Newtownbreda

EDITED EXTRACTS FROM THE TOPOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF IRELAND, 1837

NEWTOWNBREDA, a village, in the parish of KNOCKBREDA, barony of Upper Castlereagh, County Down, two miles from Belfast on the road to Saintfield.

It is pleasantly situated on an eminence near the River Lagan, and immediately adjoining BELVOIR PARK, the seat of Sir Robert Bateson Bt.

Newtownbreda ca 1830 (historic OS map)

It consists chiefly of small detached whitewashed cottages, with gardens in the rear, which give the village an extremely interesting appearance.

Newtownbreda (Green Collection/ NMNI)

It is a station of the constabulary police; and petty sessions are held on alternate Saturdays.

Fairs are held on July 5th, and October 27th.

Knockbreda parish church (Green Collection, NMNI)

Here is the parochial church, a small but elegant edifice in the Grecian style, erected in 1737, under the direction of Richard Cassels, by the Dowager Viscountess Midleton.

The burial ground, which is the cemetery of several of the most respectable families of the surrounding country, has a very neat and interesting appearance.