Lecale Heritage Hub

15/10/2026

If your family held land in Ireland in the 1600s, there is a chance its name sits on a map made between 1656 and 1658. 🗺️ That was the Down Survey, carried out under the direction of Sir William Petty, and Trinity College Dublin's project describes it as "the first ever detailed land survey on a national scale anywhere in the world."

Its purpose was hard: to measure the land being forfeited by the Catholic Irish so it could be handed to Merchant Adventurers and English soldiers. The name comes from the way the work was done, with a chain "laid down and a scale made" across field after field. 📏

Today the surviving maps and records have been brought back together online at downsurvey.ie. You can browse county, barony, parish and townland, and search landowners by name as they stood in 1641 and in 1670. For a family historian, that can mean seeing who held your ancestors' townland before and after one of the biggest changes in Irish landholding. 🔎

Have you ever looked up your family's townland in an old map or survey, and what did you find there?

10/10/2026

'Old McCartan', Strangford...

It's World Post Day! Today, we celebrate the significant role of postal services around the world, while also marking the anniversary of the establishment of the Universal Postal Union in 1874!✉️

This photograph comes from the Chichester Family Papers at PRONI and features a postman known as “Old Macartan.” The image was taken by Eva Chichester in Strangford, c.1910.

Old Macartan displays some identifiable features of a postman from the era, including a mail sack for carrying letters and a postal horn, which would have been used to announce the arrival of the post. 📯

Do you think we should bring back postal horns to let us know when our mail is arriving? 🤔📬

PRONI Ref: D4563/1/7/11

08/10/2026

👏👍

Newcastle's 'Bendy Tree' has been crowned UK Tree of the Year 2026 - it took more than 30% of the national public vote: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c69wzr9qr7qro

06/10/2026

The recently formed Loughinisland Heritage Group would like to extend their invitation to you, to attend their National Lottery Heritage Fund launch event...

You’re invited! This is your official invitation to our Friends of Loughinisland Heritage group launch! Will we see you there?

05/10/2026

Thanks to the Mourne Observer / Down Recorder for their writeup on our latest publication.

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Newly-published essays capture life in Downpatrick over 100 years ago.
https://thedownrecorder.co.uk/2026/10/04/newly-published-essays-capture-life-in-downpatrick-over-100-years-ago/

05/10/2026

The old 'Tech' building on Market Street, 1990s - what are your memories?

• Downpatrick Technical College
• East Down Institute of Further & Higher Education
• South Eastern Regional College (SERC)

03/10/2026

03/10/2026

DID YOU KNOW...
Michael Hordern's ancestors, the Sharrock's and Fisher's were from Downpatrick. His great great grandmother was Lady Margaret Murray (nee Sharrock), buried in Down Parish Church.

Remembering the late Actor, Michael Hordern (3 October 1911 – 2 May 1995)

29/09/2026

A 1950s aerial photo of Market Street and Saul Street (Downpatrick). This is before the new opening of Saul Street onto Scotch Street and the rebuilding of the old Methodist Church at its junction.

24/09/2026

Aynsworth Pilson steps back into the light.

Following the success of J.T. Cleland’s Annals of Downpatrick earlier this year, the Lecale Heritage Hub has early released Aynsworth Pilson’s Recollections of the Eighteenth Century, a beautifully edited hardback volume that brings Downpatrick’s past to life in all its colour, character, and curiosity.

Written between 1854 and 1862 for the Downpatrick Recorder, Pilson’s essays capture everyday life in late 18th and early 19th century Downpatrick – its people, its trades, its fashions, its festivals, and all the small details that rarely survive in local records. Pilson (1777–1863) was a diarist, businessman, and natural storyteller, and his papers remain one of the richest sources for social life in County Down.

This new publication, edited and annotated by Philip S. Blair, keeps Pilson’s voice exactly as he wrote it: candid, lively, and full of period charm. Blair’s introduction places Pilson firmly within the civic life of the town, and the appendices add even more depth for readers and researchers.

Who will enjoy this book?
Local historians and heritage enthusiasts • Genealogists tracing Downpatrick families • Students of Irish social history • Readers who love vivid historical memoir • Anyone from Lecale or County Down who recognises the names, places, and traditions woven through Pilson’s stories • Libraries, museums, and heritage centres building Ulster collections

Publication details:
Title: Aynsworth Pilson’s Recollections of the Eighteenth Century
Editor: Philip S. Blair
Publisher: Lecale Heritage Hub / Ganimor Press
ISBN: 9798 1877 7057 1
Format: Hardback (Amazon Direct Publishing)
Available from: Amazon

A voice from Downpatrick’s past — restored, preserved, and ready for today’s readers.

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