Clarawood is a housing estate in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is located in the east of the city and incorporates the neighbouring Richhill development. Its name is probably derived from An Chlárach (Irish: the place of flat-topped hills).[1] It is located off Knock Road (A55).
Clarawood
| |
|---|---|
 Entrance to Clarawood from Knock Carriageway | |
  Clarawood Location within County Down | |
| County | |
| Country | Northern Ireland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Belfast |
| Postcode district | BT5 |
| Dialling code | 028 |
| Police | Northern Ireland |
| Fire | Northern Ireland |
| Ambulance | Northern Ireland |
| UK Parliament | |
| NI Assembly | |
Population
edit
The Northern Ireland Housing Executive, the public housing authority for Northern Ireland, commissioned and published a report about segregation in the estates; the report was based on national census data gathered between 1971 and 2001 and used 100m cells as the smallest unit. The report included the following figures for Clarawood:[2]: 24, 37, 41, 46, 50
- In 1971, 2% Catholic, 94% Protestant, and 3% unknown;
- In 1991, 1% Catholic, 83% Protestant, and 17% of which claimed no or another religion;
- In 2001, 2% Catholic, 93% Protestant, and 5% claimed no religion.
Facilities
editAs of 2015[update], the Housing Executive reported on it stock of housing units; it reported that Clarawood contained 591 residences (bungalows, maisonettes, flats, and houses), 313 of which were owned by the Housing Executive and 278 of which had been sold.[3]: 80
Robert Bell Primary School was built to serve about 180 students; as of 1984 it was slated to be closed.[4]
Part of the closed school's facilities were made into a school for children with special needs, the Clarawood School, and part was made into a community centre called the Anne Napier Centre.[5]
As of 2013[update] the Clarawood School provided education for children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties; it provided full-time education for 19 children, part-time education for 14 children, and educational support 137 pupils via an outreach program.[6]
The Anne Napier Centre apparently closed around 2004;[5] in 2009 the Clarawood Community Association, which had been formed in 2003 to organize and advocate for the residents of the neighborhood,[7] the Belfast City Council, and the Belfast Education and Library Board came to an agreement to allow the community association to lease the facility for use as a community centre.[5]
The Oak Partnership was formed by several churches and the YMCA in 1999 and in 2002 it opened its Oak Centre in 2 former shops.[8] The Oak Partnership was one of the twenty winners from around Ireland in Cooperation Ireland's Pride of Place awards for 2014.[9]
Environment
editClarawood has its own park called Clarawood Millennium Park[10] that was improved in the late 1990s under a program called "Belfast 2000: A city with a landscape (Northern Ireland)" that was run by the city government in conjunction with the Millennium Commission; the program developed 6 parks, 3 in West Belfast and three in the east, all in areas "which suffered through the Troubles and four of the six are in areas with high levels of deprivation."[11] [12]: 46–48 Clarawood also has its own wood.[13] Many of the estate's trees are protected by a Local Landscape Policy Order.[14]
Flooding periodically affected the bottom of the estate along with much of East Belfast; floods were particularly severe in 2012.[15][16] As a result, the Rivers Agency the city government created a flood alleviation scheme.[16] Part of that scheme included creation of the Connswater Community Greenway Project, which included rerouting the Knock River and the creation of parkland connecting Orangefield Park to Clarawood.[17]
Transport
editThe estate is served by Translink Metro bus route number 4e Gilnahirk via Bloomfield & Clarawood[18] and an Easibus service to Connswater.[19]
Notable residents
editJim Gray (UDA member), a Northern Irish loyalist and the East Belfast brigadier of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), was murdered at his father's home in Clarawood in 2005.[20]
References
edit- ^ "Place Names NI - Home".
- ^ Shuttleworth, I. and C. D. Lloyd (2007) Mapping Segregation on Belfast NIHE Estates 1971-2001 Archived 24 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine Belfast: Northern Ireland Housing Executive.
- ^ Housing Executive Belfast Housing Investment Plan 2015-2019 Archived 3 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "TheyWorkForYou". www.theyworkforyou.com. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
- ^ a b c Staff, Belfast Telegraph. 29 July 2009. New community centre is agreed for Clarawood
- ^ Education and Training Inspectorate. Clarawood School and Outreach Services, Belfast. Report of an Inspection in February 2013 Archived 8 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Page 1
- ^ Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action Clarawood Community Association Page accessed 20 April 2016
- ^ Marie Foy (18 January 2002). "Community centre opened". Belfasttelegraph.
- ^ "IPB Pride of Place 2014 Winners". IPB Pride of Place Awards (Co-operation Ireland). Retrieved 25 April 2016.
- ^ "Clarawood Millennium Park - Belfast City Council". www.belfastcity.gov.uk. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
- ^ Janet Devlin for the Belfast Telegraph 20 January 1999 Celtic park 2000 opens
- ^ Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University. March 2011. Big Lottery Fund: Sustaining the benefits of capital funding. Final report
- ^ "The Woodland Walkway" (PDF). Retrieved 6 February 2016.
- ^ "Clarawood Local Landscape Policy Area" (PDF). Retrieved 6 February 2016.
- ^ "BBC News | In pictures: Flooding in Belfast, East Belfast". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
- ^ a b "Flood alleviation projects | DARD". DARD. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
- ^ Linda Stewart for the Belfast Telegraph. 28 January 2014. Rerouted in east Belfast: Knock River forced to change its ways for Orangefield Park development
- ^ "4e timetable" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 October 2018. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
- ^ "Easibus timetable" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
- ^ "The death of Doris Day", Guardian.co.uk, 12 October 2005; retrieved 17 June 2011.