within a country and equally I do not want clone cities spread across Europe at the instigation of pan national corporations. Maybe it is time for national identity to be fostered and for protectionism to come to the fore. Vive la difference! Say ,"Non," to Starbucks?

Belfast & County Down Railway Company

The Belfast & County Down Railway Company was incorporated on 26th June 1846 and continued in operation until it was subsumed into the Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) in September 1948. At its peak it controlled eighty miles of line. The first section of line that was constructed was between Belfast and Holywood and it saw its first passengers on 2nd August 1848. Ultimately this line extended to Bangor. The railway's main line ran from Belfast to Newcastle. There were also branch lines to Ardglass, Ballynahinch and Ardglass. At one stage the Company operated a paddle steamer as well as buses.

The Belfast Holywood & Bangor Railway Company (BHB) was established in 1865. The Belfast & County Down Railway Company was experiencing financial pressures and as a consequence sold the Belfast - Holywood line to the BHB. However it was not long before the BHB also started to experience financial problems and in 1884 as a consequence of an Act of Parliament all the assets of the BHB were transferred to the Belfast & County Down Railway Company. The Debenture stock reflected in the certificate pictured here was issued consequent upon the 1884 Act. The Stock was charged upon the assets of the then defunct BHB.

An Edwardian Headmaster - Notes on Robert Foster Dill BA (Oxon)

Robert Foster Dill was appointed headmaster of Foyle College in 1911 in succession to John C. Dick. This was not however his first head-mastership. He had been the headmaster of Royal School Dungannon from 1892. The fortunes of the latter school appear to have been languishing somewhat at that stage. Indeed there are reports suggesting that, "Dungannon," was closed for a short period. There were thirty eight day boys at the time of Dill's appointment to the Dungannon headship.

With his move to Londonderry Dill was moving closer to the area where his forebears had settled at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Fannet Peninsula in Co. Donegal. The family is of Dutch descent.

Robert Foster Dill was not the first of his family to be involved in education. An elder brother, Sir Samuel Marcus Dill, had been appointed High Master of Manchester Grammar School in 1877 and their father Rev. Samuel Marcus Dill was the first President of Magee College in Londonderry. The latter gentleman's surname is remembered in "Dill Park," Londonderry. Teaching and the Presbyterian Church seem to have been the professions of choice for this family.

Dill's years at Foyle were years of international and national strife which impacted on the life of the school and City. The Great War would bring back reports of Old Boys having died at the Front and the years that followed were marred by one of those periods in the history of the island of Ireland when commentators refer to, "the Troubles', and which would lead to Partition.

Born in 1859, it was only in 1912, (9th July), that Dill married. His wife was Evelyn Mary Whitehead, daughter of a George Whitehead. They did not have any children.

He is described as being a proponent of a liberal or rounded education and is reported as realising that, "an unexercised and undeveloped body meant an intellect less keen than might be, a character stunted, and a personality impoverished."

Some years after his retirement, in 1945, Dill was elected President of Foyle College Old Boys Association. He was to pass away on 12th February 1947.

Sources: The Peerage; Our School Times

A Classic Reading Group

I paddled off to my local book club this afternoon. This month's read was Thackery's, "Vanity Fair." Everyone seemed to have enjoyed this book of manners in Regency Britain.

There was much discussion as to the relative merits of the two principal female characters, Rebecca Sharp and Amelia Sedley. The gentlemen of the group were of the view that Rebecca was the girl to go out with for the night, but that Amelia was good wife material to have waiting at home. The females of the group purported to be aghast at this view (one could almost see the fluttering fans!), but the red blooded males were adamant in their views. Rebecca was vivacious, albeit a scheming hussy, and Amelia was rather insipid.

The notes to classic novels can often provide interesting historical snippets. One of our number adverted to the reference to the Red (Blood) Hand of Ulster. Apparently every Baronet is entited to have the "Red Hand" in their coat of arms in reflection of the reason for the creation of the baronetage, namely the provision of soldiers to fight in Ulster.

Vanity Fair was a long read but we now have to read the 1082 pages of, The Count of Monte Cristo, by 5th February. I suspect that this will not be as easy a read.

Evening Run.

My usual compadres did not turn up for training tonight. I gave them ten or so minutes in case they were delayed by traffic, but to no avail. It was getting cooler and the temptation was to just drive home, but the guilt of not training was something that could not be ignored.

I drove to a better lit venue which tends to be frequented by some club members, hoping that I would come upon someone to train with. There was no one present when I arrived so I decided to just do an hour of steady running by myself.

Some twenty five minutes into my run I was passing my car when I espied that a fellow club member and near contemporary had arrived. He also was missing his usual training partners. After another twenty minutes running to allow him to warm up we started into a session of four hundred metre efforts, (8 x 400m with 60s between efforts). As a cross country and road runner he regarded this as a speed session.

I can't say that there was no training affect from the session ,but I certainly found it comfortable, running alongside my doctor friend. We averaged 76s. He had the grace to remark afterwards that he had noticed that I was not breathing heavily during the runs whereas he was blowing quite a bit. A matter of horses for courses really. A six mile cross country race would see me struggling in his wake.

We concluded our training with a twenty minute warm down.