I've been trying to locate a mill beside a diary farm in Ligoniel, dating back to 1869/70.
The farm was owned by a family called Stevenson who delivered milk around the Ligoniel area. The mill may have been called Montgomery"s. Could this be your "ruins of the old mill at the back of the park"? This family sold up and immigrated to southern Illinois, along with two of my ancestors who had married into it, in1870.
That could well be the case, hey. For sure around the right time period. I've just went on a mental dander round there for the last few minutes. I mean a walk in my mind, not a meander full of crazy happenings. Mind slipping in my old age (sic). If I'm not mistaken when you walk straight across from the entrance to the park and old mill you end up in...what was the name of that estate? Glencairn? Typically the little glen was/has been/is being used as a dump site so what would have been a lovely little spot before the estate was built is/was full of old fridges, burnt out cars and rotting sofas. And sadly the 'dump dandruff' spreads rapidly. I never liked that estate. It always filled me with a sense of urgency to scat before sundown...but I digress...
Years ago (not sure if they are still there, although I doubt it very much) you could see the other marking stones/cairns that, if I'm not terrible mistaken in this, formed a triangle and gave rise to the estates name. One on the T.O.R beside an old well, long filled in and the other behind Ballysillan Primary school.
Gods teeth, but that takes me back.
"Was there anyone here from the Silverstream area"
I grew up in Ballysillan Drive, just round the corner. But I'm terrible for names and faces.
I always found it saddening that what was no doubt a 'silver stream' at one stage was turned into a sewer outlet.
The fun we had as kids when each and every year without fail the stream would rise and flood the roads. Treacherous around Wintertime when it froze over and we had to make it up the bloody hill on hands and knees to get to school.
And the little swampy pond behind our family home, full of frogs and pond skaters. I loved playing round there as a nipper. Then the powers that be built a housing estate over it. [censored]. At the same time they were building that they were also leveling most of the Ballysillan/Tyndale estate. Confused the hell out of me as a kid that did. Seemed wasteful in the extreme.
I've just noticed that I've went off one there and I'm meant to be getting dinner together...TO THE KITCHEN!
(EDIT) "Tommy Beattie"
That does seem to ring faint bell for me. Did they deliver coal or collect old metal or something? That'll keep me puzzled all night now (sighs)
