Photo request - Shore Road at the bottom of Fortwilliam park

[Dargan]

From the direction of Greencastle, this picture shows the bend Cesar's yard was on and the back of Oakmount Drive houses.


The erection of the filling station on this land.


Houses to our right of Cesar's land. I think this terrace may once have been known as "Fortwilliam Place."


A final view of the building of the filling station. That business "Ajax Ltd" that you can see was there for years.

[mmcgoverne]

From the direction of Greencastle, this picture shows the bend Cesar's yard was on and the back of Oakmount Drive houses.


The erection of the filling station on this land.


Houses to our right of Cesar's land. I think this terrace may once have been known as "Fortwilliam Place."


A final view of the building of the filling station. That business "Ajax Ltd" that you can see was there for years.

Ah Dargan thank you again, that first pic,with the fence (which was my range for playing) and the green(ish) field takes me back, my dad would sneak up to Cesar's and have a wee tot of something, and Cesar would have the record player on, listening to country music or Nat King Cole, sitting on the caravan step and a fire going out the front. I was so scared of him - my mum would send ME to get my dad! But, there was no bad in him. He was always lending money to family and friends that needeed it. I'm so sorry he's gone - rest in peace uncle Clifford. I'm going to print this off and show it, with the showroom pic, to my uncle Harold, who I'm sure will appreciate it...

Oh, and Ajax - yes I dimly recall something set back there - was it a tyre or parts place???

[Dargan]

Margaret, I remember Cesar going around. He had a kind face but I didn't know a lot about him. Was his name Clifford? Please tell me a bit about him. What happened to him?

[mmcgoverne]

Margaret, I remember Cesar going around. He had a kind face but I didn't know a lot about him. Was his name Clifford? Please tell me a bit about him. What happened to him?

Ah Dargan, you've made me cry! Clifford Jamison was his name, he was my dad Frederick Ian Jamison's brother (known as Ian) and his dad was Fred Senior. They all helped out at their dad's garage in the 50s and 60's and when my grandad died in 1972, my dad took it over. Clifford had a metal plate in his head, from some adolescent issue, which probably goes a way to explaining his eccentric behaviour. Whenever the peelers picked him up for all the petty nefarious doings he got up to (mostly non payment of fines), they'd be sure to target his poor head, or so says Uncle Harold, another of his brothers, who is still alive and lives near me in London.  One time, the peelers were laying about him in the garage and another brother, Stanley, my cousin Barb's dad, who was unusually tall for a Jamison, came running in holding  a gearbox which he chucked at the police, helping Cesar make good his escape!
 
I dont know who gave him the nickname Cesar but I suspect it was my dad, who gave EVERYONE a nickname. My dad's sister, Winnie, died in 265 Shore Road in I think 1973, which was also a terrible family tragedy; she was I dimly remember very dark and beautiful. Rumour has it she was a Miss Portrush in the 60's.

Clifford died in 1976, only in his thirties, but I belive he was injured in 1975, I have checked the CAIN Ulster university database but there's no details of his death, he was shot in the head, it is thought (I was very young and most people have gone now who could tell me), by some UVF or UDA people, about money he refused to or couldnt pay. He was either buried or his ashes scattered in the family grave at Roselawn.
 
If anyone can add details or put me straight on anything, that would be great.
 
Margaret

[Matthew]

Wow, thanks very much Wilco, brilliant!!!!  the roundabout's gone now is it? I used to sit on a bench opposite a postbox, think you can just see it through the left hand arch (looking at the screen), and our house/garage was just a smudge to the left!!!!

I don't rememeber the large glass fronted shop? behind the roundabout, but then i did move away in 1976/77, and when I came back it looked different again.

Thanks so much, wonderful memories, and something to show my son....

Margaret x

Yes, they have traffic lights there now. The shops behind it are now gone, now waste land. The row of houses are now a supermarket.

[Richard 202]

Wow, look at the state of the pavement! No petrol station there yet either! Madness.

Dargan, you continue to impress us greatly. Do not be shy in sharing any other photos you have, no matter how trivial they may seem. Every photo invokes memories, whatever the scene.

I truly wish that all of us together can find a photo of the cottage opposite McCloy's that you are looking for, it is the least we can do for the amount of pleasure you have given us with these photos.

We will keep searching!

[Dargan]

Wow, look at the state of the pavement! No petrol station there yet either! Madness.

Dargan, you continue to impress us greatly. Do not be shy in sharing any other photos you have, no matter how trivial they may seem. Every photo invokes memories, whatever the scene.

I truly wish that all of us together can find a photo of the cottage opposite McCloy's that you are looking for, it is the least we can do for the amount of pleasure you have given us with these photos.

We will keep searching!

Thanks Richard. It would mean a great deal to me to see it again. I've been searching now for over 20 years. I will indeed drip-feed all of them onto the forum, good, bad and indifferent though they are!

[Dargan]

Ah Dargan, you've made me cry! Clifford Jamison was his name, he was my dad Frederick Ian Jamison's brother (known as Ian) and his dad was Fred Senior. They all helped out at their dad's garage in the 50s and 60's and when my grandad died in 1972, my dad took it over. Clifford had a metal plate in his head, from some adolescent issue, which probably goes a way to explaining his eccentric behaviour. Whenever the peelers picked him up for all the petty nefarious doings he got up to (mostly non payment of fines), they'd be sure to target his poor head, or so says Uncle Harold, another of his brothers, who is still alive and lives near me in London.  One time, the peelers were laying about him in the garage and another brother, Stanley, my cousin Barb's dad, who was unusually tall for a Jamison, came running in holding  a gearbox which he chucked at the police, helping Cesar make good his escape!
 
I dont know who gave him the nickname Cesar but I suspect it was my dad, who gave EVERYONE a nickname. My dad's sister, Winnie, died in 265 Shore Road in I think 1973, which was also a terrible family tragedy; she was I dimly remember very dark and beautiful. Rumour has it she was a Miss Portrush in the 60's.

Clifford died in 1976, only in his thirties, but I belive he was injured in 1975, I have checked the CAIN Ulster university database but there's no details of his death, he was shot in the head, it is thought (I was very young and most people have gone now who could tell me), by some UVF or UDA people, about money he refused to or couldnt pay. He was either buried or his ashes scattered in the family grave at Roselawn.
 
If anyone can add details or put me straight on anything, that would be great.
 
Margaret

Margaret, this isn't much, but my Father liked Cesar and I think he might have envied his way of life as we always had bonfires on the go too! I'm sorry his life came to an end like this, but you must always remember that he will have enjoyed the years he had, being his own man and living the life that made people see him as a character. It's maybe better to cram it all in and be gone before we get old and miserable!

Here is a small memory of mine which you might like to hear about. I was probably nine or ten years old and in "The Golden Fry" one summer evening. Cesar was in buying fish and chips and joking with the women who evidently were enjoying his banter and even competing with one another for his attention. Looking back and recalling that moment, there is no doubt that he cut a handsome, roguish sort of figure in his blue overalls with his dark-hair and oil-covered face. I remember coming out after he had departed and seeing him make his way back to his caravan, disappearing round the bend of the road. I have just the photograph to illustrate this too which will be put on next. God rest Cesar.

[Yoast]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXh9S8rH8DQ   this trip is a couple of years earlier. At around 5:30-5:50 starts a bit where they drive towards city centre.

Hope it helps.

[Dargan]

From the bottom of Lowwood Park looking towards the land (left-hand side of picture) where Cesar had his place. It was just beyond the traffic-lights in the distance.

[mmcgoverne]

Margaret, this isn't much, but my Father liked Cesar and I think he might have envied his way of life as we always had bonfires on the go too! I'm sorry his life came to an end like this, but you must always remember that he will have enjoyed the years he had, being his own man and living the life that made people see him as a character. It's maybe better to cram it all in and be gone before we get old and miserable!

Here is a small memory of mine which you might like to hear about. I was probably nine or ten years old and in "The Golden Fry" one summer evening. Cesar was in buying fish and chips and joking with the women who evidently were enjoying his banter and even competing with one another for his attention. Looking back and recalling that moment, there is no doubt that he cut a handsome, roguish sort of figure in his blue overalls with his dark-hair and oil-covered face. I remember coming out after he had departed and seeing him make his way back to his caravan, disappearing round the bend of the road. I have just the photograph to illustrate this too which will be put on next. God rest Cesar.

Thank you Dargan, I'll add your memory to the small store I have for Clifford. All the Jamison chaps were dark and handsome, and the girls too I believe - he was to me a bit scary but I've since heard that he was indeed a rogue, but a kind one. Here's another wee tale about him; one of his brothers was at her Majesty's pleasure for not paying some fine, and his wife was heavily pregnant with one of my cousins. She got together the money for the fine, all but 10 shillings. She asked my grandad, but he refused, saying it was his son's fault and he wouldn't help him out this time. So my poor aunt, already tired, went up to the prison (is it Crumlin Road), where Clifford was also incarcerated  and asked if he could lend her ten bob till her husband was out. He handed her a couple of pounds. This was in 1967, as my cousin was the same age as me. So that was Clifford! My aunt jenny, my mum's sister, was only a teenager, but she recently told me she adored Clifford, and once sneaked up to See him in prison, pretending to be his sister, and taking his cigarettes! He was certainly a bit of a babe magnet. Thank you Dargan....

[mmcgoverne]

From the bottom of Lowwood Park looking towards the land (left-hand side of picture) where Cesar had his place. It was just beyond the traffic-lights in the distance.

Dargan is that Mount Vernon Pass in the background on the side of the road away from the motorway? It's not there now, but I remember staying there briefly, and there was a shop, and the shopkeeper was called Roley?

[Dargan]

Margaret, I think you're right that it was called "Mount Vernon Pass". I had a friend called Margaret who lived there for a while. Yes, there was also a shop and the last owner I recall was a guy called David. I was probably in my teens when he had it (I was 16 in 1980). I usually went to the shops at the bottom of Lowwood so I was rarely in it. Do you recall that, in the wall on the Shore Road, there was a sort of concrete passageway going up into Mount Vernon Pass?

[Richard 202]

Margaret, I think you're right that it was called "Mount Vernon Pass". I had a friend called Margaret who lived there for a while. Yes, there was also a shop and the last owner I recall was a guy called David. I was probably in my teens when he had it (I was 16 in 1980). I usually went to the shops at the bottom of Lowwood so I was rarely in it. Do you recall that, in the wall on the Shore Road, there was a sort of concrete passageway going up into Mount Vernon Pass?

Yes Dargan, that passageway is still there (opposite the petrol station). It's boarded up now though, and covered in weeds all the way as far as the eye can see from the entrance.

[Dargan]

Yes Dargan, that passageway is still there (opposite the petrol station). It's boarded up now though, and covered in weeds all the way as far as the eye can see from the entrance.

Richard, do you mean a flight of steps? If so, they led to Mount Vernon Green (now Fortwilliam Grange). There was another opening in the wall further along a bit. It was a sort of a concrete tunnel that snaked into Mount Vernon Pass. In the early seventies, at the bottom of those steps, 2 houses were built, but they did not last too long, and I think they may even have been petrol-bombed. I mention them because the cottage I am interested in was next to them, and sat at a right-angle to them up a short lane.