Sinton Family Trees - Smyths Of The Bann

Hockley Terrace, built around 1900, are the only houses built for the workers of Brookfield factory which are still inhabited. Hockley Terrace houses were originally referred to as 'two up, two down' (two bedrooms and two downstairs rooms). In addition, there was a very narrow kitchen which contained an old Belfast sink. In latter years there was no running water, the water being supplied by a water tap situated outside house No: 1. In later years the tenants installed cold running water. The bedrooms were small and when one considers the size of families years ago the occupants must have slept in cramped conditions. I remember being told of one large family who used the drawers of the dressing-table as beds for their younger children. There was an enclosed yard to the rear of each house which is where the dry toilet was situated, and beside this there was a coal-house. Outside the yard door was a little walled area where ashes from the fire were stored, before being spread on the back lane to fill in any holes that had developed. Most people also had a garage and behind the garages were long, narrow gardens which years ago most people grew vegetables in. At the rear of the garden was a pit where the waste from the dry toilet was dumped and covered over with soil.

When we renovated our house, it being No: 2, in 1976 we found an old, empty Whiskey bottle buried under the wall of the back yard. It had a note in it dated 1st November 1900, stating that the Whiskey had been supplied by Wilson Smyth of Brookfield and had been drunk by the following workmen who had built the houses - Mr J Waring, Mr J Redmond, Mr J Robinson and James O'Hare.

There were other Smyth's workers' houses in the vicinity, including the delightful little gate lodges at the entrance to the avenue of Brookfield House which have been vacant now for over a decade. Brookfield Cottage, where the Andersons once lived, is long since demolished, as is Green Row which was situated where the Independent Methodist Church now stands at the bottom of Peggy's Loaning, and Jonathon's Row, near the bottom of Kiln Loanin, has long since been vacant as well.