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THE TWELFTH IN HOLYWOOD

Holywood enjoyed fantastic weather as it welcomed visiting brethren and bands to the coastal town to celebrate the 321st anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne.

As well as the host District, Orange-men and women came from the neighbouring areas of Bangor, Newtownards and Upper Ards to celebrate the Twelfth of the July, as has been done for centuries. As usual, there were visitors from further afield as well - brethren and bands came from England, Scotland and Wales and they were welcomed by strong crowds who lined the full route of the parade.

For the first time, Spafield was used as the main demonstration area, where participants in the parade could take time out for lunch, listen to the official message from the platform or just enjoy a rest prior to starting the return leg of their journey.

As always the Twelfth stretched from early morning to early evening. Many lodges met for breakfast at the Worshipful master's home, then dozens of local feeder parades would have taken place. Everyone then converged on Holywood for the midday start and the parade made it's way slowly through the packed streets, headed by LOL 417 from Ballykeel.

At the culmination of the afternoon parade, brethren and bands boarded their many buses to begin the journey home. For Newtownards members there was one final leg of the day's parading - the walk through the streets of Ards to Conway Square. In the evening many lodges would have held functions to round off the day and reflect upon yet another Glorious Twelfth.

See pictures of the day here

THE OPENING OF CRAIGANTLET ORANGE HALL

LOL 1973 has recently been given two fantastic photographs relating to the opening of the Orange Hall at Craigantlet. The first is a copy of a newspaper report on the official opening, which took place on Saturday 4th June 1960. The opening ceremony was preceded by a parade in the area that featured bands and lambeg drums.

The opening of the hall was carried out by Mrs W.M. May, wife of the then Minister of Education in the presence of her husband and District Officers from Newtownards.

The second photo shows lodge members and volunteers involved in the construction of the hall posing during a break in their shift. The land that the hall is built on was kindly donated to the lodge by the Boyd family, who owned the neighbouring quarry and the hall was constructed for the sum of £6000.

The picture dates from around 1959 and those featured are as follows: back row - Bobby Gray, Neville Henderson, Johnny Herriot, Eric Henderson, George Henderson, Billy Craig, Eddie Gray, unknown, Tommy Brown. Front row - unknown, Geordie Nicholl, Alec McEneny, Billy Andrews, Willie Hansell, (boy) Tom Brown's son.