Hi all, anyone recall Hilden Rec. football club? or Hilden Rec. cricket Club? Also anyone from the old T.A. in Wallace Ave.?

Hi Fraser,
I certainly remember both teams I played a few matches for the football team in my late teens.
I watched the cricket team most Saturdays in the summer, more in the hope of getting a few sandwiches at tea time than from a great interest in cricket.
The soccer team had a fairly good support and played for many years in the 1ST Division of the Amateur league. Unfortunately I took my fairly minimal skills to the Bleachers before retiring at a very early age to get involved with the Boys Club.( Now there's a clue for).

I'll let you fill in from there.

Hi Fraser,

Don't remember the soccer teams much, tho' I had a few buddies who played in the Amateur League...

I went to the TA in Wallace Avenue but it was long after your time there,1980 to 1982, then joined the police.. You might remember my Dad, Jim McCleery, he was in the TA in the early 60's at the same time as Billy McDonald and some others, Tommy Stevenson, comes to mind also...

Just wanted to say Hi to a fellow Territorial...

Good Luck,

Richard

fraser,
how you doing? i was in ta for a few years in wallace avenue., before i joined the RAF. as was my dad and major finlay? billy ross from spruce street
herbie hume county down dennis? connor longstone to name a few. great times. i used to ride the despatch motor bike up and down to victoria? barracks and round the countryside on manouvers? good times
low roader mentioned the bleachers. my father brother desmond and i used to watch the bleachers every saturday afternoon and all my fathers brothers as the mccabe house they all grew up in was just across the wee lane opposite the bleachers ground.
then they were all into the club room after the match reliving the game?
good days
tom

Tom
Are you by any chance related to Johnny McCabe from Lambeg, later Crafton Cresent in Hilden? He was a boss in Nr 4 Twisting , Hilden mill. Eddie Watters, my dad and him were pals.
Donald

donald,
yes all the mccabes of lambeg are related to each other. last year i was in ireland and travelled to a lovely little church in a n area called derrygertreary just outside benburb in tyrone. thats
where my grandfather and grandmother were married in 1898 william and mary but williams address was in lambeg? but in those days how would you court a girl in the wilds of tyrone unless you came from there,
apparantly my grandfather and three brothers{i think three} all moved to lambeg for work just before the turn of the century because apparantly people in tyrone had already skills or knowledge of the weaving trade and i often wonder if thats when hilden mill started up using the lagan for water
power and also access to belfast via lagan canal?
and lamgeg had the space for the bleaching greens and the undulating land?
anyhow my grandfather had a house in green lane opposite the bleachers football ground and my dad and his brothers and sister all grew up there in company with a posse of other mccabes all related and at that time all connected with weaving and bleaching
good luck
tom

With the chat from you older men especially about Hilden, it has been music to my ears. So very often it is like being back in time and hearing my father talk about these same people and activiities. Many, many names are familiar to me, though I don't remember the people. My dad came from Hilden, Richardsons Row, Dabbler remembers him, and I am sure my dad would have remembered Dabbler and his dad.

With Dabblers most recent mailing "old friends", I ponder those things too. I remember my dad talking about a catholic family that was "hidden" in my grandparents house in Hilden. I can't remember what was going on and why, but maybe Dabler would remember the unrest, or Donald or Lowroader?

Liz

Liz
I had a couple of glasses of vino, three actually, in a ‘tapas’ bar, before writing that.
In one way I am unfortunate in losing touch long ago with Lisburn, but on the other hand, I experienced nothing of the troubles that developed after I left. In my days there, as I have said before, there were, of course, always extremely bigoted people, but it really was possible to have a laugh with most.
It just saddens me to know that so many English people that I know nowadays, see us as a caricature of the extremists, some of them believing that I must be ‘a bit smarter than the average bear’ to be able to logically discuss the situation. Which is far from true.
Mind you, I did have a go at that interactive nationwide English test on TV last week, and was comfortably in the top five per cent. So there...

It is a VERY long time since I was there. I can’t even remember whether or not the TA was in Wallace Avenue in the mid fifties. I DO remember many who were members then.

Tom
If I remember correctly there were two football pitches in Lambeg ( not counting the school pitch ), one beside the bleach works near the high bridge and one up a wee lane facing Lambeg school where Billy Morrison had his wee shop. I don,t know which one was known as the Bleachers. I seem to remember going with my dad to Johnny McCabes house in Lambeg and it was quite near Lambeg school. That was shortly before he moved to Crafton Cresent. He was one of the few in Hilden with a car and he drove me to the Infirmary in the 1950s when I pierced my leg on the spikes jumping from the wall at Crafton Cresent.
I remember also just over Lambeg bridge some concrete shelters, left overs from the American forces, stationed during the war in the "chains "
I,m a mine of useless information
Donald

Hi Donald,
The pitch at the High Bridge ( Ballyskeagh to me) was where Christ Church YM played. It had a slope such at one corner you couldn't see the other side of the pitch.
I think Lisburn Distillery play about there now.

The Bleachers played at Green Lane? exactly as Tom describes and the pavilion/ changing rooms were pretty basic. It was where I had my first and only bottle of Guiness as a teenager. Lambeg school was where the Coca Cola plant was/is now. for the life of me I do not remember where the new school was built. I hope someone can help. The other school serving Lambeg was the Charley Memorial which I think still exists.
LR

Liz,
sorry, I missed your post completely.
I well remember Richardsons Row. The Freemans also lived there. I cannot honestly recall any sort of trouble but that is not to say there was none. Hilden school was completely non - denominational and lots of us played together, aware of each others religion, but never involved in discussion about it.
Donald was at Hilden after me and he may know more but as I say I have no recollection.
I love the place still and it broke my heart when I saw the state of Hilden on my recent visit home. I think it was Donald who remarked that the place deserved to be redeveloped with good class housing and he surely has never said a truer word. Just typing this now brings back floods of memories all good, because in those days (40s and 50s) the sun shone all during the school holidays and the snow came, right on cue for christmas.
Isn't a selective memory a wonderful thing, even better than hindsight.

Dabbler, the TA was there in the 50s because my granny and grandad Gilliland moved from the Bradbury Buildings in the 50s to exactly opposite the TA centre and it fascinated my grandad. He said he had the TA at the front of him and the fire brigade at the back.

Lowroader, the account my dad told me (and indeed I asked my Aunt Betty about it this year, and she remembered it well) happened in the early 1940's I think before my dad was married. This family was hidden under the beds at my grandparents in Hilden as a mob was after them. This was a catholic family shielded by a protestant family in some unrest in a mixed community. I would have thought that Donald had some recollection of it.

Liz

Hi Liz / Lowroader,
I can only imagine the event you are talking about was rioting following when the chief of Lisburn police Inspector Schwanzy on his way home from an evening Church Service was shot on Sunday 22 August 1920 outside the Northern Bank, en route to his house in Railway St. There are photos in Brian Mackey,s book, "Lisburn the town and it,s people " ISBN 0 85640 689 0 which show the aftermath and describe it as " the most awful sectarian riots in the history of Lisburn ". A lot of familes and buisness people were burned out of their homes and premises.
Donald

Hi, I noticed your msg re the TA centre. My dad used to be in the security there before he retired . He was also friendly with an elderly chap from across the road. They stayed there until after the after the IRA bom bed it in 1966. I was there at that time as my family and I were in route to Singapore were I was to serve. Out dog Tiny never recovered from the bombing (or drugs that kept him quiet) while bad men did bad things under the cover of darkness.
Kindest regards
M