Fivemiletown

Fivemiletown Irish: Baile an Lorgan
Population
Irish grid reference	H445478
• Belfast	64 miles (103 km)
District	Dungannon and South Tyrone
County	County Tyrone
Country	Northern Ireland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	FIVEMILETOWN
Postcode district	BT75
Dialling code	028, +44 28
Police	Northern Ireland
Fire	Northern Ireland
Ambulance	Northern Ireland
UK Parliament	Fermanagh and South Tyrone

Fivemiletown (Baile an Lorgan in Irish) is a village in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated 16 miles (26 km) east of Enniskillen, County Fermanagh and 26 miles (43 km) west-southwest of Dungannon, on the A4 Enniskillen to Dungannon road, close to the county boundary with Fermanagh. Fivemiletown's English-language name derives from its location five Irish miles (one Irish mile = 2,240yd / 2048 m) from its nearest neighbours: Clogher, Brookeborough and Tempo. The United Kingdom Census of 2001 recorded a population of 1,108. It lies within the Dungannon and South Tyrone area.

The village is most famous for its creamery, which was established as a cooperative in 1898 by Hugh de Fellonburg Montgomery. Fivemiletown Creamery originally produced butter and milk, but now exports speciality cheeses across Europe and North America.

History

Geographically situated less than a mile within the Tyrone county boundary, Fivemiletown owes its foundation to a Fermanagh landowner for creating the village here in the 1750’s. Margetson Armar of Castlecoole purchased lands in the area around Blessingbourne, and his descendants, the Montgomery family, helped form the nucleus of a settlement now known as Fivemiletown.

Fivemiletown has had a famous association with the Clogher Valley Railway and while these were prosperous times, remarkably the railway only served the village less than 50 years of its 250-year history. The Clogher Valley Railway ran from Tynan, County Armagh to Maguiresbridge, County Fermanagh with Fivemiletown being one of its primary stations along the route. Its station house, a unique red-bricked building of fine Victorian architecture, is still one of the landmarks in the village. The trains stopped off at the Buttermarket on the main street, now restored to house shops and local service businesses, and the creamery to be loaded or unloaded with produce. Business in Fivemiletown flourished once the railways became established.

But after the Second World War, the growth of road transport virtually made the railways redundant and when the Northern Ireland Government learned that the Clogher Valley Railway had operated as a loss for twenty-seven years, because of growing road transport, it recommended the closure of the line. The inevitable happened in 1941, the last train ran on the last day of that year, bringing to an end one of Fivemiletown’s most characteristic features. It’s said that a wake lasted for three days and three nights to mark the end of a narrow gauge in the area. In recent years, a silhouette of a train has been used as a symbol or emblem of the village for identity.

The railway was promoted by Hugh de Fellonburg Montgomery, who became heir and landlord of the Blessingbourne Estate in 1870. His family did much to give the village its early beginnings and still has its links continuing today, the Blessingbourne Estate, still owning a number of houses in the village which were originally homes for estate workers. Blessingbourne was purchased in 1731 by Margetson Armar of Castlecoole and at his death in 1769 became the property of his nephew, Hugh Montgomery. It was under Armar’s time that Fivemiletown took its name from earlier terms of Liscallaghan or Ballylurgan. [1]

The Troubles

Incidents in Fivemiletown during the Troubles resulting in two or more fatalities:

1993

• 12 December 1993 - Andrew Beacom (46) and Ernest Smith (49), both Protestant members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, were shot dead by the Provisional Irish Republican Army while travelling in their civilian-type car, Main Street, Fivemiletown.

Transport

A view southwest along the main street of Fivemiletown

• The narrow gauge Clogher Valley Railway ran through the village from 1887 until 1942. The train originally had a top speed of 10 mph (16 km/h). Fivemiletown railway station opened on 2 May 1887 and finally closed on 1 January 1942.
• The A4 is the main route into Fermanagh (and on to County Sligo) from the Belfast direction. Running from the end of the M1 at Dungannon, the section through the Clogher Valley is the lowest standard on the whole route. While towns and villages along the A4 in Fermanagh were generally bypassed years ago, the A4 runs straight through the centre of three Tyrone villages: Augher, Clogher and Fivemiletown. These are now the only non-bypassed settlements on the road.

The largest of these settlements, Fivemiletown, will be bypassed. The village currently has a one-way system to cope with the heavy traffic on the narrow main street, but this delays long distance traffic and is a big inconvenience to residents of the village.

The new road will be built to 2+1 standard, meaning that there will be one lane in one direction, with two in the opposite direction to permit overtaking. On longer routes, such as this one, the overtaking lane usually alternates giving an overtaking opportunity to traffic in each direction. The scheme will compliment a 2+1 scheme completed on the A4 outside Fivemiletown in 2004. [2]

Sport

• Fivemiletown United Football Club
• Clogher Valley R.F.C [3]
• Clogher Valley Golf Club [4]

Education

• Fivemiletown High School and Community College
• Fivemiletown Primary School [5]
• Clogher Valley Integrated Primary School [6]
• St Mary's Primary School

Demographics

Fivemiletown is classified as a village by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) (ie with population between 1,000 and 2,250 people). On Census day (29 April 2001) there were 1,108 people living in Fivemiletown. Of these:

• 19.9% were aged under 16 and 20.6% were aged 60 and over
• 48.4% of the population were male and 51.6% were female
• 25.1% were from a Catholic background and 74.0% were from a Protestant background
• 5.6% of people aged 16-74 were unemployed.

For more details see: NI Neighbourhood Information Service

See also

• List of villages in Northern Ireland
• List of towns in Northern Ireland

References

• Dungannon & South Tyrone Area Plan 2010

External links

• Fivemiletown Creamery
• Clogher Valley R.F.C
• Clogher Valley Golf Club
• Fivemiletown Primary School
• Clogher Valley Integrated Primary School
• Dungannon and South Tyrone District Council