Nostalgia galore as Shrigley of yesteryear goes on display

Nostalgia galore as Shrigley of yesteryear goes on display

7 November 2012

BROADCASTER and international photographer Bobbie Hanvey has launched a new photo exhibition recalling the forgotten mill village of Shrigley.

Bobbie officially opened the exhibition at a special event attended by more than 100 people in the newly refurbished Killyleagh Library on Wednesday.

The exhibition is one of a series of projects aimed at recovering the lost history of the village which was once the site of one of the biggest linen mills in the world and the location of the world-famous leather tannery of the Utitz family.

The history project is being supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and will include a first written history of the village plus a photo competition celebrating Shrigley’s remarkable place in Irish industrial history.

Opening the exhibition, Bobbie nostalgically recalled his own visits to the village to record the voices of villagers such as the late Harry McCormick for his ‘Rambling man’ features on Downtown Radio.

He stressed the importance of retaining the history and culture of the past.

The other guest speaker at the event was former broadcaster and Strangford MLA Mike Nesbitt who praised the work in preserving the unique history of the village. He paid tribute to the work being done to keep Killyleagh Library at the heart of the local community.

The event coincided with the Hallowe’en Day anniversary of the original mill in 1930.

Among the items brought by people to the event were one of the original 1912 UVF training guns, handmade in Shrigley mill, and a copy of the official invitation to the opening of the new Shrigley village in 1969.

“We have recorded many of the voices of the original village of River Row, Bank Row and Main Street; the workers who toiled in their bare feet in the linen mill; the mill workers who recalled its closure in 1930,’’ explained Chris Hagan of the Best of Killyleagh group.

“We will publish the history in time for Christmas and are keen to hear from people with photos of old Shrigley. We will also be working with local schoolchildren to capture Shrigley today, with Bobbie agreeing to act as the guest judge.’’

Part of the project involves creating a Facebook Page, Old Shrigley, which is proving popular with its feature of the old photos of the village and its residents over the years.