Did you know that the Poor House had it’s own vegetable garden and farm? Belfast Charitable Society made the most of the land they owned around the Poor House to make it as self sufficient as possible. The vegetable garden was used to provide the essentials to feed our residents. However, it was common that […]
A brutal stabbing in 1810, which led to a Portuguese sailor being hanged near Carrickfergus, became a sensation of the time. His name was Antonio de Silva, a sailor on board an American ship in Belfast harbour. He allegedly stabbed to death a ship’s carpenter called Robert Morrison, near Prince’s Street, and was subsequently tried […]
On this day, 7th October, 1847 the body of an unknown child, found dead in the vicinity of Donegall Pass, was buried in Clifton Street Cemetery, following an inquest into the death. The ‘Weekly Vindicator’ reported on the proceedings in explicit detail:
It appeared from the evidence, that two little boys had been going across the fields, […]
By the 1st October 1768 work was well and truly underway to source the materials required to begin construction of the Poor House which had been envisioned at the first meeting of Belfast Charitable 16 years previously.
Offers came from various philanthropists, but on this day 1768 the Belfast Charitable Society wrote a letter to Mr […]
This Halloween Week Clifton House will be hosting a special Halloween tour of Clifton Street Cemetery. Opened in 1797 as the ‘New Burying Ground’ there are many tales to be told here. Death, Tragedy & Betrayal focuses on the ‘darker side’ of the graveyard’s history- from the infamous body snatchers which plagued the cemetery in its […]
