Ballyhanedin
Encyclopedia
Ballyhanedin is a townland
Townland
A townland or bally is a small geographical division of land used in Ireland. The townland system is of Gaelic origin—most townlands are believed to pre-date the Norman invasion and most have names derived from the Irish language...

 in the civil parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 of Banagher in County Londonderry
County Londonderry
The place name Derry is an anglicisation of the old Irish Daire meaning oak-grove or oak-wood. As with the city, its name is subject to the Derry/Londonderry name dispute, with the form Derry preferred by nationalists and Londonderry preferred by unionists...

, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. It is located a 3km from the village of Feeny
Feeny
Feeny is a village and townland in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is between Dungiven and Claudy. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 542. Feeny lies just inside the boundary of the Sperrins Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.-Features:...

. It lies on the A6
A6 road (Northern Ireland)
The A6 road in Northern Ireland runs from the Belfast to Derry, via Antrim. Mostly single carriageway, there is a short dual carriageway section forming the Toome bypass. Towards Derry, there is also a short section of dual carriageway at Altnagelvin. This is one of Northern Ireland's most...

 Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

 to Derry
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

 road. Although it is only a townland, Ballyhanedin has a boundary sign which shows where it begins.

History

The townland was settled in the seventeenth century by the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers
Worshipful Company of Fishmongers
The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers is one of the 108 Livery Companies of the City of London, being a guild of the sellers of fish and seafood in the City...

 of the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

. A report in the Company's archives reports a deputation which surveyed its Estates in 1820:

The Court of the Fishmongers' Company decided to build two new Presbyterian Church meeting houses in the Classical Greek style, with dressings of Dungiven
Dungiven
Dungiven is a small town and townland in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is on the main A6 Belfast to Derry road. It lies where the rivers Roe, Owenreagh and Owenbeg meet at the foot of the Benbradagh. Nearby is the Glenshane Pass, where the road rises to over...

 sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

. The Court voted £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

2,200 for the building at Banagher, which was constructed over three years and opened in 1834.

An Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...

 memoir of Banagher from the 1830s, says that the new meeting house was:

Griffith's valuation
Griffith's valuation
Griffith's Valuation was a survey of Ireland completed in 1868. -Griffith's background:Richard John Griffith started to value land in Scotland, where he spent two years in 1806-1807 valuing terrain through the examination of its soils...

 of Ireland, completed in 1864, shows some thirty tenements in Ballyhanedin, including one occupied by the Reverend Robert Rogers. The other surnames of those then occupying property in the township were Allen, Brazil, Christie, Cole, Connor, Dogherty, Duddy, Evans, Hewston, Lyons, McClusky, McKeever, McLenihan, McLoughlin, Monteith, Mulfawl, Nutt, Rosborough (eight tenements), Sherrard, Simpson, Walker and Williams.

Present day

Much of the townland is rural. Photographs of this area some miles out of Feeny are online at geograph.org.uk and include a windswept hill to the north of the junction of Ballyhanedin Road and Glenshane Road. Some of the fields have substantial drum-shaped stone gateposts, which are common in Northern Ireland.

As part of the Munreery Climbing Lane road scheme, completed in 2005 to improve the A6
A6 road (Northern Ireland)
The A6 road in Northern Ireland runs from the Belfast to Derry, via Antrim. Mostly single carriageway, there is a short dual carriageway section forming the Toome bypass. Towards Derry, there is also a short section of dual carriageway at Altnagelvin. This is one of Northern Ireland's most...

Glenshane Road west of Dungiven, the former 'Bennett junction' at the Ballyhanedin crossroads, which dated from the 1960s, was replaced by a 'ghost island' layout.
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