Boundary Post

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A cast-iron boundary post - marked 1918 but possibly located here from around 1898 – set along what was originally the perimeter of the administrative jurisdiction of Belfast Corporation and of Cromac District Electoral Division and Ward within it.

SETTING The post is sited on the Co. Antrim side of the River Lagan about 10m north of the Red Bridge, and 100m east of the Lock-keeper’s Cottage (117 Milltown Road – HB25/17/004B). The ground that the post originally occupied has been eroded by the river with the result that the post itself has fallen down the bank and now rests at a distinct incline amongst shrubbery.

The post is of cast-iron construction and slightly tapered cylindrical profile, measuring about 1m high and about 20cm in diameter, and although originally painted is now somewhat rusted. It has a banded octagonal base and oversailing flat octagonal cap with slightly smaller fluted circular upstand; the very top of the cap is missing. The shaft bears a moulded shield with the Belfast Corporation coat of arms therein, below which is an attached (bolted) plaque reading “Parliamentary/ and Municipal/ Boundary of/ Belfast/ Cromac Division/ Cromac Ward/ 1918”.

Historical information

This post is located within what was - from the late 1700s until the 1960s - the demesne of New Forge House. A boundary post is marked in this vicinity for the first time on the 1931 OS map but not that of 1920, although from its plaque we must assume that it has been here since at least 1918. In common with all of the surviving boundary posts in the Belfast area, the design is similar to a post dated 1858 west side of High Street, Holywood, Co. Down, suggesting - at very least - continuity in terms of local design, and possibly, in some cases, the reuse, (and perhaps, repositioning), of earlier posts.

The post is set along what was in 1918 the limit of the ‘County of the Borough of Belfast’, a boundary created under the Local Government Act 1898 and enacted the following year. The course of this followed that of the Municipal boundary as established by the Belfast Corporation Act of 1896, which itself largely tracked the line of the town’s Parliamentary boundary as set out earlier in the century. Map evidence suggests that these earlier demarcations possessed boundary posts of some description and that, as stated above, these may have been repurposed (and in some instances repositioned) as the nature and course of boundaries themselves evolved.

The new ‘Parliamentary and Municipal boundary’ as established in 1898-99 enclosed the city’s four Parliamentary constituencies - Belfast North, East, West and South - that had been established following the 1885 UK-wide redistribution of seats in the wake of the passing of the Representation of the People Act (aka Third Reform Act) the previous year. Following a further Representation of the People Act (Fourth Reform Act) in 1918, the existing four constituencies were abolished and their number increased to nine - Cromac, Duncairn, Falls, Ormeau, Pottinger, St Anne’s, Shankill, Victoria, and Woodvale. Each new parliamentary division had its own MP and encompassed one or several municipal wards, with the latter used for elections to Belfast Corporation. As its plaque states, this particular post marks the boundary of the parliamentary division of Cromac, and of Cromac ward within it.

Voting in the new constituencies was initiated in the General Election of 14 December 1918, a historic occasion that witnessed women candidates standing for the first time and the extension of the franchise - previously restricted solely to male property owners - to men over the age of 21 and women over 30; it was also the first election to be completed within the one day, as opposed to spread out over a number of weeks.

With the inception of the devolved parliament for Northern Ireland in 1922, the number of Westminster MPs was greatly reduced. The Cromac parliamentary constituency, created only four years before, was abolished and the previous Belfast seats restored. The municipal wards, however, continued to be used for local elections for some time thereafter. In 1973 Belfast Corporation was superseded by Belfast City Council and its jurisdiction extended beyond the former borough boundary.

References - Primary sources
1 OS maps Belfast town plan sheet 75 1901-03
2 OS maps County series, Co. Antrim sheet 65 1920, 1931

Secondary sources
3 ‘The Oxford Companion to Irish History’, ed. S.J. Connolly, (1999), p.326
4 ‘Irish Historic Towns Atlas - Belfast, part II’, ed Anngret Simms, H.B. Clarke and Raymond Gillespie, (RIA, 2007)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Cast-iron boundary post marked 1918 (but possibly dating from the 1890s) which due to soil erosion, has slipped from its original riverside location down onto the banks of the River Lagan itself. The post has also been damaged, having lost part of its cap. Due to both of these occurrences it is no longer of special architectural or historical interest.

General comments

Previouse LQ HB25/LQ028