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From: ivorie-samhoir <>
Subject: [CoTyrone] Fw: Errigle Kerogue.
Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2001 19:41:46 -0700


Thanks to Colin for this info!

Ballygawley, Parish of Errigle Kerogue,

The parish was fortunate in having progressive landlords in the Stewart family. The Stewarts built a linen hall in Ballygawley, where the linen merchants from Belfast came to purchase the linen, woven by the local weavers. The linen was then transported by horse and cart to Caledon, to be shipped to Belfast by canal barge.

When the potato famine struck the north of Ireland, the linen cash crop enabled the people of the parish to ride out the famine, more so than Aughnacloy, which suffered greatly from the famine. A few years after the famine the parish was not so fortunate -it suffered a great number of deaths due to Cholera and Typhoid.

1819© the Stewart Estate had 31 farms of 1 acre, 49 of 2 acres etc to , 84 of 5 acres and one of 61 acres. None of todays modern bungalows, mostly sod cabins. These farms were certainly small; in 1830 the average size of a farm in Ulster was 10 acres, in the 1930s average size was 30 acres, to day you would be lucky making much of a living out of 100 acres.

The Clogher Valley Railway was a narrow gauge railway, which opened in the 1880s; it ran between the broad gauge railways at Tynan in Co. Armagh and Maguiresbridge in Co. Fermanagh. Ballygawley being one of the railway stations of the CVR. Prior to the arrival of the CVR ,trade in the parish was mostly carried out by barter, except for the linen trade. This railway enabled agricultural produce to be transported to Belfast, which greatly increased the prosperity of the area.

The CVR was one of the very many Government subsidised narrow gauge railways, which were built in Ireland to enable people to be no more than 12/15 miles from a railway station.

In the 1800s Ballygawley had of all things, a glove factory and a distillery. Mr. Armstrong, who owned the distillery, was a very ecumenical fellow, he was an elder in Aghaloo Presbyterian Church, Church Warden in the C. of I. Church Ballygawley and his children were baptised in Ballymackilroy R.C. Church.




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