Moira today still has many buildings that give us a flavour
of our village nearly 300 years ago.
The earliest Moira building that still exists is Berwick Hall,
the two storey “Planters” thatched house on the
Hillsborough Road. This dates back to about 1700.
Magherahinch
House behind the Police Station was owned by the Marquis of
Downshire as a country residence.
The parish and village owe their existence to the investment
policy of 1730s and 40s. The Rawdon family were largely responsible
for building the houses within the village and for the village’s
development.
Stone
houses replaced mud and thatch. The Chinese Restaurant, Midnight
Haunt, opposite the Market House (Pentecostal Church) bears
the date 1735. It is the kind of inscription that usually
indicates the date a village was completed.
The Market House we know today was a later addition to the
village and was built by the Bateson family around 1810. The
Bateson coat-of-arms is set into each tympanum.
The
Market House contained a large assembly room and a court room.
A manor-court was held, every three weeks, for the recovery
of debts under £5, by civil bill and attachment; petty
sessions are also held here on alternate Mondays, and it is
a constabulary police station. (Samuel Lewis'
Topographical Dictionary of Ireland – pub. 1837 ~http://www.lecalehistory.co.uk/)
It was still in use by the Courts until the early part
of 20th century. It is now the Pentecostal church.
Just
outside Moira was the Friends Agricultural School opened at
Brookfield in 1836. The School was primarily a Quaker School
for “disowned” children – for those not
in membership of the Society.
The
boys were expected to work part-time on the farm (up to 22
hours per week at one point), helping with the crops, looking
after the animals, providing vegetables for the school and
for sale. The aim was give the boys practical training in
agriculture and farm management. Girls were not expected to
work on the land but they did the milking, they helped in
the kitchen, cleaned, churned butter and did dressmaking.
The
Parish of Moira was founded in 1721. A portion of ground opposite
Moira Castle was given by the Hill family from Hillsborough
for the building of the Church in 1723. The Rawdon Family
contributed much of the expense in the building of the Church,
although Sir John Rawdon himself died the same year the Church
was built and before it was consecrated in 1725.
The Church building had a slate steeple but it was blown down
in a freak storm in 1884 and was replaced by the present copper
spire at a cost of £370.
There is supposed to have been a tunnel from Moira Castle
leading to the Church which was used by the Rawdon family
and their servants as their means of entry to the Church.
When sewers and electric cables were laid the tunnel fell
into disuse and ceased to exist.
Before
the Church was built, the congregation had worshipped in the
“Charity school,” almost certainly on the site
of the Old School we know today.
Many
of the buildings on the street retain the character of the
original buildings.
To
see the changes in the village over the years, click
here.
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