Thursday 26 November 2009

Memories and Ownership of Quay Road Hall, Ballycastle


I recently received a copy of a document that discusses aspects of the ownership of the hall on Ann Street, Ballycastle, as well as the hall's role in the social life of Ballycastle and District. I've published it on Scribd.

I understand earlier NALIL blogs have been of great interest to parishioners in the Church of Ireland Parish of Ramoan. It's likely that the possible disposal of the parish's Quay Road Hall, even its potential demolition, will be of great interest to the Diocese of Connor's Diocesan Education Board as well as to local people for whom the hall has been a great social landmark.

The late Hugh Alexander Boyd, who specialised in the history of the Church of Ireland parish of Ramoan, wrote that the land on which the hall is built was vested in the Diocesan Board of Education by a deed dated 11th November 1895. The terms of this document established a perpetual trust for “certain particular charitable objects”, namely an infant’s school.

By 1933 the hall was completed, providing a venue, in the Diocesan Education Board’s words 'for every form of parochial activity that can be directed for the moral physical and spiritual uplift of our young people'.

Thus complying with the terms of the Charitable Trust of 1895.