"The Shankill Gold Rush"

[doare.]

no one seems to remember the "waste paper" collection yard in christopher street.

[bricat]

no one seems to remember the "waste paper" collection yard in christopher street.

was that Letsons yard ? he had a gateway in carlow st, and lived next door to it, but he had a yard over that direction.

[doare.]

was that Letsons yard ? he had a gateway in carlow st, and lived next door to it, but he had a yard over that direction.

as far as i can recall it was near the top on the right hand side.

[Boy from the Hammer]

I see this topic seems to have died off but a post may help revive it.
I remember the 'gold rush' and it was in Christopher Street in around 1969.

[Boy from the Hammer]

The story was, some old Jews lived in the Scotch Tenements up Christopher Street and it was one of these gentlemen who left the coins hidden but probably died, leaving the coins (Sovereigns) hidden.

[jjmack]

Yes, I can recall the incident. Apparently he was a 'money lender' and had hid the coins and then died. It was discovered during the slum clearance programme for the lower Shankill.
When word got out hundreds of people turned up looking for coins. 

[saran]

Hi Harry
I work for BBC and am trying to piece together a story about the Shankill gold rush.  I'd be keen to have a chat with you - can you send me an email or a private message please?
Thanks
sara(dot)neill02(at)bbc(dot)co(dot)uk

[Amandaa]

The sovereign coins were found after the demolition of “Scotch Halls”, Christopher Street, Shankill Road.
My father lived in “Scotch Halls” (the building was something like a tenement building in Glasgow with individual flats inside) when he was a boy, and I remember visiting my grandmother in Scotch Halls when I was a child.
When the building was demolished the coins were found, this was around 1967.  I can remember it as a child as I lived only a few streets away.  Unfortunately, by the time I got there, the coins had all been found, so I didn’t get one hahaha.
It was said locally at the time, that the coins had belonged to a money lender who had hid the coins up the chimney.  The money lender must have died, and their family knew nothing about the coins.
-          Scotch Halls would have been home to people living in poverty, so the money lender must have been a right old scrooge to be living in that building.

[pflanagan132]

The gold coins were found in a tin box in a house which was being demolished at Christopher St. on 29 July 1969. When the workmen  had finished for the day Isobel Stevenson aged 5 and her 7 year old brother, Billy, from Highburn Crescent entered the building and came upon the hoard. Two German brothers called Berg owned 3 tenement buildings which were being knocked down to make way for a new development