Meanwhile, in Bangor, James Neill had replaced the Amy with the new steel steamer Rhanbuoy, just completed by R. Kent and Co., a short-lived Carrickfergus yard. Subsequently given the name Rosabelle after James' second daughter, she was a steel vessel of 280 gross tons, 99 net, with three-cylinder triple-expansion engines constructed by Muir and Houston of Glasgow. The Rosabelle, the first Neill steamer to establish herself, served James for twelve years, during which time much was happening in Bangor.
From James Neill's point of view, the decision to build the new pier with passengers as the first priority was a disappointment. However, around the turn of the century he made up for it by extending and widening the South Pier into the form we know today. The stone is believed to have been quarried beside Southwell Road. Called simply Neill's Pier, it was the firm's property and their steam crane was sited there to discharge vessels direct into storage sheds through sliding roofs. An office was built at the pier entrance. Further improvements to Neill's Pier were effected in 1916.
From James Neill's point of view, the decision to build the new pier with passengers as the first priority was a disappointment. However, around the turn of the century he made up for it by extending and widening the South Pier into the form we know today. The stone is believed to have been quarried beside Southwell Road. Called simply Neill's Pier, it was the firm's property and their steam crane was sited there to discharge vessels direct into storage sheds through sliding roofs. An office was built at the pier entrance. Further improvements to Neill's Pier were effected in 1916.
Robert Neill and Sons, which James made a limited company in 1908, are also listed at this time as agents for the English and Scottish Law Life Office - an interesting diversification that does not seem to have been developed. James and his wife Mary Bella and their eight children now growing into their teens and twenties still lived in Sandy Row, which in 1903 became Queen's Parade. Though change was increasingly swift, and James' two elder brothers had died, there were still links with the old days such as the long-lived Captain John Nicholson, who, it will be recalled, had married Mary Bella's younger sister Eleanor back in 1865, after the death of his first wife Isabella Neill. They now lived on Princetown Road, in a villa the Captain named 'Ellenville' after his wife. He had this built, and also 'Ellenville Cottage' a delightful smaller house behind it. Captain Nicholson was involved with his Neill and Campbell relations in the development of property in the expanding town, a favourite form of investment at that time. James Campbell, son of Ferris Campbell, of Ballygrainey and therefore a relative of Captain Nicholson, James Neill and the late John Neill, bought and developed the land that includes Farnham Park, Knockmore Park, Downshire Road and Raglan Road.
In Sunnyside Villa, Raglan Road, lived James Neill's elder sister Jane, Mrs. Cochrane. Sam Neill, James' youngest son, recalled that his Aunt Jane was the most prestigious member of the family and when he and his brothers and sisters went up to her house for tea they had to be well dressed and on their best behaviour.
Around this time Sam's elder brother James Wilson Neill emigrated to Canada and farmed virgin prairie land. Returning to Europe with the Canadian Mounted Rifles, he was awarded the Military Cross in World War One. He tried to settle again in Ulster after the war, but the Canadian climate suited his asthma complaint better, and he resided there until his death in 1973, aged 88, making his home in Okenogan Valley, British Columbia.
With the construction of Neill's Pier, the Old Pier, or as we would call it the Central Pier, was used by the Charles Neill firm, which was now controlled by Charles' widow Olivia, or 'The Widow Neill,' as she was known locally. Charles Neill's will had been an extraordinarily complex affair, which effectively prevented the eldest boys Robert and Charles inheriting the business for 19 years - until 1912. Their youngest sisters, the twins Maud and Violet, had been aged only two when their father died in 1893, so 'The Widow Neill' was faced with a formidable task both at home and in the business. She was officially registered as the owner of the sole remaining collier, the Bellewood, but when that brigantine was sold in 1904, the Charles Neill business, like Frank Neill in Belfast, chartered craft to meet their needs. No.2 Quay Place was still the headquarters and family home, and through the archway that still adjoins the Quarterdeck Restaurant, were the stables for the horses; Bangor, with its numerous hills, was not an ideal environment for them to haul coal carts! An advertisement from this period exhorts readers to:
'Buy your coal from Charles Neill who keeps a constant supply of the Best House Coal at 2 Quay Place and Crosbie Street, Bangor, and Railway Station, Newtownards. Agent in this district for the genuine HULTON coal. Telegrams 'Fuel Bangor.' Prices moderate. Bangor Telephone 28, Newtownards 4.'
Illustrating the above is a splendid photograph of the Bangor premises. James Neill must have installed a telephone before his rivals - his number was 3 - and no doubt he would have been intrigued that the Robert Neill and Sons Ltd. of today can be contacted by dialling 54321, as a countdown to - fire!).
James Neill sold the Rosabelle in August 1906 to Thomas Coppack of Connah's Quay in the county of Flint, thus ending a short period of running two steamers. A new steamer, the Helen, named after his youngest daughter, had been launched at the Ayr yard of the Ailsa Shipbuilding Company on 16 January 1904. The fourth Neill steamer to date, 333 gross tons, 118 net, and with a length of 142 feet, she was a reversion to compound machinery, having a set of 80 nominal horsepower built by Ross and Duncan of Glasgow, compound engines being lighter and shorter for smaller vessels than the new triple expansion designs. Her top speed achieved on trials was 10.312 knots. Coal was not her sole cargo, and in 1904 she spent a successful period on charter carrying general goods to Belfast from Manchester and Liverpool.
Not to be outdone by the Charles Neill advertising, James Neill published advertisements showing the Helen at Neill's Pier, captioned:
'Possessing Pier and Steam Crane we are able to supply best qualities of coal at lowest prices.'
The Helen became a familiar sight in Bangor Harbour to the locals and the thousands of holiday-makers who filled the seafront hotels, or Belfast day-trippers who swarmed off the 'Bangor boat' Slieve Bearnagh.
This was probably the zenith of Bangor as a resort, with residents of the Grand Hotel sunning themselves on its balconies, the Burlington Restaurant next door advertising 'Dinners and Teas from 3d' and the 'Reliance' charabanc picking up passengers before chugging off' to Donaghadee. A visitor returning after the First World War would have noticed much change - the addition of the McKee Clock, the discontinuation of the Belfast sailings and more. Several of Bangor's citizens whose lives have been followed here died in these years, too. James Neill passed away in 1915, twelve days before his brother-in-law and life-long friend James Campbell. James Neill's elder sister Jane, the widow Mrs. Cochrane, died about 1916, followed in 1918 by his sister-in-law Olivia Neill and another relative, the old sailing ship master Captain John Nicholson.
The war, of course, impinged on the town as on every other in the British Isles with all-too-frequent news of deaths of local men on land or at sea, such as Captain George Skimin, killed in February 1916. The lurking menace of U-boats was not confined to Atlantic convoys; many vessels were lost in the Irish Sea, among them Neill's Helen. U-boats tended not to waste torpedoes on a small vessel, but surface, order off the crew and sink her by gunfire or explosive charges. This was the fate of the Helen. Coming across from Garston to Bangor, she was twelve miles south-east of the Copelands on 1 May 1917 when the enemy craft intercepted her and placed the bombs aboard. In fact, she was just one of a number of vessels sunk in a similar manner in the area over a two-day period; the same day the steam coaster Dora and the Norwegian sailing vessel Ivrig went down, and the following day the steamers Amber, Morion, Derrymore and Saint Mungo and the sailing vessel Earnest were despatched. The German submarine commander is said to have pointed jokingly to the Co. Down coast and informed the ships' crews of the times of buses to Belfast! The Helen lies out there yet, about six miles off Ballywalter, with just a single photograph left to mark her existence afloat.
In Sunnyside Villa, Raglan Road, lived James Neill's elder sister Jane, Mrs. Cochrane. Sam Neill, James' youngest son, recalled that his Aunt Jane was the most prestigious member of the family and when he and his brothers and sisters went up to her house for tea they had to be well dressed and on their best behaviour.
Around this time Sam's elder brother James Wilson Neill emigrated to Canada and farmed virgin prairie land. Returning to Europe with the Canadian Mounted Rifles, he was awarded the Military Cross in World War One. He tried to settle again in Ulster after the war, but the Canadian climate suited his asthma complaint better, and he resided there until his death in 1973, aged 88, making his home in Okenogan Valley, British Columbia.
With the construction of Neill's Pier, the Old Pier, or as we would call it the Central Pier, was used by the Charles Neill firm, which was now controlled by Charles' widow Olivia, or 'The Widow Neill,' as she was known locally. Charles Neill's will had been an extraordinarily complex affair, which effectively prevented the eldest boys Robert and Charles inheriting the business for 19 years - until 1912. Their youngest sisters, the twins Maud and Violet, had been aged only two when their father died in 1893, so 'The Widow Neill' was faced with a formidable task both at home and in the business. She was officially registered as the owner of the sole remaining collier, the Bellewood, but when that brigantine was sold in 1904, the Charles Neill business, like Frank Neill in Belfast, chartered craft to meet their needs. No.2 Quay Place was still the headquarters and family home, and through the archway that still adjoins the Quarterdeck Restaurant, were the stables for the horses; Bangor, with its numerous hills, was not an ideal environment for them to haul coal carts! An advertisement from this period exhorts readers to:
'Buy your coal from Charles Neill who keeps a constant supply of the Best House Coal at 2 Quay Place and Crosbie Street, Bangor, and Railway Station, Newtownards. Agent in this district for the genuine HULTON coal. Telegrams 'Fuel Bangor.' Prices moderate. Bangor Telephone 28, Newtownards 4.'
Illustrating the above is a splendid photograph of the Bangor premises. James Neill must have installed a telephone before his rivals - his number was 3 - and no doubt he would have been intrigued that the Robert Neill and Sons Ltd. of today can be contacted by dialling 54321, as a countdown to - fire!).
James Neill sold the Rosabelle in August 1906 to Thomas Coppack of Connah's Quay in the county of Flint, thus ending a short period of running two steamers. A new steamer, the Helen, named after his youngest daughter, had been launched at the Ayr yard of the Ailsa Shipbuilding Company on 16 January 1904. The fourth Neill steamer to date, 333 gross tons, 118 net, and with a length of 142 feet, she was a reversion to compound machinery, having a set of 80 nominal horsepower built by Ross and Duncan of Glasgow, compound engines being lighter and shorter for smaller vessels than the new triple expansion designs. Her top speed achieved on trials was 10.312 knots. Coal was not her sole cargo, and in 1904 she spent a successful period on charter carrying general goods to Belfast from Manchester and Liverpool.
Not to be outdone by the Charles Neill advertising, James Neill published advertisements showing the Helen at Neill's Pier, captioned:
'Possessing Pier and Steam Crane we are able to supply best qualities of coal at lowest prices.'
The Helen became a familiar sight in Bangor Harbour to the locals and the thousands of holiday-makers who filled the seafront hotels, or Belfast day-trippers who swarmed off the 'Bangor boat' Slieve Bearnagh.
This was probably the zenith of Bangor as a resort, with residents of the Grand Hotel sunning themselves on its balconies, the Burlington Restaurant next door advertising 'Dinners and Teas from 3d' and the 'Reliance' charabanc picking up passengers before chugging off' to Donaghadee. A visitor returning after the First World War would have noticed much change - the addition of the McKee Clock, the discontinuation of the Belfast sailings and more. Several of Bangor's citizens whose lives have been followed here died in these years, too. James Neill passed away in 1915, twelve days before his brother-in-law and life-long friend James Campbell. James Neill's elder sister Jane, the widow Mrs. Cochrane, died about 1916, followed in 1918 by his sister-in-law Olivia Neill and another relative, the old sailing ship master Captain John Nicholson.
The war, of course, impinged on the town as on every other in the British Isles with all-too-frequent news of deaths of local men on land or at sea, such as Captain George Skimin, killed in February 1916. The lurking menace of U-boats was not confined to Atlantic convoys; many vessels were lost in the Irish Sea, among them Neill's Helen. U-boats tended not to waste torpedoes on a small vessel, but surface, order off the crew and sink her by gunfire or explosive charges. This was the fate of the Helen. Coming across from Garston to Bangor, she was twelve miles south-east of the Copelands on 1 May 1917 when the enemy craft intercepted her and placed the bombs aboard. In fact, she was just one of a number of vessels sunk in a similar manner in the area over a two-day period; the same day the steam coaster Dora and the Norwegian sailing vessel Ivrig went down, and the following day the steamers Amber, Morion, Derrymore and Saint Mungo and the sailing vessel Earnest were despatched. The German submarine commander is said to have pointed jokingly to the Co. Down coast and informed the ships' crews of the times of buses to Belfast! The Helen lies out there yet, about six miles off Ballywalter, with just a single photograph left to mark her existence afloat.